No Basement

John McCain and his wife Cindy adopted a child from Bangladesh; Andrew Sullivan finds something to criticize:

This is interesting. Part of the McCain Celebrity, as packaged for the evangelical base, is the rescue of two Bangladeshi girls at the behest of Mother Theresa, one of whom, Bridget, they subsequently adopted. During my live-blogging of Saddleback, I described the McCain adoption story as "peerless." And it is indeed an admirable, selfless thing - and a completely legitimate aspect of a candidate's life to be part of his campaign message. The story of how Mother Teresa talked them into it makes it all the more poignant.

The only trouble is: it's not true:

OK, the Mother Teresa part if not true; it once appeared on the McCain website, which has now been edited.

But let Andrew continue:

A 1991 article in the Arizona Star at the time of the adoption only mentions that the children were from an orphanage that was started by Mother Teresa. It does not mention a meeting with Mother Teresa or her asking McCain to bring the girls to the US.

This is the pattern:

A story that shows the McCains' genuine compassion and faith is embellished over the years to make the story a little more perfect, a little more salient, a little better as a narrative. It's especially important to add these embellishments when your goal is to appeal to a fundamentalist base, when your own prickly, personal and private faith isn't very marketable. And when your adopted daughter is Bangladeshi, and when that fact has been disgracefully used against you by the Bush machine in 2000, and when some fringes of your base get queasy about multi-racial families, what better way to describe the adoption than as something Mother Teresa herself "implored" you to do? More interesting: the first actual reports of this event do not mention this fact. They are added later.

They are added later?  Uh huh, and then they are subtracted.  Here is McCain at the Saddleback forum with Pastor Rick Warren:

MCCAIN: Well, I think we have to make adoption a lot easier in this country. That's why so many people go to other countries to get - to be able to adopt children.

(APPLAUSE) My great hero and role model Teddy Roosevelt was the first modern American president to talk about adoption and how important it was, and I promise you this is my last story.

Seventeen years ago Cindy was in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She went to Mother Teresa's orphanage. The nuns brought her two little babies who were not going to live. Cindy came home. I met her at the airplane. She showed me this 5-week-old baby and said, "Meet your new daughter." She's 17, and our life is blessed - and that's what adoption is all about.

Factually accurate, and no mention of a meeting with Mother Teresa.  Odd - Sullivan says the point is to pander to the religious right, yet McCain forgot to pander to the Saddleback audience.

Here is McCain in an interview from 2004 (praise Google):

Dadmag: Your youngest daughter Bridget is adopted. Why did you decide to adopt Bridget?

McCain: Well it was primarily my wife's Cindy's idea. She was in Bangladesh and she and some of the medical personnel visited Mother Theresa's orphanage to try and help the children there. There were two little baby girls there. One had a heart problem the other a severe cleft palate. Cindy was very concerned about their ability to survive and their need for medical treatment, so she decided to bring them here for medical treatment. She fell in love with both of them. We decided to adopt Bridget. Two close friends of ours, adopted Mickey, the other child.

Again, the ungilded lily.

Here is a local reporter paraphrasing but not quoting McCain from Aug 15:

He also talked of 17 years ago when Cindy was on a humanitarian trip and Mother Theresa came up to them with two 5-month-old girls. Mother Theresa told Cindy if they didn’t take one of these babies home she would die. So Cindy did, telling her husband when she returned: “I’d like to introduce you to your new daughter.”

Now McCain is telling the story he didn't tell Rick Warren.  Odd - maybe the reporter misrepresented or misunderstood this.

Here is an AP description of a McCain campaign flyer shamelessly exploiting their daughter:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is using an image of his adopted daughter in a new campaign mailing in the state where push polling involving the girl helped derail his White House bid eight years ago.

In a mailing showing up at homes Thursday, the Arizona senator's wife, Cindy, is pictured holding a baby in a blanket as she walks with a woman from Mother Teresa's orphanage.

"Cindy cradles little Bridget, a baby she and John adopted in 1993 from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh. Bridget has been a great blessing to the McCain family," the mailing says. "Today, Cindy and John work together to promote adoption and to help women facing crisis pregnancies."

No mention of a meeting with Mother Teresa.

Here is ABC News getting the story from Cindy McCain - no mention of a meeting with Mother Teresa:

For McCain, it is also personal. Sixteen years ago, on a visit to an orphanage in Bangladesh, she saw a tiny baby with severe facial deformities and a cleft palate.

"I had been working there somewhat for a few weeks and I always kept going back to her at the end, at the beginning of the day," McCain said. "Whatever I was doing, I would always wind up at her little bassinet. I would hold her and play with her. So when it came time to leave, there was just something there. I mean, she chose me."

Interestingly, the ABC News story was offered as a supporting link by a McCain enthusiast explaining that Mother Teresa was involved.  Over-excited loyalists?

Well, I'll tell you what the pattern is - Andrew Sullivan sees an outlandish accusation against John McCain and re-echoes it without doing even a minimum of research.  At this point, unless John McCain is to be held accountable for every word of his website there is no story. 

What we are missing is any direct quote from John McCain or Cindy McCain [Oops - see "HMM" below for a quote from Cindy] telling this story of a meeting with Mother Teresa.  Instead, we have several instances of John McCain telling the story accurately, an example of his wife presenting it accurately to ABC News and his campaign apparently getting it right in a flyer.  Against that we have one example of a reporter possibly fluffing it, one example of a blogger totally fluffing it, and the now-edited McCain website (original), which could easily be explained away as sloppy staff work by someone misled by the mis-reporting on the internet. Or does Sully think that this biographical point should have been reviewed with John McCain himself even though he has presented it accurately in the past?

Sullivan's assertion that this story was "embellished over the years to make the story a little more perfect, a little more salient" needs some support.  It looks from here as if it is Sullivan doing the embellishing.

Well, keep flinging poo, Andrew - something will stick.  And better luck with the research.

SINCE YOU ASK:  Yes, since Barack Obama was specifically asked about his relationship with Bill Ayers at the Philadelphia debate and his campaign put out a "Fact Check" that night, I think it is reasonable to hold Barack Obama responsible for the omissions in that website presentation.

HMM:  Foo Bar finds a direct Cindy McCain quote from an Aug 9, 2008 story describing a campaign event from January 2008 (if I am following correctly).  This makes me wonder whether Cindy has sometimes run off the rails in her tale-telling:

No one is calling McCain cute but Cindy speaks movingly when she describes a visit to a Mother Teresa orphanage in Bangladesh in the early 1990s. It was then, she says, that she “stumbled upon the most beautiful little girl I’d ever seen. She had a terrible cleft palate. She had problems with her feet. She had problems with her hands. She had all kinds of problems. As only Mother Teresa can do, she prevailed upon me to take this baby and another baby – get them out of the country and take them to the United States for medical care.” On the flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles, Cindy says, she realised, “I couldn’t give this child up … she had chosen me. Well, the kick in this was I hadn’t told my husband. So when I stepped off the plane in Arizona I was holding her, and John met me at the airport and, of course, there were a lot of cameras there. He whispered down to me and said, ‘Well, where’s she going to go?’ I looked up at him and sort of thought, ‘Well, our house – how about that?’”

OVER TO JANE:

Let's see: I came under Sniper fire in Bosnia; Bill Ayers and I are just acquaintances; My affair ended in 2006; my wife was inspired by Mother Teresa.

Yeah, McCain should definitely drop out of the race. 

STILL MORE:  Cindy McCain forget the embellishing/pandering script during her June 2008 Newsweek interview:

She named her charity the American Voluntary Medical Team. In 1991, she camped in the Kuwait desert five days after the end of the gulf war to bring medical supplies to refugees. That same year, she visited Mother Teresa's orphanage in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she saw 160 newborn girls who had been abandoned. The nuns handed her a small baby with a cleft palate so severe that she couldn't be fed. Another baby, also just a few weeks old, had a heart defect. Worried they would die without medical attention, Cindy applied for medical visas to take the girls back to the United States. But the country's minister of health refused to sign the papers. "We can do surgery on this child," an official told her. Cindy, frustrated, slammed her fist on the table. "Then do it! What are you waiting for?" The official, stunned, simply signed the papers. "I don't know where I got the nerve," Cindy said.

When she arrived in Phoenix, she carried the baby with the cleft palate off the plane. Her husband met her at the airport. He looked at the baby.  "Where is she going," he asked her. "To our house," she replied. They adopted the little girl and named her Bridget. Family friends adopted the other little girl.

What was the pattern, Andrew?

HALF-RESEARCHED:  Mark Nickolas, writing at the HuffPo, digs up some old cites of the McCains telling the story accurately and some contemporary cites of Cindy getting it wrong in support of his headline,

"The Anatomy of a Deception: How The McCains Changed Their Baby Adoption Story Just Before 2008 Campaign Began".

His anatomy does not explain why Cindy forgot to change her story for Newsweek and ABC News, as mentioned above, or why McCain forgot to change it for Saddleback or the campaign flyer.

Mr. Nickolas provides four bits of supporting evidence:

- a no-link (Lexis?) to the Brit Sunday Mail, but the excerpt is the same as already provided above by Foo Bar. 

- a link to the Feb 3, 2008 Telegraph but this is a reporter paraphrase, not a direct quote. 

-  another reporter paraphrase in a June 2008 Digital Journal piece. 

-  he notes the change in the website - it was accurate in November 2004, changed to include Mother Teresa at the time of the two Brit stories, and has since been restored to accuracy.

So the critics insisting that the McCains changed their story have the website and one direct quote from a reporter filing the same story for British and Australian newspapers.  Defenders (Moi, mes amis!) have multiple direct quotes from 2008 from John, Cindy, and the campaign in big-time media outlets.

Was there really some plan to change the story to pander to the religious right?  Does the religious right spend a lot of time reading the Daily Telegraph?  In any case, John Podhoretz thinks that doing something because Mother Teresa asks you to is easy; doing it from your own heart shows more character.  Regardless, I think this incident simply demonstrates that if a person tells a story often enough they will misspeak or be misheard.  Over-enthusiastic staffers took care of the rest (Or cause and effect - the reporter got the bum info from the website).

Comments

[Jane]

Sully reeks of desperation, as does this header at Yahoo:

A housing issue: McCain not sure how many they own (AP)
AP - Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

Misrepresentations all around. Let the games begin.

[Jane]

Sully and the rest of the lefty press reek of desperation, as does this header at Yahoo:

A housing issue: McCain not sure how many they own (AP)
AP - Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

Misrepresentations all around. Let the games begin.

[Barney Frank]

Maybe McCain can adopt Barry.
Then out of his allowance Barry could send his brother George a couple of extra bucks every month.

[matt]

at what point does the media wall break down and people just start laughing at fools like Sullivan? Between the canards, fawning Obama coverage, and slanted coverage of politics, how can any self respecting person of any intelligence believe any of what is said in the major media today?
This is a much more substantial issue in the long term.

What scares me is not necessarily an election, per se, but rather

1 - An orchestrated effort to concentrate the media in a few hands.

2 - the complete dumbing down of the news.

3 - the use of a concentrated media as a political weapon to control thought and opinion.

Between the expansion of police powers, criminalization of health issues such as somking, weight, etc, and this, we are straying far from the first principles of the Constitution.

[matt]

and there's no question McCain hit the jackpot when he married a second time....a rich chick whose dad owned the beer distributorship....I love America!

[Rick Ballard]

Jane,

Poor Obama only has one $1.6 (or $2.1, depending) million house and he had to sell votes from a sidewalk stand to get it.

Pretty sharp campaign move - let's look at Obama's 97% loan to value set of mortgages for a little while. In particular, I'd like to know the rate on the second which came from the same bank as the first. Within six months of the first closing.

Isn't that the type of lending practice which caused the credit crisis?

Wrt the adoption - let's not forget that, according to Obama, that adopted baby was a punishment which the mother could have avoided had she just had access to a good abortionist.

[clarice]

Poor TM--He has to actually read Sully.

BTW I am persuaded there is no basement when it comes to his propagandizing.

[Neo]

The Mother Teresa story thing was probably a mistake by some "low level staffer."

God know Obama has had his troubles with those "low level staffer"-s, so this seems like standard operating procedure.

[hrtshpdbox]

And Tim Kaine saying that "McCain couldn't count that high"? Please, please let this guy be the pick, Biden seems level-headed and discreet in comparison.

[scott]

I guess you can have it both ways, afterall...If you're Andy, and there is some nexus to Christians...or Christianist...or whatever smarty pants label you wish to apply...

McCain not telling the cross story immediately upon release from captivity is proof the story is inauthentic...while McCain's direct quotes referencing "Mother Teresa's orphanage" mean nothing...

Why bloggers still feel the need to address this hack is beyond me...

[Foo Bar]

What we are missing is any direct quote from John McCain or Cindy McCain telling this story of a meeting with Mother Teresa

this is not quite a direct quote, but close:

McCain said her most memorable experience as a volunteer, which occurred several years ago, began when she visited an orphanage in Bangladesh while working with another medical nonprofit group.

As she was about to leave the orphanage, its director, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, asked if McCain would take a baby living in the children's home to the United States for medical attention for a severe cleft palate.

On the trip back to Arizona, McCain decided she wanted the child to be part of her life and that of her husband, John, and that she wanted to adopt it.

[Danube of Thought]

I continue to marvel at the amoun of attention paid to Andrew Sullivan. Tom Maguire, I hope you have sent him your critique--he needs it.

[anduril]

All Andrew Sullivan 50% of the time?

[bgates]

unless John McCain is to be held accountable for every word of his website?
Let me save Foo Bar the trouble of typing, "Oh, come on."
If FB or AS come up with a direct quote, will that change to, "unless John McCain is to be held accountable for every word out of his mouth"?
Why can't it be reasonable to acknowledge that McCain and Obama are each responsible for what they communicate to the public? That does not preclude mentioning that the confusion around McCain's campaign is the depth of involvement of a literal saint in his adoption of a sick Bangladeshi child, while some of the confusion around Obama's campaign involves his attachment to a literal terrorist.

[Rick Ballard]

"this is not quite a direct quote, but close:"

That's "not quite" as in "not at all", right Foo? As in "the reporter filled space creatively" not quite?

What's the current stance on Obama's rejection of BAIPA? Did he misquote himself or did he just misinterpret his own words?

[anduril]

Oh, come on. Did you get that from Pravda?

Color me, like, totally out of it, but how many people actually read Sullivan?

[GMax]

Wait a second. Mother Teresa and India seem to go together in my mind. Why is that? Didn't she hang out in Calcutta? So a Virginia not for profit, hyping their mission does quote directly Cindy McCain but calls Mother Theresa the director of a Bangladeshi orphanage? And that is close to a direct quote?

Seems to me that someone without much understanding of geography wrote an article on Operation Smile and thought Mother Theresa fit in quite nicely, without any need to direct quote anyone.

OOPS, not that close I guess...

[GMax]

does NOT quote directly Cindy McCain

[Foo Bar]

That's "not quite" as in "not at all", right Foo?

How's this?:

No one is calling McCain cute but Cindy speaks movingly when she describes a visit to a Mother Teresa orphanage in Bangladesh in the early 1990s. It was then, she says, that she “stumbled upon the most beautiful little girl I’d ever seen. She had a terrible cleft palate. She had problems with her feet. She had problems with her hands. She had all kinds of problems. As only Mother Teresa can do, she prevailed upon me to take this baby and another baby – get them out of the country and take them to the United States for medical care.”

Hey, maybe she meant that Mother Teresa prevailed upon her metaphorically, in that her spirit imbued the orphanage even while she wasn't there herself!

[Captain Hate]

Seriously, Rove couldn't invent a better sock-puppet than Andi. Oblammo needs to send a stfu directive immediately.

[Ranger]

As she was about to leave the orphanage, its director, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, asked if McCain would take a baby living in the children's home to the United States for medical attention for a severe cleft palate.

Rick, my guess is that the bold was filled in by the author of the piece who checked checked somewhere to find out who the actual director of the orphanage was and simply assumed that since it was part of Mother Teresa's organization, that she must have been there herself.

[Ranger]

Ok, FUBAR, fair enough, you caught Cindy McCain telling a little fib about saving two children's lives. Now, if you were only just as concerned about Obama's little lie about Bill Ayers, which seems much more significant as a campaign issue.

[Jane]

Let's see: I came under Sniper fire in Bosnia; Bill Ayers and I are just acquaintances; My affair ended in 2006; my wife was inspired by Mother Teresa.

Yeah, McCain should definitely drop out of the race.

[Jane]

Let's see: I came under Sniper fire in Bosnia; Bill Ayers and I are just acquaintances; My affair ended in 2006; my wife was inspired by Mother Teresa.

Yeah, McCain should definitely drop out of the race.

[boris]

Hey, maybe she meant that Mother Teresa prevailed upon her metaphorically, in that her spirit imbued the orphanage ...

Or maybe it was the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt in disguise.

[Lea]

I used to enjoy Andrew, but he seems to have cracked. Sad.

[Topsecretk9]

Jane

You forgot the lie Obama was telling about his infanticide vote...seems to me a wee more of importance and yet? Crickets.

[thelonereader]

Hey Foo,
Keep picking those nits, will ya! Two little girls lives were saved by Cindi McCain,by being brought to the U.S. for treatment, care and love and you are most worried about who asked what and when, here's an original thought... Cindi lied and people died, oh wait....

[Topsecretk9]

or when Obama claimed to be on the banking committee.

[GMax]

OK you now have a quote from a reporter from the Australian, although I still would be able to contend with that construct that it does not say Mother Theresa was present in the Bangladesh orphanage, which is highly unlikely in my opinion. I am pretty sure Mother Theresa operations spanned the globe, and most likely never saw her set foot upon its doorstep. All call to a visiting volunteer from the sainted Mother T, set up by a director at the clinic who wanted the kids to get US level medical care?

Or a reporter who got it wrong, and then it got repeated?

If McCain and Mrs were retailing this story on the campaign trail, why dont you have lots of US sources to quote from and not one source from way round the globe?

[Ranger]

or when Obama claimed to be on the banking committee.

Posted by: Topsecretk9 | August 21, 2008 at 01:39 PM

Yeah, and that's a good comeback for McCain on the "houses" add... At least McCain remembers what committees he is on.

[Julius]

The funniest thing is that these are the little girls that Rove told South Carolinians were illegitimate black offspring back in 2000!

How McCain got to be friends with Rove after that is certinly weird.

[GMax]

Julius your koolaide has fermented. set it down and back away ever so slowly as you have already made a fool of yourself ( somehow I am betting you will not take the advice and utter something even more foolish, although that will take some effort. )

[julius]

Gmax, go google Rick Davis, Mccain's South Carolina campaign manager in 2000. He's got the whole sorry tale on the web somewhere.

I know Rove denied doing it, but really...

[Captain Hate]

How McCain got to be friends with Rove after that is certinly weird.

Umm, Julius, how do you know they're friends? The only places a google search lists for that are some of the nutjob sites that aren't known for their accuracy or sanity. Subject to check, of course.

[Rick Ballard]

Ranger,

This account (from Newsweek) comports with my understanding of the actual circumstances:

She named her charity the American Voluntary Medical Team. In 1991, she camped in the Kuwait desert five days after the end of the gulf war to bring medical supplies to refugees. That same year, she visited Mother Teresa's orphanage in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she saw 160 newborn girls who had been abandoned. The nuns handed her a small baby with a cleft palate so severe that she couldn't be fed. Another baby, also just a few weeks old, had a heart defect. Worried they would die without medical attention, Cindy applied for medical visas to take the girls back to the United States. But the country's minister of health refused to sign the papers. "We can do surgery on this child," an official told her. Cindy, frustrated, slammed her fist on the table. "Then do it! What are you waiting for?" The official, stunned, simply signed the papers. "I don't know where I got the nerve," Cindy said. When she arrived in Phoenix, she carried the baby with the cleft palate off the plane. Her husband met her at the airport. He looked at the baby. "Where is she going," he asked her. "To our house," she replied. They adopted the little girl and named her Bridget. Family friends adopted the other little girl.

Of course, it's only a one to one interview specifically targeted to the subject, so I guess that the Australian reporter's quote should certainly be given more weight.

I do understand that this is in no way equivalent to the Obama's concerns about the high cost of arugala or their inability to put fresh fruit on the table (let alone Senator Obama's inability to keep his promise about helping that school in Kenya) but the imbalance just can't be helped.

[Julius]

Here you go Capn

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/

Here's the quotes, to save you the cut n paste:

"Having run Senator John McCain's campaign for president, I can recount a textbook example of a smear made against McCain in South Carolina during the 2000 presidential primary. We had just swept into the state from New Hampshire, where we had racked up a shocking, 19-point win over the heavily favored George W. Bush. What followed was a primary campaign that would make history for its negativity.

In South Carolina, Bush Republicans were facing an opponent who was popular for his straight talk and Vietnam war record. They knew that if McCain won in South Carolina, he would likely win the nomination. With few substantive differences between Bush and McCain, the campaign was bound to turn personal. The situation was ripe for a smear.

It didn't take much research to turn up a seemingly innocuous fact about the McCains: John and his wife, Cindy, have an adopted daughter named Bridget. Cindy found Bridget at Mother Theresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, brought her to the United States for medical treatment, and the family ultimately adopted her. Bridget has dark skin.

Anonymous opponents used "push polling" to suggest that McCain's Bangladeshi born daughter was his own, illegitimate black child. In push polling, a voter gets a call, ostensibly from a polling company, asking which candidate the voter supports. In this case, if the "pollster" determined that the person was a McCain supporter, he made statements designed to create doubt about the senator."

Now Davis wrote that in 2004, so he's careful to say "we still don't know who did it", but like I said, you really ought to be able to guess.

[matt]

The Missionaries of Charity have dozens of orphanages, hospices, and other chapter houses around the world, including Bangladesh. What a bunch of goons, impugning both Mother Teresa and McCain....that is pretty damned low....

as to an actual meeting with Mother Teresa in Bangladesh, the story I heard was always that Cindy McCain was at one of her orphanages, not necessarily with the blessed mother...this nit picking, as well as Obama's thin skin, are going to turn people off completely....

[Captain Hate]

Julius that's nice but it doesn't answer what I posed, namely how do you know McCain and Rove are friends. It may be the case since politics creates strange alliances but I'm not sure that there's evidence that they're on friendly terms.

[GMax]

Julius

If a rumour however farfetched, penetrates your fevered brow, it apparently gains access to some wide open space for frolicking...

Unless you can do better than that, I think its safe to say your smear of Rove is legend only in places like HuffPo and the DUmp.

[Topsecretk9]

NEW RELEASE:
OBAMA’S HOUSING PROBLEM:
Brought To You By Convicted Felon Tony Rezko

(PDF FACT SHEET)

[Neo]

John McCain as Quick Draw McGraw ??
But doesn't that secretly make McCain ... El Kabong

[Old Dad]

No worries mates, "Excitable" and Foobar are just taking a spear for the "One." There may be no way to verify the details, and I can think of numerous scenarios to support either side, but honestly, should we really give a shit? I agreee that "Excitable" is annoying and don't blame TM for returning some fire, but there are two seventeen year olds alive and well today thanks to the generosity of the McCains. Thats the story.

How many babies ended up in a dumpster in Chicago thanks to the "One" and colleagues on both sides of the aisle? That's another big story. Babies suffered and died. And the legislature, both sides of the aisle, knew about the suffering and let it continue. The "One" and his colleagues let it happen.

Live kids, or dead babies. You pick.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Now Davis wrote that in 2004, so he's careful to say "we still don't know who did it", but like I said, you really ought to be able to guess.

And being a troll, your "guess" is as good as the absolute certainty you evidenced.

Idiot.

[Sue]

you really ought to be able to guess.

Al Gore? Because he really thought running against GWB was a better idea than the Maverick. See. My guess works as well as yours.

[Julius]

How stupid can you people be?

You honestly believe Rove had nothing to with that?

As a psychological study, that's pretty interesting. You have to deny it to remain allied with Rove or something?

What part of this don't you understand. Read this slowly if you have to, and remember this is McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER talking:

"In South Carolina, Bush Republicans were facing an opponent who was popular for his straight talk and Vietnam war record. They knew that if McCain won in South Carolina, he would likely win the nomination. With few substantive differences between Bush and McCain, the campaign was bound to turn personal."

Yeah it turned personal.

I wonder who decided how to turn it personal.

You're right. It was Clinton.

[Topsecretk9]

You honestly believe Rove had nothing to with that?

I can not get over the black helicoptor delusions these people bestow on Rove. The left really needs a boogey man to get their fear monger on with, don't they?

[JM hanes]

Julius:

IIRC, those push poll calls were made by a local South Carolina group who operate independently and who have proven well nigh impossibly difficult for any candidate to direct or control -- in more than one election. Unfortunately, the Rove/Smear meme was just too good to check, and it was promptly incorporated into the Election 2000 Democratic narrative.

[Julius]

Good god. You people ought to be proud of that! I really thought you'd be proud to give Rove credit.

Davis is right. If McCain had won SC-he would have got the nomination. So whoever came up with it, great job-if you like Bush, that is. It got Bush back on track after all.

Why so wobbly knees after the dirty work is done?

And this is the same Rove that was FIRED from Bush the elder's campaign yes? What was he fired for? Never bothered to look it up right?

[GMax]

Hey Julius, here is another one for you let loose in your cranial cavern "fire does not burn steel." Pass it on, you know its a fact!

[Jane]

you really ought to be able to guess.

You know, if there really is a domestic Messiah, it would simply have to be Rove. To hear moonbats talk he is responsible for everything that has happened in politics for a couple of decades now. I guess that explains why he is the best political analyst of our time. In fact if Obama had listened to him, he would be winning this election instead of tanking.

Julius, Sue is right. It was Gore. I thought everyone knew that.

[Sue]

Wow. I didn't realize how much weight McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER carried with lefties. So, I take it when John McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER says Obama's campaign played the race card, it is a fact? Okay, I'll play that game with you, huckleberry. Our Magnificent Bastard will forgive us, as long as Obama loses and McCain wins.

[Jane]

I don't want to scare you Julius but Karl reads here. You better hope he can't trace your identity because I hear he can send a brain bomb into your head by blinking 3 times. (Ask Rick Davis about that one if you don't believe me.)

[RichatUF]

Julius-

If McCain had won SC...

HEH. You really shouldn't follow the nutroots when discussing insider GOP politics in SC. The State (Columbia SC paper) ran down the "push poll rumors" and the "black child" story and it was not Rove and not the Bush campaign. Check Luxis for the details. McCain wasn't going to win SC in the 2000 primary cause Bush had the entire Campbell Machine behind him.

[julius]

I still don't get it?

Are you people saying Rove, smart guy that he is, thought of it, but was too scared/honorable to do it? or

Rove was too dumb to think of it?

Myself, I think since Bush didn't immediately hire whoever saved his ass in SC and fire whover was too lazy/stupid/scared/honest to pull the trigger, the perp was already on the payroll.

[Jane]

WE are saying that you have your head in your ass.

Is that clearer?

[Enlightened]

Angelina Jolie adopts only beautiful orphans, was a heroin addict, and commands, and gets 14 Million dollars for exclusive photos of her newborn twins, and is revered as the Saint of Hollywood and gets the UN Goodwill Amnassador moniker.

Cindy McCain goes on a relief mission 17 YEARS ago, adopts a disfigured orphan facing a future of unkown consequences, brings the child to the US and provides a beautiful life, was possibly prodded by a nun at the Mother Teresa orphange, and probably embelishes the story, and she is nothing but a drug-addicted liar.

I love liberal think - Thank God Andrew Sullivan is in that cesspool where he belongs.

[Danube of Thought]

"...like I said, you really ought to be able to guess."

Julius is the one doing the guessing. Rick Davis (who must be as stupid as we are) doesn't know who did it, but Julius sure does. The McCain campaign could have used his paranormal talents back in 2000.

If I were forced to guess, I suppose I'd say that Rove used his brain-wave machine to force some independent group into making the calls.

[Sue]

What's the matter Julius? You don't like my guess? You don't like John McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER when he is turning his gun towards your guy? We answered you. Al Gore. Obama played the race card this time.

[MarkO]

Every time I read one of the Sullivan pieces I am struck by the odd fact that the supposed fraud in the story is, on serious reflection, irrelevant and actually, if true, would take away from the honor or virtue of McCain or his family. In each case so far, the “fabrication” lacks a rational basis.

I’ve already bored you with the cross story, but here there is, in my mind, more virtue in taking a orphan without having to be induced by Mother T., than the opposite. Who could turn down Mother T? But, taking an orphan on her own merits (what a sentence this is going to be) shows a real interest in the child and no interest whatsoever in pleasing a Nobel winner.

Again, adding the bit about Mother Teresa only detracts from McCain.

Let’s have this story repeated over and over and over. And, then, let’s ask about the One’s brother in a cardboard box. The contrast could not be greater.

If this is what the One has to use he is not only irresponsible, but so stupid as to defy an adjective.

[RichatUF]

Seems my comment disappeard. Julius check Lexis, "The State" ran down the "push poll" story (an audience plant) and the "black child" (a chain email that Gore operatives got hold of and started shopping to the national press) story. McCain wasn't going to win the SC primary in 2000 because Bush had the entire Campbell establishment behind him.

[Old Dad]

I know who is responsible for the push polling. But I can't tell.

OK, I'll tell. It was RKAL EVORE. You'll need your secret decoder rings kiddos.

Or call 1-800-TIN-FOIL, and ask for "Stupid."

[bgates]

MCCAIN: [Karl Rove] beat me, I certainly would be glad to get his advice. I don't think I'd want to revisit how he did it. And I mean that -- I mean that -- I don't feel like reliving my defeat.

QUESTION: Are you worried about, he is very aggressive tactics (Inaudible).

MCCAIN: I've always respected Karl Rove as one of the great smart political minds in American politics. I've always respected him. We never had any ill will after the initial South Carolina thing

Why have ill will after a simple political contest?
"He thought Bush was a lightweight but a nice enough guy," says a close McCain associate. That ended in South Carolina. During a commercial break in a debate there, Bush put his hand on McCain's arm and swore he had nothing to do with the slander being thrown at his opponent. "Don't give me that shit," McCain growled. "And take your hands off me."
McCain seems to be displaying absolute certainty himself. I don't know that he's right, but it appears possible to think Bush was responsible for dirty tricks in the 2000 campaign without being a truther.

[Jane]

Enlightened! Good to see you.

[Julius]

It was Gore?

That's what you people actually believe?

Okey dokey then.

[Julius]

Thanks bgates.

I was wandering if there was a sane person here.

Incidentally. I am a McCain supporter myself, and was in 2000.

[Danube of Thought]

RichardUF, you must be some kind of right-wing nut. Next you'll be telling us that Gore was the first guy to run a Willie Horton ad, too.

[Sue]

Julius,

::grin:: I'm not. Can't stand the guy.

[Daddy]

However he couches his terms, Sullivan is attempting to diminish McCain's efforts in adopting this orphan from Mother Teresa's orphanage to the level of a cynical ploy for political posturing. Perhaps if instead the McCain's had adopted Obama's step-brother from Kenya who lives in a dirt hut and on less than a dollar a day that would have have been viewed as suitable compassion by Sully. After all, doesn't the Good Book, which Sully appears to believe in now and then, say something about "Am I not my brothers keeper"? I believe it does, but apparently that Biblical injunction only applies to one multi-millionaire Presidential candidate. Guess which one?

[Jane]

Incidentally. I am a McCain supporter myself, and was in 2000.

Try not to let that get out.

Gee Obama is so smart, all his housing remarks have caused the media to start talking about Rezko.

The man is a genius!

[Sue]

I don't like people making an issue out of Obama's brother living in a hut. I don't think just because he is related to him by blood he is required to take care of him. While it might look good to the average Joe for him to do that, the average Joe doesn't know the family dynamics. Maybe Obama has already helped his brother and his brother used it on drugs? Or liquor? This family in Kenya ignored the boy in Hawaii. What exactly does Obama owe them now? Just my 2 cents.

[Captain Hate]

I can not get over the black helicoptor delusions these people bestow on Rove.

Elsewhere I've seen some transferal of some of those suspected mystical powers to Bill Kristol. I'm sure some of that's tied into the joooo hating that rears its ugly cranium with increasing frequency in the fever swamps....

[Jane]

Did everyone see the volleyball champs thanking the president? LUN

It's at the end and the website seems a bit overloaded.

[clarice]

Isn't he though,Jane. With Ayres and Wright and Rezko in his list of associates you'd think he'd not attack McCain on HIS associates, and now this house thing.
Obviously he's been treated with kid gloves for so long, he's begun to believe his own press accounts.

[GMax]

Julius with those crazy beliefs about Rove, you could only be a 13% member of the far out left.

If you were a nutty Republican, you might fit in with the Ronulans, but most of his ginned up support was just astro turfing by the 13% who then thought the same operation run by Rush was an appalling affront to our electoral process!

[matt]

My understanding was that McCain never said being rich meant making $5 Million/year. He said $5 Million is being rich. I would assume this meant having that much in assets. very different.

[GMax]

Yes I noted Kerry Walsh telling the interviewer from NBC she needed to say something and then first thanking Mr. President for all his support. Class act by May and Walsh, who really did not have a glove laid on them in the entire Olympic tournament. Never lost a set, and rarely won by less than 4 points in each set too. It was tense once in awhile if it got tied up during the set, but they were only pushed to a major comeback of 5 points once, and I think only that set went beyond the normal 21 point win ( which happens when you must win by 2 ).

[RichatUF]

DoT-

RichardUF, you must be some kind of right-wing nut. Next you'll be telling us that Gore was the first guy to run a Willie Horton ad, too...

HEH. Funny thing. I worked a GOTV effort for McCain's campaign in SC in the Lowcountry. It's not truther-esque for people to believe that Bush (or the dirty hand of Rove) did in McCain, but McCain's team ran a crappy SC campaign in 2000-not the least of which was ticking off the county level GOP people that Campbell built up. The "black child" chain email bounced around Bob Jones University campus and ended up at USC, from there it ended up in the national press cause Gore's campaign got a hold of it. There was never a "push poll" either (that was about a seperate issue). McCain's people just couldn't believe that they got outclassed by a "light weight".

[Jane]

Obviously he's been treated with kid gloves for so long, he's begun to believe his own press accounts.

And all he does is whine. It's a riot.

Matt, the comment about $5 million was in the Rick Warren Forum. Here is what I live blogged:

12. Taxes: Define rich.

Rich should be defined by a home, a good job and education. I don't want to take money from the rich, I want everyone to be rich. I don't believe in class warfare, I don't want wealth redistribution. Keep taxes low. get government out of it.

$5 million if you are just talking about income. I'm sure than comment will be distorted. We want to keep taxes low. The problem is spending not taxes. Congress is supposed to be careful stewards. We have $4.00 a gallon gas and Congress goes on vacation. I want to give working Americans a better shot at a better life.

[Sara]

My understanding was that McCain never said being rich meant making $5 Million/year. He said $5 Million is being rich. I would assume this meant having that much in assets. very different.

He also joked before he said it that he was going to take flak for it, and then finished by saying, "Seriously," and then went on to answer the question in an excellent manner.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

As a service to the JOM readership, I offer this simultaaneous translation:

How stupid can you people be?

Crap, I've got no answer.

You honestly believe Rove had nothing to with that?

Crap, I've got no answer.

As a psychological study, that's pretty interesting. You have to deny it to remain allied with Rove or something?

Crap, I've got no answer. Maybe they'll forget that Rove isn't involved in this election.

What part of this don't you understand. Read this slowly if you have to, and remember this is McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER talking:

"In South Carolina, Bush Republicans were facing an opponent who was popular for his straight talk and Vietnam war record. They knew that if McCain won in South Carolina, he would likely win the nomination. With few substantive differences between Bush and McCain, the campaign was bound to turn personal."

Maybe I can convince them that Rove had complete control of every Republican in SC.

[M. Simon]

An orchestrated effort to concentrate the media in a few hands.

This is the normal progression. Consolidation is followed by death.

[Sara]

Off Topic, but worth it, I think.

Via Newsbusters:

A new independent study shows that deaths from terrorism have actually declined by more than 40 percent since 2001. This flies in the face of the constant Democrat mantra that states the opposite, that terrorism has increased since Bush initiated the War on Terror. It is a mantra that the media have helpfully spread for their friends at the DNC.

[bgates]

I can not get over the black helicopter delusions these people bestow on Rove.
Now just one minute (to coin a phrase). Rich's pointer to The State may completely exonerate Rove; I don't have Lexis, so I can't follow that up. But I don't understand why it is supposed to be absurd on its face to think Bush's campaign strategist was involved in some unpleasantness involving Bush's campaign opponent.

[Rick Ballard]

"Obviously he's been treated with kid gloves for so long, he's begun to believe his own press accounts."

To go with a boxing analogy, he's never gone beyond three rounds, and even then he was fighting with loaded gloves. If his trainer can't slip a mickey into his opponent's water bottle, he's gonna get his head busted loose.

It must really irritate the hell out of RW to have been taken by this lightweight.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

But I don't understand why it is supposed to be absurd on its face to think Bush's campaign strategist was involved in some unpleasantness involving Bush's campaign opponent.

Well, primarily because in eight years no one has actually succeeded in making a connection. Except of the "Darth Rove must be behind it" variety we see exhibited here.

[Daddy]

Sue, Point taken. I have no idea of Obama's efforts or lack thereof to help his step-brother, but as far as I know, neither does anyone else, and certainly not Sully.

What I was trying to illustrate was simply Sullivan's knee jerk World View, which to me, in basic terms, looks like this:

Multi-millionaire Democrat who has a step-brother rotting in a dirt hole in Kenya equals; CHANGE, HOPE, COMPASSION.

Multi-millionaire Republican who expends treasure, tears and love in rescuing a near death orphan from Mother Teressa's orphanage in India equals; NON-RELIGIOUS, MENDACIOUS LIAR.

I view Sully's thought process as no more indepth than that.

[Sue]

If I remember SC/2000 correctly, both sides were guilty of playing dirty.

[Sue]

Daddy,

I'm sorry, I wasn't directing my post towards you, even though it certainly looks that way. I was listening to Hannity and his opening was on that subject. I am already ticked at Hannity so I blew off steam here at him.

[Danube of Thought]

Matt, actually McCain spoke about $5 Million in income, not assets, but he clearly meant it as a joke, and immediately said "I expect that comment to be distorted," which also drew a lot of laughter.

I am also unable to locate The State piece concerning the black baby thing. But I would note that in the same excerpt in which McCain expresses his belief (with no mention of evidence) that it was Rove, Bush makes an unequivocal denial.

[JM hanes]

It seems pretty clear that Cindy McCain once cited Mother Theresa as charged. Sullivan, himself, however, is the one most clearly embellishing a story for political consumption here, starting with the McCain as Celebrity theme. His claim that the behesting of Mother Theresa was "packaged for the evangelical base" by the McCain campaign simply ignores the fact that McCain himself apparently never repeats it and that someone directed it be removed from his website, which, contra Sullivan looks like the only place McCain's campaign is actually implicated in this narrative. One could conceivably fault him for not publicly correcting that piece of the story, but that would not exactly be a convincing basis for claiming a deliberate pattern and practice of of embellishment.

I suspect Sullivan is mostly trying to redeem his first badly fumbled attempt at establishing this same meme in the late great Solzhenitsyn outing. Since surrendering to BDS, he has relied on provocations to drive his traffic. Back before he was being subsidized by the Atlantic, I often thought that someone who cared more than I do should take a look at whether there was any correlation between his attacks on Instapundit and generating sweeps week style numbers for his advertisers, but never mind.

Clinton, of course, fabricated the central facts of her sniper filled adventure with a specific campaign objective in mind, and she herself repeatedly delivered that package to the public. When it comes to the practice of packaging and embellishment, however, Obama took that prize off the field with his very first memoir. He was admired for how deftly he did so by literary cognoscenti and only slightly less publicly by insider Obama pols, per Rolling Stone. I'd say this storyline looks a whole lot better for Republicans than Democrats. Thanks Andy!

[Enlightened]

Hi Jane! Vacation was great - but it's time to go back into the ring: :o)

I did see the Volleyball gals thanking the President and "Everything He Does" - I turned to my hubby and said "did I hear them correctly"? That was awesome.

And Sully - What a POS. Mother Teresa in every way, shape or form would have loved Cindy McCain's selfless act of love for a disfigured orphan.

How, exactly, does Cindy McCain's embellishment change the actual act? It doesn't.

Mother Teresa would, however, be deeply disturbed by The Messiah's penchant for infanticide, ie: Abortion.

The dispartiy between the two acts - Embellishing a noble act, or murder. Hmmm.

[Captain Hate]

Did everyone see the volleyball champs thanking the president?

Thanks for the link; hopefully that detached Olbermoron's retinas.

[Danube of Thought]

I think it's his half brother, not his stepbrother. Am I right?

[bgates]

Class act by May and Walsh, who really did not have a glove laid on them in the entire Olympic tournament.
And it's not like they didn't give the President a chance to, either.

Looking over this thread, Julius was insulted a few times before he started swinging back. The real live trolls of the past week seem to have gotten some people into the habit of attacking new folks instead of disagreeing or pointing out mistakes.

[M. Simon]

Now Davis wrote that in 2004, so he's careful to say "we still don't know who did it", but like I said, you really ought to be able to guess.

That is an easy one. Obama did it.

[Captain Hate]

The real live trolls of the past week seem to have gotten some people into the habit of attacking new folks instead of disagreeing or pointing out mistakes.

I was in the non-attack mode.

[Jane]

The real live trolls of the past week seem to have gotten some people into the habit of attacking new folks instead of disagreeing or pointing out mistakes.

Guilty as charged.

[Sue]

Hannity is at it again. Going to raise money for Obama's brother. Hannity needs to shut up about Obama's brother.

[Lea]

Bush put his hand on McCain's arm and swore he had nothing to do with the slander being thrown at his opponent. "Don't give me that shit," McCain growled. "And take your hands off me."
I’m not saying this is the case, but it seems plausible to me that it could have been someone in Bush’s camp, but Bush himself didn’t know. Equally so that McCain just figured it made sense that it was Bush or someone from Bush’s camp, without having any special knowledge. I am sure it was a Bush supporter or someone who didn’t like McCain, but it’s quite possible that Bush personally didn’t know. It kind of doesn’t seem his style and I hope he didn’t know ahead of time, because it was a tasteless thing to do. But I’ve never seen confirmation one way or the other.
I really don’t understand why anyone would think it’s a good idea to randomly decide McCain lied about the cross story with ZERO evidence or to decide to pull out this ridiculous distinction of whether they took Brigit from Mother Theresa herself or just from one of her orphanages.
And now Obama wants to bring up HOUSING? And talk about black judges being placed in their position who he thinks were underqualified. Is it me, or is Obama a total idiot? Whatever he is, he’s not a natural politician.