NBC anchor Brian Williams reported Wednesday night “there were no devastating or towering moments in the Obama/McCain debate in Nashville last night,” but he insisted, though neither ABC nor CBS mentioned them in their next day stories, “two moments from last night loomed large today.” Both, no surprise, were supposed insults from John McCain, but before getting to those, reporter Andrea Mitchell focused on the “rowdy” McCain and Palin crowds and elevated the importance of a local Lehigh County, Pennsylvania GOP official who dared use Obama's full name:
At one point, someone shouted “off with his head” about Obama. And the Republican County Chairman, William Platt, asked, “Imagine if you woke up on November 5th and Barack Obama -- Barack Hussein Obama -- was our new President?” The campaign later said: “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric.” But that kind of rhetoric is becoming commonplace, especially at Sarah Palin's rallies. Today Joe Biden challenged her.
After a clip of Biden castigating Palin, Mitchell relayed how “Democrats are also buzzing about McCain's debate performance last night, saying he seemed dismissive and disrespectful when he referred to Obama as 'that one,'” a reference she asserted has “spawned howls and a cottage industry of headlines on liberal blogs and even T-shirts on Web sites.” Again, for expert condemnation of McCain she went to the Democratic VP candidate: “Biden with Ann Curry on Today explained...” Mitchell then moved to the second McCain foul: “Critics also jumped on McCain for seeming to patronize one questioner in the debate, Oliver Clark, who asked what it will take to help people having a difficult time in the economic crisis.”
While NBC was only concerned about McCain, in a “Reality Check” on Wednesday's CBS Evening News, Wyatt Andrews de-constructed McCain's $300 billion home mortgage idea, but also hit a Barack Obama claim:
Obama made his own stunning claim on spending -- that all of his promises on energy, health care and education, are paid for with his budget cuts. The facts is, Obama's promises will increase the deficit....
The story on the Wednesday, October 8 NBC Nightly News, as provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, who corrected the closed-captioning against the video:
ANDREA MITCHELL: In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, today, the Republican candidate's wife, Cindy McCain, accused Barack Obama of not supporting the troops in Iraq, including her son.
CINDY MCCAIN: The day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body.
MITCHELL: In fact, Obama voted against money for the troops once in May 2007, he said, "because the bill didn't include a timetable for withdrawal." But John McCain also voted against a troop funding bill two months earlier for the opposite reason -- because that bill called for a troop withdrawal. The day after their second debate, John McCain also kept up his attack on Obama.
JOHN MCCAIN: What ever happened to the tax relief he promised them when he was a candidate for the Senate?
CROWD MEMBERS: Liar!
MITCHELL: Again today, the McCain crowd was rowdy.
CROWD CHANTING: No-bama! No-bama!
MITCHELL: At one point, someone shouted "off with his head" about Obama. And the Republican County Chairman, William Platt, asked, "Imagine if you woke up on November 5th and Barack Obama -- Barack Hussein Obama -- was our new President?" The campaign later said: "We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric." But that kind of rhetoric is becoming commonplace, especially at Sarah Palin's rallies. Today Joe Biden challenged her.
JOE BIDEN: To have a vice presidential candidate raise the most outrageous inferences, the ones that John McCain's campaign is condoning, is simply wrong.
MITCHELL: Democrats are also buzzing about McCain's debate performance last night, saying he seemed dismissive and disrespectful when he referred to Obama as "that one."
JOHN MCCAIN: You know who voted for it? You might never know: that one.
JOE BIDEN: When John knows that he's on the attack and he's not feeling good about it, John never looks you straight in the eye. John doesn't go and refer to you by your first name.
MITCHELL: Critics also jumped on McCain for seeming to patronize one questioner in the debate, Oliver Clark, who asked what it will take to help people having a difficult time in the economic crisis.
MCCAIN: Really, the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I'll bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis.
MITCHELL: Today Obama was in Indianapolis, the first Democrat to campaign in the heart of that red state in October since LBJ.
BARACK OBAMA: I can take four more weeks of John McCain's attacks, but the American people can't take four more years of John McCain's Bush policies.
MITCHELL: As Republicans try to figure out how to slow Obama's momentum. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington.
A momentum the media are fueling.
