The GOP = The Grand Old Panic

"We've got them just where we want them," - John McCain

10 points behind? Campaign failing? Internal attacks?

Republicans: Party Of Bigots

Via The Washington Monthly:

Way back in February, Karl Rove heard a growing number of Republicans blasting "Barack Hussein Obama," and warned his fellow Republicans to drop the line. Rove argued it would only perpetuate the notion that Republicans were bigoted, which in turn would hurt the party.

Hurt his party? McCain is crushing it. Look at the Congressional races, the Republicans hate McCain.

Read on....Source: Steve Benen

McCain: You Have A Problem, I Have A Table

Grandpa will solve the world's problems by sitting at a table, no policy, no detail. Must be his charm that will win them over.

via The Washington Monthly:

This came up again last night when the debate turned to Social Security. McCain argued:

"Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before.

"I saw it done with our -- our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O'Neill from Massachusetts. That's what we need more of, and that's what I've done in Washington."

Look, I know it's nice to think well-intentioned people can sit down in a room and resolve complex problems through discussion and negotiation. But this is just an intellectually lazy way of approaching policy challenges.

Iraq? McCain wants to sit Sunnis and Shiites down at a table. Social Security? McCain wants to sit Democrats and Republicans down at a table. The moral of the story is, if you've got a problem, John McCain has a table.

Source: Steve Benen

McCain's Healthcare Tax

Obama's new ad:

McCain: Now Is Not The Time For Blame, But I Blame Obama

John McCain: "Now is not the time to affix the blame."



Ten minutes later, McCain said "Obama Stood By, Did Nothing, And Showed No Leadership On The Bailout Negotiations."

Whether you like the bill or not, Monday morning McCain was dancing in the endzone, done deal. His suspended campaign was a success. Monday afternoon, the GOP told McCain and Bush to eff off as 67% of them voted "no". Can't phone that in. Why no questions after your afternoon campaign stop? Too full eating crow?

McCain logic: Obama "did nothing" so McCain had to step up and pass the bill. Then Obama "did nothing" again and the bill failed. Barack was responsible for passing and failing the bill.

Reality check: your party is broken, you are clueless, you have zero leadership, your big gamble did not pay off. You just shot your load and Bush was the victim. You've sealed the Congressional failure for your party. Free market conservatives encouraged the behavior that killed the market then stood by and watched it die. GOP RIP.

Maybe you think the fundamentals of your party are sound.

Conservative Ed Rollins: Failure Of Bailout Will Hurt McCain

Two-thirds of the Republicans voted "no" to a bill he approved. How does McCain explain his leadership?

"To a certain extent, I think John [McCain]gets hurt by this," said Ed Rollins, a CNN contributor who worked on former Gov. Mike Huckabee's primary campaign earlier this cycle. "He obviously, at the end of the day, said he was for it. But more important than that, he said he was the one who would bring them to the table and to a certain extent he will be viewed now as not being able to do that."

Rollins added, "McCain is our nominee and [congressional Republicans] will do everything they can to help him, but they are not going to go over the cliff for him. They did that for Bush, and they thought that this measure was just too dramatic for their constituencies."

UPDATE: On MSNBC, Chris Matthews faulted McCain's leadership, arguing that McCain called "charge" while the Republicans "retreated." CNN's Ed Henry commented, that the McCain campaign is going to try to "run away" from the fact that this failed.

Read on