Was Palin's SNL skit a proverbial game changer? I couldn't tell you first hand; I was out by 11. But based on the across-the-spectrum battering that today's papers are dispensing to McCain/Palin, you wouldn't even know she was at 30 Rock last night.
For example, the Seattle Times reports on the natural order of McCain catching universal heat for his horrifying and utterly debased robocall campaign. How universal, you ask? Harry Reid, Norm Colman and Susan Collins have all asked McCain to knock it off:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, made separate appeals to McCain on Friday. Collins faces a tough race for re-election and serves as a co-chairwoman of his Maine campaign.
"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."
Surprisingly, the article failed to throw in the token criticism of Obama's predominantly positive ads and kept the focus on the dirty McCain campaign:
Voters in at least 10 closely contested states are receiving hundreds of thousands of the automated, or "robo," calls — uniformly negative and sometimes misleading.
Even McCain 2000 joined the fray, assailing the calls as "scurrillous" and "hate calls":
McCain has belittled such calls in the past: In the 2000 primaries, he was a target of misleading calls that included innuendo about his family, and blamed them in part for his loss to George W. Bush. In January, McCain described those calls as "scurrilous stuff."
Despite the loud and unanimous criticism of McCain's tactics, Tucker Bounds and the McCain campaign tenaciously remain tone deaf buffoons:
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said the "Hollywood" robo call was based in fact. "I would argue that much of these calls are based on hardened facts that American voters should consider," Bounds said.
And then I opened my hometown paper to discover one of the best birthday presents I've received in a while:
Head Strong: McCain fails the big five tests
His aim is untrue in too many areas, so a longtime Republican is voting for Obama.
By Michael Smerconish - Inquirer
Inquirer Currents Columnist
I've decided.
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is, in fact, Michael "that prick" Smerconish endorsing our candidate. I have spent a substantial portion of my adult life holding utter contempt for Michael Smerconish. Of all the right-wing tools I've hurled expletives at through the TV, he has received the crux of my abuse. But it is with a Philadelphia suburbanite's pride that I hereby declare myself a loyal listener of the Michael Smerconish show.
Smerconish writes:
For the first time since registering as a Republican 28 years ago, I'm voting for a Democrat for president. I may have been an appointee in the George H.W. Bush administration, and master of ceremonies for George W. Bush in 2004, but last Saturday I stood amid the crowd at an Obama event in North Philadelphia.
Smerconish goes on to lay out the five central reasons behind his endorsement:
- Terrorism: essentially, Smerconish feels McCain is a punk on this front, while Obama has the judgment and plan that's far more conducive to victory
- Economy: Smerconish agrees with the assessment that the statement "the fundamentals are strong" is about the dumbest remark made in the history of politics
- VP: he understates the obvious: "Advantage Joe Biden"
- Opportunity
- Hope
Wow. We all saw it coming, but it's still hard to believe the local GOP hothead has evolved into a hopemonger. Happy Birthday to me indeed!
And the Dallas Morning News featured this welcome headline: "McCain remarks on Obama 'socialism' viewed as a stretch".
According to analysts cited by the article, "such comparisons to socialism gloss over important facts." We all agree with Obama's contention that McCain's out of touch, but did you know the COO of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank accuses McCain of being the socialist? Enjoy:
William Wallace, a former vice president and chief operating officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the country's progressive tax code, which Mr. McCain does not propose abolishing, is "socialist in nature.
Once again, McCain is hoisted on his own petard:
"It's a term that gets people's attention, and therefore I understand why a political candidate might want to use it," said Dr. Wallace, a professor at the University of North Texas. "But to say we are headed toward socialism is a vast overstatement in my book."
Congress' decision this month to allow the federal government to invest directly in failing banks was the most significant government intervention in financial markets in decades – and Mr. McCain voted for it along with Mr. Obama.
The article goes on to chronicle Tucker Bounds being the douche he is, but then it reports this zinger by Obama yesterday in MO:
"John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare,' "
It smarts. And the Boston Herald followed up with this bit of bad news for John McCain:
Older voters are responding to the economic crisis by drifting away from GOP presidential hopeful John McCain and edging toward Democrat Barack Obama, a Bay State pollster says.
(snip)
Nationally, voters age 65 and older were breaking for McCain by 18 points at the beginning of August. As of Oct. 12, Obama had rocketed ahead to lead McCain by one percentage point, according to Gallup.
Yep, not even John McCain's younger peers are buying his act. No comment from Tucker Bounds, but I'm sure he's somewhere saying:
"THIS IS GREAT NEWS! FOR JOHN MCCAIN!!!"
Thank you, press, may I have another? How about this piece in the Washington Post, which details consensus disdain among VA Republicans for McCain's flailing campaign:
Some Republicans say John McCain is in danger of becoming their party's first presidential candidate since 1964 to lose Virginia because he hasn't put enough stress on issues such as illegal immigration, gay marriage and abortion.
No, no, say other Republicans: McCain is heading toward the worst GOP showing in Virginia since Barry Goldwater's because he and the party have strayed from the core principles that have lured moderates for decades -- lower taxes and less government spending.
Well, maybe, says a third set of Republicans, but the main problem has been that McCain has run an unfocused, low-energy campaign that comes off as sniping and negative, especially to independent voters.
I could do this all day. I didn't even get into Noonan's peice, "Palin's Failin'." Good thing for Sarah she doesn't read the news.