McCain: Reaching across the aisle
Posted: Monday, September 15, 2008 9:13 AM by Mark Murray
The Washington Times looks at the bipartisan record of both candidates and finds McCain has worked across the aisle more often than Obama. "Whether looking at bills they have led on or bills they have signed onto, Mr. McCain has reached across the aisle far more frequently and with more members than Mr. Obama since the latter came to the Senate in 2005.”
“In fact, by several measures, Mr. McCain has been more likely to team up with Democrats than with members of his own party. Democrats made up 55 percent of his political partners over the last two Congresses, including on the tough issues of campaign finance and global warming. For Mr. Obama, Republicans were only 13 percent of his co-sponsors during his time in the Senate, and he had his biggest bipartisan successes on noncontroversial measures, such as issuing a postage stamp in honor of civil rights icon Rosa Parks."
The Wall Street Journal reports the McCain campaign is using the newfound interest in the GOP ticket to start expanding its ground game. "The campaign is expanding the number of Pennsylvania offices to 30 from 14, and its Ohio offices to more than 35 from 18. The formerly lean McCain campaign and Republican National Committee payrolls have doubled in size in recent weeks, an expansion that can be attributed in large part to Gov. Palin joining the team."
The DNC has unveiled a “Lie Counter” that counts what the DNC sees as the number of falsehoods the McCain camp has told. The current count: 51.
Karl Rove on Fox News Sunday: "There ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? McCain has gone, in some of his ads, similarly [one] step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100% truth test."
The AP looks at McCain's "Disrespectful" ad. "Biden did call Palin "good looking" at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio, as part of a discussion of the differences between him and his Republican counterpart. The ad, though, shows the quote with an image of Obama. In fact, an Obama spokesperson said that Palin was doing 'what she was told' in response to her mischaracterization of Obama's record. The Obama campaign said, 'maybe that's what she was told.' The accusation of calling Palin a liar rehashes arguments about Palin's claim to have killed the proposed 'bridge to nowhere,' despite evidence that it was killed in Congress."
"The National Review Online and other Republican-leaning websites said the [Obama computer literacy] charge was unfair, citing several articles, including stories several years ago in the Boston Globe and Slate.com, that indicated injuries McCain sustained when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam prevent him from using a keyboard." But... "McCain, who has referred to himself as a computer 'illiterate,' has never cited his war injuries as the reason why he doesn't use e-mail or never learned other computer skills." McCain: "I read my e-mails, but I don't write any. I'm a Neanderthal -- I don't even type. I do have rudimentary capabilities to call up some websites, like the New York Times online, that sort of stuff. No laptop. No PalmPilot. I prefer my schedule on notecards, which I keep in my jacket pocket."
"The Service Employees International Union is running a TV commercial in six states that could be competitive in the presidential election: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa. The union's efforts are independent of Obama's presidential campaign, but the ad strikes many of the same themes. ... The ad was released on the same day the Obama campaign started running a commercial saying a McCain administration would be run by lobbyists, part of a long-running debate about which campaign has closer ties to lobbyists."
