Unbelievable — Time’s Karen Tumulty Calls A Perfectly Legitimate And Timely McCain Ad Racist. Why?? Because Franklin Raines Is Black (and So Is Obama)
[Posted by WLS]
I’ve been itching to put up a post on the absolute abdication of journalistic integrity by Time Magazine.
First, they hire that obviously qualified gossip columnist Ana Marie Cox, late of Wonkette, as editor of their online operation.
Next, Joe Klein is rabidly in the tank for Obama. But he’s an opinion columnist who has never hidden his political views, and I don’t begrudge him his forum. Conservatives have columns in news magazines as well. But Klein’s willingness to simply be an Obama campaign mouthpiece has been a little much, as been his willingness to question McCain’s character and integrity every time McCain takes a step towards beating the Anointed One.
Then Jay Carney, whom I have always liked as a reporter, has had trouble hiding his contempt for the McCain-Palin ticket. I’ll put up some examples of his writing later.
But the final straw right now is Karen Tumulty. From her numerous appearances on a variety of television talk shows, her political sympathies have never been a secret. But she is not an opinion columnist — she is their lead political reporter.
An hour ago, in this post at the Swampland blog site, she took on the McCain campaign’s latest ad out today on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac fiasco. In the ad, the McCain campaign links Obama to Franklin Raines, the OMB Director in the Clinton Administration who left to become the CEO at Fannie Mae — a position to which he had to be appointed by Clinton.
Over the ensuing 5 years, Raines took home tens of millions of dollars in compensation and bonuses — but an auditor’s investigation found the accounting of Fannie Mae riddled with fraud, all of which the investigator attributed to the desire on the part of Raines and other Fannie Mae officials to hit certain pre-determined business targets in order to get their bonuses paid.
The ad links Obama to Raines for two reasons — Obama, in just 4 years, received more campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than all U.S. Senators except one: Chris Dodd, who happens to be head of the Senate Banking Committee.
Secondly, a Washington Post article, which the McCain campaign refers to in its ad, identified Raines as an advisor to the Obama campaign on issues of mortgage financing and housing.
But Franklin Raines is African-American. So is Barack Obama.
So Karen Tumulty pulls out the old “Bloody Shirt” and starts waving it over Time’s head in a call to storm the ramparts.
When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly. Consider McCain’s new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally.
This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.
Let me stipulate: Obama’s Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn’t even mention a far more significant tie–that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama’s vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama’s principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.
And the image of the victim doesn’t seem accidental either, given the fact that older white women are a key swing constituency in this election.
Maybe the McCain campaign should have used a blank screen as a backdrop for its ad.
Maybe Time could have let the McCain campaign use one of its cover shots of Obama with a halo enveloping him.
Or maybe McCain could have used the picture of the Obamas with their two daughters that ran on the cover of People.
Why not Jim Johnson??? Maybe because no one has suggested that Jim Johnson is advising the Obama campaign. Helping to pick a Vice-Presidential candidate is not more significant than providing policy advice. Johnson’s only role was to look for skeletons in the closet.
Further, Johnson was not an official at Fannie Mae during the time that the fraud perpetrated by Raines was ongoing — he left Fannie Mae in 1998 — nor was Johnson there when Fannie Mae was raining bribe money on Obama.
Hey, were just making accusations here, not stating facts. Right, Karen?
Or maybe Time and Tumulty have come around to the view that the Washington Post is not an acceptable source of information.
Here is what the Washington Post said:
In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae‘s chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case‘s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama‘s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.
Maybe the reason for Tumulty’s hit piece is this, also from the Washington Post article:
Raines settled charges brought by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight by agreeing this spring to pay $2 million and forfeiting $22.7 million in stock and other benefits. And though none of it will come out of his pocket — the payment was covered by insurance — he has not emerged unscathed. He and his wife of more than 25 years, Wendy, are separated. Their house, a 1910 colonial in Northwest Washington, is for sale. An old friend, former Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons, describes him as being “in strong recovery mode.”
So former Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons is an old friend of Raines? Maybe that’s why Tumulty is so quick to his defense.
You know what? Richard Parsons is also black. Maybe its just a racial thing — all the black guys sticking together, and they’re just fronting Karen Tumulty to make it look like an elderly white women is offended by McCain’s race-baiting tactics.
Again, we’re just spitballing this. No facts necessary — right, Karen?
While posting the “outraged” reaction of the Obama campaign to this “racist ad” as an “outright lie,” Tumulty notes that Ben Smith over at Politico noted that Obama’s camp never denied the Washington Post‘s claim that Raines was an advisor when it first ran back in July.
Tumulty, in a final piece of snarky partisanship, states:
But that’s not really the point of the ad, is it?
This puts Time in the gunsights of this commenter. They can’t rule out-of-bounds the single hottest topic on the economy because of the fortuitous fact that both Obama and Raines are black.
— WLS
Why does Tumulty consider images of two black men to be “sinister”? That right there sounds rather racist to me.
Patterico (cc3b34) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:34 pmGood shot, WLS. If there were not a thousand different reasons to vote against Obama, there would always be that we can’t have 4 years of a President claiming every criticism is racism.
SPQR (26be8b) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:34 pmI don’t know what’s wrong with the image of an elderly whit woman. She’s a typical white person, just like Obama’s grandmother.
Steverino (db5760) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:43 pmYeah, but Obama’s grandmother is racist.
Obama said so.
WLS (26b1e5) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:46 pmThe ad seems within accepted standards of fairness in political campaigns. According to the Post article cited in the ad, Obama’s campaign called Raines seeking his advice. Obama didn’t deny it, so he implicitly let the claim stand.
Downside for McCain: He’s set a precedent for using the Post as a credible source.
Bradley J. Fikes (0ea407) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:52 pmSurprised??? What do you expect from Time? The whole MSM can go to sleep, that’s all they’re good for. They should be paid by Obama’s campaign for all the water carrying they do for him. zzzzz….. zzzzzz….. Time to Sleep….. And when the great one loses on 11/4 they’ll all claim rascism, rascism, rascism
J. Raymond Wright (0440ef) — 9/18/2008 @ 8:55 pmHilarious. Really. This is just laughable nonsense.
McCain should run an ad with pictures of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck next time. Maybe stick figures – are they racist? I guess they are if you use BLACK ink to draw them….
rockmom (e42807) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:08 pmUntil this campaign season, I truly never realized what an enormous role skin color plays in the life of a Dem. Who knew? Its the ubiquitous reason for, the reason against, the preemptive strike, the end-all excuse, the justification for, the justification against, the rationale for, the rationale against, and ultimately, to the left, the trump card. What I’ve been missing living a simple life judging and assessing people on their actions and how they live their lives…
Tumulty reminds me that there are so many like her that do indeed judge a person by the color of their skin.
Dana (213b94) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:15 pmThis is a sign that the ad is drawing blood. The financial meltdown, for which Raines has serious responsibility, will be the defining theme of the next few weeks of the campaign. Get ready for lots of this theme. McCain needs to keep hammering on this subject where he has serious credibility.
LIke a squid squirts ink when threatened, this will be the response of Obama as he has no other defense.
Mike K (2cf494) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:16 pmTime’s Palin hit piece established the “Interview every last one of the 14% of Alaskans who disapprove of Palin” genre, followed dutifully by The Times and The Washington Post.
What do you expect when the R’s nominate a Holocaust AGW denier agnostic?
David Warner (569e58) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:29 pmMike K — Ding Ding Ding — We have a winner. No more calls please.
McCain did not deal with this issue early in the week, but the fact is that as a campaign issue he’s got a lot more ammo to use against Obama than Obama has to use against him. They should be carpet bombing swing states with ads on this subject.
Obama’s silence was purchased with campaign contributions, just like his silence was purchase in Chicago with campaign support.
McCain can quote himself at length warning about the eventual meltdown of Fannie and Freddie. They need to stay with this — and energy — until it gets through to the electorate.
WLS (26b1e5) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:31 pmWLS, given all those missed votes and “present”, Obama sold a lot of silence.
SPQR (26be8b) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:32 pmGod you guys are dense. Don’t you realize that racist = effective?
When ever the Obama campaign cries racism, that means you are being effective.
Welcome to Obama newspeak.
Joe (8102a5) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:37 pmYou all deserve each other – these Democrat fanatics and their instant assumptions of racism, and you Palin fanatics and your instant assumptions of sexism. And then both of you accusing each other of knee-jerk reactionary partisanship for your instant assumptions.
We really should just hold the election today, and get it over with, because nobody’s going to say a damn thing worth listening to for the next 45 days.
Phil (3b1633) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:41 pm“Until this campaign season, I truly never realized what an enormous role skin color plays in the life of a Dem. Who knew?” You have GOT to be kidding!! Argue any arbitrary subject, (say e.g. capital gains taxes,) with a lefty, and eventually they’ll throw something at you like “Yeaah, and screw all the brown people too, right maaan?” 2 weeks ago Nora Ephron couldn’t write about the Republican Convention without complaining about white people. The lib brain has an automatic-race-counter mechanism deep in the Rhombencephalon. Comparing lib race-obsession with Dr. King’s exhortations is the very definition of deep-dish irony.
gp (78ea4b) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:41 pmgp, apparently I should have prefaced my comment with TIC (tongue in cheek) or /sarc identifier. I denounce myself.
Dana (213b94) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:46 pmI’ve been convinced for about a decade now that Time Mag is run by 4th graders.
Neo (cba5df) — 9/18/2008 @ 9:51 pm#15 gp:
That would be, oh, donating to groups that fight the judicious use of DDT in Africa because its better that millions of brown people die than upset the ecology by having a few mosquitoes fly around hungry or perhaps even die prematurely? Or that are dead set against the introduction of a strain of beta carotene enhanced rice in the Orient because they don’t approve of the breeding method used to produce it…thereby condemning hundreds of thousands of yellow people to impaired sight or blindness?
That deep dish irony? While holding back a race card to play when out of other arguments and misdirections?
EW1(SG) (36ff49) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:14 pmBTW ,the WaPo also had this in an August 28, 2008 editorial on Obama, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
Yet Camp Obama didn’t peep either time. And this is a campaign that will squeal about a New Yorker cover, a New York Times poll analysis, a Politico story suggesting Obama is weak with Catholic voters, etc.
Now Raines is just some guy who lives in Obama’s neighborhood.
Karl (1b4668) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:14 pm45 days? Expect the drudgery to last far longer than that. And the ’12 presidental cycle will begin the day after the ’10 election at the latest.
We used to get at least something of an election respite, but I expect by 20′ there will no longer be grace windows for anything other than electioneering.
Soronel Haetir (2fa914) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:17 pmThe democrats are in a panic along with the media. Have they figured out that no one believes a word they say? Soon the democrats and media hypes will be at each others throats and then the real killing (I do mean killing) will start. Over 50 of Clinton’s associates died of unknown causes/reasons and Hussein will outdo the Clintons. People that make them look bad had better watch their back.
Scrapiron (c36902) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:21 pm“Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama’s vice presidential search team”
Here’s a response via Politico
So here we go: Obama had a known affiliation with a Former Fannie Mae Chairman who was forced to resign from his position of the VP search team but he doesn’t warrant mention in the ad. The man who is mentioned is referred to in an unsourced quote in a puff-piece as having taken a couple of phone calls.
1- In charge of the VP search and forced to resign under public pressure.
2 -A couple of phone calls.
Which is more damning? Which would draw the most blood?
Which one was white?!!
And here are Obambi’s economics advisors
Impatience is a Virtue (bec964) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:22 pm.
First, they hire that obviously qualified gossip columnist Ana Marie Cox, late of Wonkette, as editor of their online operation.
It’s amazing that a woman who rose to fame passing along the explicit diary of a social-climbing slut (Washingtonienne, aka Jessica Cutler) and musing about the size of John Kerry’s penis (and whether he needed to slip it into one of his pantlegs to conceal its length) has been entrusted with the new media version of a legendary century+ old publication.
L.N. Smithee (f22eb0) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:34 pmNot completely sure what your point is, Impatience, but you seem to be suggesting that Raines was seized upon because he’s black. I think he was seized upon because a) he was thoroughly implicated in the worst excesses at Fannie Mae, and b), at least up to the point of the latest Obama campaign statement, he hadn’t been repudiated, whereas the Obama campaign had already acted to distance itself from Johnson. (McCain would have had to dig Johnson up from the crowded under-bus, from somewhere near the rear axle I’d estimate.)
At this point, Raines and the Obama campaign appear to be calling the WaPo reporter and editors liars or incompetents, unless you’re of a mind to apply Clintonian shadings to the various denials – as in, for instance, maybe Rains “took calls,” but never offered real “advice.” Maybe his advice was “stop calling me.” That’s not what he said, however.
It will be interesting to see if the McCain campaign decides to pull, adjust, or replace the ad, and if the WaPo editors and their reporter, who have been implicitly called out, decide to stand by their version of the truth.
CK MacLeod (d21947) — 9/18/2008 @ 10:48 pmI had no idea Raines was black.
I do know that fiddling with $10.6 Billion on the balance sheet so you can hit bonus numbers is wrong regardless of what your skin color turns out to be
SteveG (71dc6f) — 9/18/2008 @ 11:01 pmIt’s a case of projection no reflection
Not just a taste of projection no reflection
Psycho to the hilt, man, psycho. Nice catch, Pat.
Anecdotally, speaking of being psycho, even the otherwise very rational Gene Burns of KGO radio, S.F., 810am, has become unglued. Recently I heard him admit/boast on air that he and some of his cohorts go around the station simply saying “Palin” knowingly to each other, as an alleged encapsulation of Republican depravity.
And Burns will simply not discuss with his callers any negatives regarding Obama – if my observation of his show via radio reception, with some difficulty from 800 miles away, is in any way true overall – which is very unusual for Burns compared to his even handling of other issues, imo.
Palin’s apparently managed to induce some kind of psychotic break amongst many MSM Liberals, if they weren’t already there, that is.
J. Peden (52173b) — 9/18/2008 @ 11:22 pmI wonder when all this stuff will cease to be seen as “unbelievable”? Another kind of history is being made in this moment, this election: the irreversible corruption of journalism. It may take awhile before the definitive piece is written on this moment, but for now check out Robert Kaplan’s brilliant essay “Media and Medievalism” from a few years ago. While not a specific prediction, it establishes all the predicates of the current moment.
rrpjr (fb0748) — 9/18/2008 @ 11:25 pmrrpjr — I have given some thought to the idea you suggest.
What I think is behind the press adoration is not so much that they are all liberal and Obama is a liberal.
Rather, I think the press is possessed by the idea that Obama may be the first African American elected President of the US, and they want to be on the ground in Washington reporting on it. Their names will always be attached to a historical event by their bylines.
Narcisism, pure and simple.
wls (c1b09d) — 9/19/2008 @ 12:03 amJ. Peden wrote:
Gene Burns seems to have a problem with strong, conservative women. Many years ago, was discussing his objection to school policies that required students to bring only see-thru bags and backpacks so counselors could more easily detect weapons. He revealed that if this rule were in place at the radio station, it would be revealed that he had in his briefcase printouts of nude pictures of Dr. Laura Schlessinger, which he said he never removed from his case after showing them around previously.
Since Dr. Laura moved to KSFO, I could count on my fingers the number of hours I have spent listening to KGO talk shows, so I don’t know if he speaks to morning anchor Ed Baxter, with whom he had a fierce on-air feud with after Baxter made the mistake of complaining about how traffic jams caused by 2002 Iraq War protests screwed up his wife’s schedule (it’s a long story).
Burns is one of several KGO radio talkhosts who sound like they need serious psychiatric care. The unapologetically swishy Karel (who played “Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead” when Ronald Reagan passed away), Christine Craft, Ray Taliaferro, and, of course, Bernie Ward (well, too late for him).
L.N. Smithee (f22eb0) — 9/19/2008 @ 1:38 amFranklin Raines’ Criminal Enterprise …
Stumbled upon it, seems to fit the thread.
Enjoy (or not), for what it’s worth.
Comment by TC — 9/18/2008 @ 11:01 am
No racial threads here!
Though I really don’t care much about race, it would be interesting if the MSM included such as a part of their NORMAL information. But we all know already that
an individual in a Grey hoodie with black pants is all the description that anybody needs to make a positive ID, don’t we?
Maybe we could add, “great tan”, “allot of sun”, or maybe “way too much sun” “appeared jaundiced” to the description? Sunrise at some latitude? Not that many Asians are involved in crime. Through some hints out.
Really , wouldn’t that help us to determine if we should give audience?
TC (f398ed) — 9/19/2008 @ 2:58 amDid anyone else notice the way that Newt Gingrich shut down Colmes last night? He laughed at him! And I have never seen Colmes so offended – his head nearly exploded like something out of a scene from “Mars Attacks”.
THAT is how you deal with the Democrats – YOU LAUGH AT THEM. They’ll do anything to get attention, but being laughed at is the one thing they absolutely can’t stand! Put out an ad with someone laughing at something dumb they’ve said – laughter in it, and it will drive the Rats absolutely INSANE…
JinnyB (43ad11) — 9/19/2008 @ 3:02 amDana said, “Until this campaign season, I truly never realized what an enormous role skin color plays in the life of a Dem.”
I agree. To them it seems everything is race based.
I have often thought that the Democrats push affirmative action to atone for the way they can’t see past the color of everyone’s skin.
They can’t believe that Republicans are not as racist as they are. For example, to them, racism is at the root of all opposition to illegal immigration.
tyree (7a25f8) — 9/19/2008 @ 3:07 amFuckin’ racists
JD (5f0e11) — 9/19/2008 @ 4:31 amI will remember that reading this blog and other similer rightist blogs has given my doubts about Obama …as his boring blue and insubstantive web site. Larry Summers and Sec. Rubin are on the list of Globalist economics professors in the tank w/ Obama too. But one problem: Fannie Mae wasn’t the cause of the present meltdown….it was lack of regulation over Wall Street. Granted that those two last characters were for Phil Gramm’s bill to limit regulation over big Money firms….but the Republicans were the leaders in initiation of the Age of Greed.
Roubini again is the soothsayer: What was wrought by McCain’s team:
“This is the biggest and most socialist government intervention in economic affairs since the formation of the Soviet Union and Communist China. So foreign investors are now welcome to the USSRA (the United Socialist State Republic of America) where they can earn fat spreads relative to Treasuries on agency debt and never face any credit risks (not even the subordinated debt holders who made a fortune yesterday as those claims were also made whole).
Like scores of evangelists and hypocrites and moralists who spew and praise family values and pretend to be holier than thou and are then regularly caught cheating or cross dressing or found to be perverts these Bush hypocrites who spewed for years the glory of unfettered wild west laissez faire jungle capitalism (and never believed in any sensible and appropriate regulation and supervision of financial markets) allowed the biggest debt bubble ever to fester without any control, have caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and are now forced to perform the biggest government intervention and nationalizations in the recent history of humanity, all for the benefit of the rich and the well connected. So Comrades Bush and Paulson and Bernanke will rightly pass to the history books as a troika of Bolsheviks who turned the USA into the USSRA. Fanatic zealots of any religion are always pests that cause havoc and destruction with their inflexible fanaticism; but they usually don’t run the biggest economy in the world. But these laissez faire voodoo-economics zealots in charge of the USA have now caused the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the nastiest economic crisis in decades. So let them be shamed in public for their hypocrisy and zealotry that has caused so much financial and economic damage.”
datadave (e0f125) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:43 amBradley~
FIFY
rhodeymark (6231e5) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:46 amdatadave is off its meds again. dataless – Your doctor’s have your best interests at heart. You should listen to them.
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:46 amSorry – that was JRW, my bad.
rhodeymark (6231e5) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:47 amSo, Obama has called Raines, presumably more than once, about housing matters.
That’s pretty thin.
jpe (08c1dd) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:53 amA candidate with the economic knowledge and foreign expertise of Carter with numerous questionable affiliations which has been ignored in the media (Rezko, Raines, etc.)
So any critisism of the merits of those policies will be racist.
Joe - Dallas (70513b) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:01 amThe problem, I think, is that in this ad we’re seeing neither criticism of merits nor questionable affiliations (as others have noted, to say Obama has an affiliation with Raines is just silly)
jpe (08c1dd) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:10 amSo, jpe, he is an advisor to the Baracky campaign? He isn’t? We should expect to see Raines and Johnson chucked under the back of the bus any moment now. That is not the Franklin Raines that Baracky knew.
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:14 amSecondly, a Washington Post article, which the McCain campaign refers to in its ad, identified Raines as an advisor to the Obama campaign on issues of mortgage financing and housing.
True, or false?
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:18 amOh Stop WLS she isn’t a racist, she is a typical white woman/sarc
Robyn (712234) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:21 amCouldn’t they just photoshop him in whiteface?
Dan Collins (76fc2c) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:29 amDon’t worry. The Jim Johnson ad won’t be “rasict”. lol.
RFC (3471b0) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:33 amImpatience, the fundamental facts of the ad are true, so you call it a lie.
That is so typical of Obama supporters. The more truth in a claim against the Messiah, the more you scream “liar” and “Swiftboat!”
SPQR (26be8b) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:38 amDan – They only do that over at manbearpig.
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:38 amSPQR – The level and volume of vitriol from the Obamatrons is inversely proportionate to how Baracky is doing in the campaign.
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:40 amLIke a squid squirts ink when threatened, this will be the response of Obama as he has no other defense.
Comment by Mike K — 9/18/2008 @ 9:16 pm
Squid, ink, black ink…
ah, nm, it’s too easy.
docweasel (6e0e44) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:40 amJD, somewhat. But the shrillness when a truthful attack hit home is ear splitting.
SPQR (26be8b) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:41 amI wonder how many hits a lexus search with “Time” and “racism” would net? Eugene Robinson has them beat though. His sole purpose at the Washington Post is to write about a liberal view of racism.
Mr. Pink (eae12c) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:41 amSo Obama’s flat-out lies about how “they say I don’t look like the other presidents on all the money,” that’s indirect?
Jim Treacher (592cb4) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:42 amTreacher – Did you know Barack is black?!
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:43 amTumulty is a shameless human being.
In the very same article, she makes it quite clear why they used older white women, and as we all know it had absolutely NOTHING to do with coded racism:
Make up your mind! The image of black men and white women (which isn’t racist at all to begin with) is racist by your count, but the true reason for using eldery white women is not “accidental” given the fact that they’re the key constiuency being targeted. Everything is racism to these racism-obsessed zombies.
Joshua Taj Bozeman (363480) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:44 amdd is unaware that Roubini was spouting the same doom and gloom in 2002. There’s an old saying about a stopped clock dd should brush up on; it would improve dd’s accuracy.
Karl (1b4668) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:55 amBut is Franklin Raines “authentically” black? Do we have a ruling on that?
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:56 amI’m not sure that’s entirely correct. The behavior of the GSEs is pretty central to the situation we’re all in.
DrSteve (826060) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:59 amPenny Pritzker is the one McCain should be hammering Obama with –
The New York Times reported December 11, 2001, that the Pritzkers had agreed to pay a “record $460 million” spread out over 15 years to the federal government to avoid being punished” for Superior Bank’s failure. It was “the largest settlement ever in the failure of a banking institution. The failure itself is one of the largest in the last decade, one that some estimate could cost the government up to $1 billion.”
“Regulators said Superior had collapsed because of poor lending practices and sloppy bookkeeping,” Time wrote. “The bank specialized in loans to people with poor credit histories, a practice called subprime lending.”
Time also reported that the Pritzkers, who “have a long and troubled history in the S.& L. business” and “once battled the Internal Revenue Service over estate taxes, … also agreed to cede 90 percent of any money they might recover in separate litigation with the government.”
Pritzer is the campaign finance chair.
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/obamas-pritzker-problem/
william (fe3a60) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:00 amHow very racist of you, william.
JD (41e64f) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:12 amHave you seen this yet? (Sandra Bernhard: Palin would be geng-raped by blacks in Manhattan.)
nk (189a81) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:19 amWe now have an ad linking Obama and Jim Johnson. The idiot Tumulty now wants to know why this didn’t run first.
JWF (95b9a4) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:40 amBTW,
HotAir-lanche!
Karl (1b4668) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:44 am“But one problem: Fannie Mae wasn’t the cause of the present meltdown….”
I’m going to agree with Dr. Steve here. Without Fannie and Freddie standing ready to purchase the crappy loans originated elsewhere, those originating banks would not have made them. There’s no way they would have wanted them to stay on their books. Without the blackmail of the CRA used to get bank mergers approved in the 1990s, there’s no way the market for subprime loans would have expanded so fast.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:49 amI think Obama looks like Ulysses Grant on the new pink $50…. Obama will have to eat a lot, and start the morning with a fifth of Old Kentucky, let the beard go, and pin his ears back… but the resemblance is there.
Or maybe not.
If the current Obama was put on a bill, I think it would look like Disney money.
SteveG (71dc6f) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:58 amMy suggestion would be to do the third world thing… issue a new bill with a lot of extra zeros. A trillion dollar bill to symbolize the Obama effect on the economy
Incidentally, Tumulty misses one other reason Camp McCain might have led with Raines.
To wit, that it’s not a racist ad, but they figured some drooling morons in the MSM would make that complaint and thereby garner free MSM publicity for the ad, spread its message further and further discredit said drooling morons.
Karl (1b4668) — 9/19/2008 @ 8:14 amSub-primes…
Follow the money, and it goes right back to the two banking cmte’s on Capitol Hill, and to the Cong.Black Caucus, where the push to end red-lining originates.
FM2 did what their Congressinal Masters wanted them to do (esp. since it could be very profitable), and the industry fell into line to share in the lucre. They created a bubble by bringing more and more people into the housing market who had no business being there; and, like all bubbles, when the new supply of buyers thinned out, and the supply of homes remained large (or expanded, as in many markets), the bubble burst. Once you could not sell your home for more than you owed on it, people started to walk away from their loans letting the loans go into default, and poisoning the mortgage market, and with it the financial sector.
Thanks Barney; Thanks Chris; and a Big Thank You to Maxinne Waters, who brought us the phony “CIA sold crack into the inner city” scandal, but who has now helped to create a climate that will bring back red-lining in fact, if not in name.
When I think of demagogues, I see Sen Bilbo, and Cong Maxinne Waters, as two sides of the same coin.
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 8:16 amThat would be a bit stronger if you noted Obama’s money was over 4 years and Dodd’s over 20.
so on a yearly basis, Obama raked in 4 times as much.
What was Fannie buying?
The Drill SGT (8c8a1b) — 9/19/2008 @ 8:24 am#14, Phil said, “We really should just hold the election today, and get it over with, because nobody’s going to say a damn thing worth listening to for the next 45 days.”
Not so fast, there’s quite a bit to be said up till the election. For today’s example, I want to know when Obama is going to return the hush money he got from Fannie and Freddy. Obama and Chris Dodd were obviously paid-off to keep the scam quiet so Dems could loot the subprime piggy banks.
Obama and Dodd owe the taxpayers a lot of money and they owe the voters a forthright explaination of their involvement. Both Obama and Dodds should face a serious investigaton of their self-indulgent money grubbing, and both should cooperate in the prosecution of the CEOs and CFOs of those crooked Democrat run enterprises, or face indictment.
Moreover, Senator Dodd should be dismissed as chair of the Senate Banking Committee and resign from the Senate, the same is true for Obama, he isn’t fit to serve in public office.
So, as you can see, there much to discuss during the next 45 days.
Ropelight (b9f273) — 9/19/2008 @ 8:32 amVery old accounting joke: CEO to CFO, How much is two plus two? CFO to CEO, How much do you want it to be?
Bar Sinister (662730) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:06 am#60 – nk
Sandra Bernhard: Palin would be gang-raped by blacks in Manhattan.
Jeffrey Ross at Jerry Stiller’s Friar’s Club Roast, talking about Sandra Bernhard: “She’s so skanky, I wouldn’t fuck her with Bea Arthur’s dick.”
Icy Truth (0b6250) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:12 amIt seems to me that men should be judged, not by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. The writer of this article is, by his own admission, suggesting otherwise.
Then again, if I’m wrong, so is….
David L Alexander (085956) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:29 amI think McCain will individually present all these Fannie/Freddie Mae devils within the tank of Obama.
After Jim Johnson, it should be Gorelick and others.
But the Raines is the major sinner because of his linkage to mortgage housing affirmative actions by the Congressional Black Caucus of which Fannie/Freddie is a family.
The truth really hurts.
HillaryForPresident (b1ce6e) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:32 am“I think McCain will individually present all these Fannie/Freddie Mae devils within the tank of Obama.”
Get a fucking life
If getting advice from an official at a troubled financial institution is a sign of bad judgment, then why is that two of McCain’s top advisors include John Thain, from Merrill Lynch, and Martin Feldstein, who serves on AIG’s board of directors?
jesus Cripes (563863) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:45 amComment by jesus Cripes — 9/19/2008 @ 9:48 am
That is a scurrilous lie!
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 9:55 amYou have no idea of the integrity that is integral of the man you obviously despise, and could never walk in his shadow.
You, Sir, are beneath contempt!
75 AD
McCain part and parcel of Keating Five scandal (full howling moonbat mode). Had to have a Rethuglican so it wouldn’t be all libs, even if McCain were judged innocent.
Are voters at all aware of the nastiness of obamaturd and his turdette minions? But what can I say since I’m a racist cracker clinging to my shotgun and 357 magnum. No affirmative action marxist neophyte magic negro in the white house!
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 9/19/2008 @ 10:09 amBarack Obama is a Bush clone….
“I fully support the efforts of Sec Paulsen, and Chairman Bernanke….” BHO, 9/19/08
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 10:15 ammax…
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 10:20 amJust what do you think you’re going to do with that .357 popgun?
Just remember Jeff Cooper’s admonition to never carry anything that doesn’t have a “4” in the calibre designation (he usually was talking about his personal fave, the 1911Govt in .45acp).
You should upgrade to a new shortbarrel Smith in 460, and you can use .45LC for target practice in it.
If the campaign had used an old black woman at the end of the spot, the campaign would have been accused of cynically targeting old black folks (for whom they are presumed to care not one whit).
Sad to say, but to avoid this in the future, every ad the campaign puts out must be evaluated prior to release for any conceivable opening it gives to claims of racism. In this case, a variety of folks at the end of the spot — old folks, families with kids, and a variety of skin color — would have inoculated the ad against racism charges, at least to some degree.
Deuce Geary (64ccda) — 9/19/2008 @ 10:23 ammax…
Just what do you think you’re going to do with that .357 popgun?
I loved that ongoing debate between Jeff Cooper and Bill Jordan. Jordan was a fan of the S&W Model 19 and, like you said, Cooper like the Colt Government.
The plastic Wonder Nines won in the end.
nk (189a81) — 9/19/2008 @ 10:55 amnk…
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:03 amNo, what is winning are the plastic ubber .45’s
SA XD-45, 13+1 in a package lighter, smaller, and just as ergomatic as the Govt.
Check one out!
Rick Davis didn’t make the decision to cook Fannie’s books, he didn’t manipluate its stock price to generate $50 million in bonuses for himself, and he didn’t mislead stockholders and directors and auditors about the true financial condition of the company. Jim Johnson and Frank Raines made those decisions. And Barack Obama made the decision to inckude them in his inner circle of advisors (and anyone who doesn’t think Frank Raines was talking his ass off with the Obama people, I have a bridge to sell you – Obama was his ticket to redemption and back into the Washington cocktail party circuit.)
rockmom (e42807) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:04 amAnd the McCain campaign hits a new low. Wow. You would think that with how quickly they lost their little bit of a lead in the polls they would begin to focus on issues as opposed to these desperate ploys. Sheesh…
Sorry, but Tumulty is right on the money here folks, this new ad is grabbing at straws…
Peter (e70d1c) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:06 amI’ll write to Santa, Another Drew. 😉
But after paying for piano lessons, swimming lessons, ballet, Little League, hip-hop, gymnastics, and just-for-the-heck-of-it presents, not to mention everything the PTA peddles, I’m looking at another rifle for “if ever”.
nk (189a81) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:20 amjesus Cripes,
Kinda overlooking how your point might relate to Fannie & Freddie being leveraged at a much larger 60-1 ratio, and what impact that had in the markets. But nice try.
Karl (870fc7) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:30 amTeam Obama has thrown Franklin Raines under the bus.
EDIT: And the Washington Post basically claims the McCain campaign should never believe what it reads at … the Washington Post!
DRJ (0754ed) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:41 amDid the cock crow thrice?
nk (189a81) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:53 am“Youre a bunch of lazy fucking idiots.”
DRJ,
As I did with Drunken Sailor last night, please delete every comment “jesus Cripes” has ever made on this blog and ban the IP. I suspect it’s AF, but even if not, that comment earns a ban and mass deletion.
Patterico (1b32d8) — 9/19/2008 @ 12:00 pmI will do it now.
DRJ (0754ed) — 9/19/2008 @ 12:11 pmI have to shamelessly steal this post from HotAir
rockmom (e42807) — 9/19/2008 @ 12:23 pm#77 Alas, I had two of those old 1911 model 45s. What can I say. The 357 looks scary- ok Dirty Harry’s 44 Magnum is scarier, but if someone breaks in at night and hears the 12 gauge sound, that might give pause too. I have a High Standard 22 target pistol for mundane practice. I’m sure the greedy, racist neocons on this site have all sorts of Glocks and other 9mm, shotgun pistols, C4, Mace, tasers but I firmly believe only criminals and the fever swamp left should have access to guns. Afterall, gun banning and strict gun control laws work so darn well in UK, Australia, Chicago and D.C., eh?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 9/19/2008 @ 1:04 pmAw, come on! Don’t send JAR away again!!!
Icy Truth (3b614c) — 9/19/2008 @ 1:15 pmIt is sexist to point out Karen Tumulty’s stupidity.
Wesson (f6c982) — 9/19/2008 @ 1:30 pmSorry, but Tumulty is right on the money here folks, this new ad is grabbing at straws…
That must be why we’re hearing howls of outrage from The Messiah’s disciples, along with a huge face plant for Raines. Yeah, the ad’s totally ineffective…
Dmac (e639cc) — 9/19/2008 @ 1:35 pm“Say, Howard Fineman, would you please go on our favorite TV show to say Raines stopped by the office a few times, so we can downplay that if witnesses turn up?”
Karl (870fc7) — 9/19/2008 @ 2:06 pmHowie’s been out for only himself for many years now – he’ll say anything if he can appear on camera.
Dmac (e639cc) — 9/19/2008 @ 3:07 pmThank God Franklin Raines isn’t Jewish otherwise it would be those anti Semitic Republicans making those blood libel campaign ads. Thank God Raines isn’t female, or we’d have those coded Republican racist messages because Obama’s in the ad with a white woman. Shock again. But if McCain just put the name of Franklin Raines in his ad, he’d be racist again, because by not putting in a photo of Raines, McCain is denying Raines’ race and thereby disparaging his education and background and his other accomplishments (like his support of the African American Cultural Museum in the Capital, that Obama also supports). With libs it’s always heads we win tails you lose coin tosses with conservatives and republicans.
eaglewingz08 (98291e) — 9/19/2008 @ 3:58 pmTumulty is right to take on these Fannie smears. The Republicans (who I have often voted for) are putting up a smokescreen that the current crisis “root cause” is Fannie/Freddie. (Rep. Boehner today on c-span). This is gross distortion (as noted in c-span Brian Lamb/AEI interview last Sunday Bush himself failed to appoint the 5 government members of Fannie board because he wanted the organization to fail (push to privatize is their mantra).) The root causes of this crisis are overstimulation of the economy by the government sector who don’t understand what a true private sector, market based economy, with sensible, cost-efficient, well regulated government sector is.
cmsns (271376) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:24 pmI just love Libtards…You can always rely on their one-note samba!
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:34 pmYou can always tell it’s a Libtard based on their moronic posting nomenclature – what the hell does “cmsns” stand for? ConstantMoronSaysNonstopShit?
Dmac (e639cc) — 9/19/2008 @ 5:46 pmAfter kissing his own ass in another thread as one who “keeps people on their toes” here, gladly crowning himself some bringer of much needed dissident views, Peter’s brilliant contribution to the substance of this post is a rehash of the “Haha you guys are getting desperate…” without addressing one iota of substance with regard to the ad or the laughable race-card critique thereof. Yeah, you’re amazing Peter, thank God you’re here to keep people on their toes with your scurrilous evisceration of the facts and logic here.
Jack Klompus (b0e238) — 9/19/2008 @ 6:57 pmJPeden #26 Palin’s apparently managed to induce some kind of psychotic break amongst many MSM Liberals, if they weren’t already there, that is.
That happened under Bush2, and now its the touchstone for the left. It was flirted with during Reagan, and expanded under Bush 1, but Bush 2 saw the unveiling of a new psychotic psychological approach to political discourse – unhinged hatred as a social networking tool.
It’s easy, as no education or point is required.
Apogee (366e8b) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:43 pmIt serves the need of self-reinforced self-esteem self-aggrandizing, something this particular group of people must possess in order to satisfy belonging.
It accomplishes the difficult aspect of organizing and fundraising as those are bundled with the social aspects of the disorder.
It perfectly explains the frothing attempt to link GWB to any and all Republicans, as it provides the extension to what is, obviously to any sane observer, an addiction.
We started “teaching” the self-esteem schtick in public schools 20+ years ago, now we reap the seeds that were sown.
Thank you, Public Education Professionals.
Another Drew (909672) — 9/19/2008 @ 7:47 pmThis does not suprise me at all that Obama has another close “friend” that is SO STINKING CORRUPT and bad for this country! Now Raines, it was Jim Johnson, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and the America hating Rev. Wright.
Americans need to wake up and see the Kool-aid the Barry Obama camp is pooring for them. Pure garbage.
Nobama….Keep the Change
Online Leads (abbbe7) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:20 pm#100 Jack Klompus
1.) Karl Rove, outlined the Raines attack tactic for McCain on Hannity the night before the ad was released. Calling him a “top adviser.” A lie and pardon the sacrilege of a Huff Po link, but just watch the video of Rove on H&C:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/19/new-mccain-attacks-echo-r_n_127767.html
2. ) Raines sent Carly Fiorina an email telling her specifically that he wasn’t advising the Obama campaign. From the AP:
http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=D939MA9O0&show_article=1&catnum=3
3.)Phil Gramm, McCain’s main economic adviser is one of the primary architects responsible for the deregulation policies that have led up to these huge bank failure. So he’s got to try and get some of this cr*p on Obama as quickly as possible. In any way possible and this is what they’ve, sadly decided on.
Tumulty is astute, perceptive and balanced. I trust her. I have never seen her lash out like this and I think it’s a symptom of the level of arrogance and sleaziness the McCain campaign. I think a lot of reporters have finally said, “enough is enough,” they’ve stopped pulling their punches before and quite a few have come out swinging lately (David Brooks comes to mind.) It
My comment was pretty light on facts, but to be honest, how many ads based on spurious accusations lies has the McCain campaign put out at this point? It seems like dozens. They’ve all had the same faux dark ominous quality to them and the tome seems to suggest that this ad,, yes this ad is finally the last straw and Obama needs to go down. They’re long on wishing it and short on facts. And mostly just insulting to everyone involved, Obama, of course, the process, the voters, the media, the fact checkers who debunk them, and this might sound strange but ultimately they’re insulting to McCain, because he should know better and should have more dignity then this, yet he seems sold on the idea that the team who built GWB’s pres. victories will also work for him. For someone whose personal mythology is so based on honor in the end it undercuts his own value.
Frankly I’m burnt out on even trying to find the truth or facts in what’s being said in these things because it always amounts to BS. And not even just everyday BS. But egregiously stupid and insulting, to anyone with half a brain, BS.
Tumulty is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s the boy who cried wolf syndrome to the nth power.
If they continue with this they’re going to continue to screw themselves with the very independents and conservative Dems his campaign seeks, because Palin’s pull has peaked at this point. IMHO. Especially after the cataclysmic stuff coming out of Wall Street, the Fed and the Treasury every day now and I suspect will be the clear concern through election day and much much longer than that.
Peter (e70d1c) — 9/19/2008 @ 11:52 pm“”This is another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth,” Burton said. “Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything—ever.”
(according to the Breitbart link)
“In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae’s chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s D.C. conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters. ”
(according to the Washington Post) – sounds like “advising” but I guess it requires a certain nuance to fail to see the distinction.
“how many ads based on spurious accusations lies has the McCain campaign put out at this point? It seems like dozens.”
To you I’m sure it must seem so. Nice way to a quick glom over a highly loaded suggestion. Still keeping us on our toes?
“Palin’s pull has peaked at this point.”
Again, pure speculation and wishful thinking on your part.
“Karl Rove, outlined the Raines attack tactic for McCain”
Jack Klompus (b0e238) — 9/20/2008 @ 1:11 pmErgo cannot possibly be based in fact and must be a racist, attack ad that plays on the politics of fear, a “hate ad”, am I getting there?
“Phil Gramm, McCain’s main economic adviser is one of the primary architects responsible for the deregulation policies that have led up to these huge bank failure.”
Peter – This appears to be a universal talking point of the left. In you own words, could you please lay out the cause and effect here, the linkages, between what Gramm did and any specific dank failure to which you are referring.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 9/20/2008 @ 1:20 pmdigitaljournal.com The theme of the story in John McCain’s Advice ad is that African American men are predatory. This is conveyed by placing their faces from one side of the screen to the other, creating a circling affect, like wolves encircling their prey.
Hargrove (54b747) — 9/23/2008 @ 7:00 pmhttp://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260186
What a load.
SPQR (26be8b) — 9/23/2008 @ 7:01 pm