• Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: February 28, 2013

    Nixon and Obama

    President Obama and Nixon threaten journalist Bob Woodward

    These are my news headlines and comments for February 27th through February 28th:

  • Barack Obama,  John McCain,  Lindsey Graham

    John McCain’s Political Rehabilitation Through Barack Obama?

    Obama and McCain

    Senator John McCain and President-elect Barack Obama

    Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum sounds the warning bells about John “MAVERICK” McCain and what the Senator might WILL do to politically rehabilitate himself before the MSM.

    McCain was once the mainstream media darling, back when he joined Democrats on a host of issues. He prized his maverick moniker and used it to propel himself onto the national scene in the 2000 Republican presidential primary. Early in the Bush years, he shored up his status as the media’s favorite Republican by opposing Bush on taxes and the environment.

    But this love fest came to a halt when McCain became the front-runner for the GOP nomination. First he began to sound more like a conservative by altering his stands on immigration, the environment and taxes. Then he named Sarah Palin his running mate. It was too much for a media that had fallen head over heels for Obama. The media had a new darling.

    In McCain’s mind, however, losing the presidency will not be the final chapter of his life story. He knows the path to “Big Media” redemption. Working with the man who vanquished him in November will show them all the real McCain again.

    Remember, it was this onetime prisoner of war who led the charge to open diplomatic relations with Vietnam. If that past is prologue, and McCain’s legislative record is any guide, he will not just join with Obama but lead the charge in Congress on global warming, immigration “reform,” the closing of Guantanamo, federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, and importation of prescription drugs.

    But McCain won’t stop there in his effort to rehabilitate himself in the media’s – or maybe his own – eyes. He will forge common ground on a long list of initiatives that go far beyond where he has gone before, including the stimulus package.

    Alas, the two White House rivals now stand positioned to help secure each other’s place in history. The next mainstream media blockbuster could be Barack Obama and John McCain: The Movie.

    John McCain will have to tread very softly since he is OLD and up for re-election in 2010. A health problem or a conservative issue faux paus could lead to a divisive Republican primary challenge in Arizona. A challenge McCain could lose.

    Now, will that deter the maverick from making nice with the Democrats and President Obama and capitulating on key policy issues that differentiate the parties?

    Perhaps. But, beyond this alarm is an event that occurred yesterday. Senator Lindsey Graham (McCain Maverick Lite) was cozing up to Obama and Joe Biden.

    To look at President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. Lindsey Graham sitting side by side Wednesday and to hear them passing out praise, you wouldn’t know that scarcely 10 weeks ago they were at political war.

    Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is a close friend of Sen. John McCain and crisscrossed the country with him during his losing presidential bid.

    “I think this is a good way to get started,” Graham said as he sat with Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden before a throng of journalists at the Obama transition headquarters in Washington . “The campaign is over. I’m disappointed in the outcome, but like every American I’m excited about what awaits our country in the future.

    During a 45-minute private meeting, Biden and Graham briefed Obama on their just-completed five-day trip to Afghanistan , Iraq , Pakistan and Kuwait .

    The three men then met reporters against a backdrop of five American flags.

    Graham told Obama that the foreign leaders they’d met are extremely enthusiastic about his inauguration on Tuesday.

    “There’s a moment in time for this country to re-engage the international community, and to make sure that we have international support to stabilize Afghanistan , Pakistan and Iraq ,” Graham said.

    “(Obama’s) popularity and the respect he has earned throughout the world give America a chance to re-engage not only in the region, but in a way that in the long run makes his job easier and takes the pressure off our troops,” he said.

    Graham turned to Obama and added:

    “That’s a compliment to you and the way you have campaigned, and the goodwill you have generated.”

    McCain and Graham will be watched over the next few months. If they surrender the GOP’s ideals, the fur will fly and Flap knows who will be the chief furrier – Sarah Palin.

    Stay tuned……


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  • Iraq,  Iraq War,  John McCain,  President 2008

    Iraq War Veterans Call Out Barack Obama So McCain Supporting Senators Quit

    Iraq War veteran Specialist Kate Norley

    Yesterday a video featuring Kate Norley was released by Vetsforfreedom,org and promptly two U.S. Senators associated with the organization and the John McCain for President campaign quit.

    Senators Joseph I. Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, stepped down Wednesday from their positions with an independent group that released a pair of Internet advertisements attacking Senator Barack Obama on Iraq.

    Mr. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mr. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, were both on the policy advisory board to the organization, Vets for Freedom, which on Wednesday released its second Web advertisement in less than a week attacking Mr. Obama.

    The senators’ positions with the group, which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy organization pushing for victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to place them in contravention of new conflict-of-interest rules released by Mr. McCain’s campaign that specifically prohibit anyone “with a McCain campaign title or position” from participating in a “527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate.”

    After inquiries from reporters, the senators released a joint letter to Vets for Freedom on Wednesday saying they had requested a leave from their positions to come into compliance with the new policy.

    “This is obviously something we’re working through,” said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign. “This is the kind of thing that happens when you have the strictest possible policy on these issues.”

    The new policy was meant to head off embarrassing questions about connections of members of the McCain campaign to special interests that run counter to Mr. McCain’s reformist reputation. But adhering to that standard has proved complicated.

    Why?

    Oh, McCain wants to remain the “MAVERICK.”

    This assinine policy already cost the McCain campaign a solid staffer in Soren Dayton – for a Tweet early in the Jeremiah Wright flap.

    Team McCain better wake up and remember that transparency is what counts and campaign staffers do have lives outside the Arizona Senator’s small view of the world.

    This is NOT a way to win a campaign.


  • John McCain,  Mitt Romney,  President 2008

    John McCain Watch: VP Sweepstakes – Crist, Jindal and Romney?

    Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., waves after arriving in Burbank, Calif., Wednesday, May 21, 2008.

    Are the McCain VP Sweepstakes on for this weekend in Arizona?

    Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Friday is scheduled to meet with two Republican governors who have been prominently mentioned as potential running mates, according to Republicans familiar with McCain’s plan.

    The two governors, Charlie Crist, of Florida, and Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, have both accepted invitations to meet with McCain at his home in Arizona, according to Republican familiars with the decision. One Republican said that Mitt Romney, a former rival of McCain for the presidential nomination wasalso expected to visit him this weekend. Romney’s advisers declined to comment.

    McCain, after a week of campaigning, is heading home on Friday for three days without a public schedule. His campaign declined to comment on the meetings.

    “We don’t talk about the V.P. selection process,” said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser.

    Still, the names of McCain’s visitors and the timing — coming three weeks after the Arizona senator told reporters that he had a list of 20 potential running mates — strongly suggested that he was moving into an intensified phase in his search for a vice presidential candidate.

    Let’s see:

    • Charlie Crist, the unmarried Governor of Florida is “rumored” to be gay.
    • Bobby Jindal was just elected to be Governor of Louisiana and is young and inexperienced.
    • Mitt Romney is the former one term Massachusetts Governor with high negatives because he is a flip-flopping opportunist.

    McCain is not starting out well in the Vice President selection process. Should he choose any of the above it would be a drag on the ticket.

    Should Romney be the Vice President selection, Flap would have to reconsider whether he would vote for McCain for President.

    Update:

    Team McCain says it is a social get together. But, look who else will be there?

    Among other guests expected were Sens. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., close confidantes of McCain.

    Right.

    And, why is the campaign unhappy the story got out?