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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Pigs, toasters and BlackBerries, oh my

Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 11:25 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:

From NBC's Mark Murray
Well, that didn't take long. A day after one of the most substantive debates in quite some time -- over the economic mess on Wall Street -- the presidential campaign has devolved back to the trivial.

Earlier this morning, the Republican National Committee pounced on Biden talking about how Obama's middle-class tax cuts can benefit Americans. "Our tax plan would take that tax cut of another $130 billion that John [McCain] wants to give to people making over $250,000 next year ... and give it to the middle class -- the very people who desperately need it to stay in their homes, to buy food, take care of their gas, to fill up their tank, to buy a toaster, to employ people."

RNC spokesman Alex Conant focused solely on the "toaster" part of Biden's remarks. “John McCain’s economic plan is focused on adding jobs, and the Obama-Biden plan is focused on adding ‘toasters.'"

Next, Democrats seized on McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin's response to what McCain did at the Senate Commerce Committee to understand how markets work. "He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did." (Hat tip, Politico's Jonathan Martin.)

And Al Gore invented the internet! Obama spokesman Bill Burton piles on: “If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week."

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To all Palin/mcCain supporters:

Please think really hard about what you are doing.

Who did you vote for last election?

And before that?

Did your vote make you (and this country) better off?

John Mccain invented telecommunications devices? When did he do this...between his POWPOWPOWPOWPOW days and shafting his first wife how did he ever get the time to invent something like a blackberry or iphone?
Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did."

More conning for the easily conned and poorly educated on the right
Never mind the distraction that is the new debate over who invented the Blackberry...

How does some company inventing the Blackberry mean that McCain understands the economy and how markets work?

Dear Mornin’ Joe

You may never read this, but I felt compelled to write after viewing part of you show this morning.
You put up a poll that 32% of a portion of Ohio felt Palin was like them.  You added your normal rant about the Dems being elitist, (TRYING TO HANG ON TO THAT WORD) and that Palin was like America; which is why criticizing her will make the reps win.

Sir, criticizing Obama is why he had a record donation amount in August.  After the shameful spectacle at the Reps convention where lies and divisive hate was spewed from almost every speaker, you will see another good month for Obama.

32% of those polled in Ohio may think Palin is like them, and those 32% KNOW they are NOT qualified to run the country, so you can look at that two ways Joe.

Also, Palin is not untouchable, like you wish she could be.  She deserves all the wonderful scrutiny that the others, especially Obama, have received.  

This life long Republican will be voting for the Dem ticket this year.
McCain is not qualified to be president, let alone Palin!

Obama call them on their BS and keep hammering them on the Economy!!!  That is IT!  Unbelievable!!!
Unbelievable.  Toasters?  That's the best the RNC has?

http://thepajamapundit.com/
The Blackberry is Canadian not American
du du du du back in the twilight zone....




OBAMA / BIDEN 2008
I see "passive-aggressive" McCain is at it again...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/mccain-gets-testy-on-morn_n_126773.html

He keeps blaming Obama for the tenor of his own campaign..."If only Senator Obama would agree to do a Town Hall with me the tone of the campaign would change!"  Right, Old Man, it's all Obama's fault that you're lying.

Anyway, I think you owe Mika an apology.
The BlackBerry is a creation of "Rim" which is a Canadian Company that invented, developed and manufactures the BlackBerry in Ontario, Canada.
Do you Republicans really fall for this stuff?  
Let's not go there - stay focused on the economy!  This trivial banter may be too irresistable for the media, but we have bigger issues to debate.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/mccain-helped-invent-the_n_126785.html

[[MIAMI " Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.

At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."

McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions.]]
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ROTFLOL!!!!!!!!!

I swear these guys will say anything to make McCain Prez!!!

Sadly so far middle America is eating it up

"Holtz-Eakin: McCain helped create BlackBerry"

"Asked what work John McCain did as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee that helped him understand the financial markets, the candidate's top economic adviser wielded visual evidence: his BlackBerry."

""He did this," Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry.  "Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you're looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that's what he did.""

What a bunch of children!  The Dow is up 100 points.  Dems are just trying to take the focus off the "financial crisis" THEY are responsible for!!
Dear McBush,
When Karl Rove calls you a liar.....
With Mccain/Palin, The Worst Is Yet To Come and you get what you got, literally.
Enough
Enough glossing over!
No way!
No how!
No McCain/Palin!
Nobody but Obama/Biden

It's true. The Democrats only know about taking money away from the people that have it, the people that are the producers in this country, and giving it away to the people that don't have it, and are not the producers in this country. Solve the fuel problem? Republicans have real world solutions. The Democrats, they have nothing. Let businesses keep the money they earn so they can hire more people or buy more equipment - the Republicans think that's a good idea, the Democrats though will tax the living daylights out of businesses.

People are waking up to this shell game the Democrats are playing. The "Rolling back of Bush's tax cuts" is in fact a huge tax increase. People see this. The polls reflect it.
C'mon, right wing - even you must be getting a little sick of this, by now. If you want to parse and edit you can turn a marriage proposal into a death threat. We've all seen it before, we all know that it's dishonest and distracting when WE NEED SOME LEADERSHIP RIGHT NOW.
Does Douglas Holtz-Eakin realize that his BlackBerry was made by a Canadian company?
Makes sense for the Dems to be talking about toasters, seeing their candidate is the toast.
Its the economy stupid, old man.
I truly believe that McCain is surrounded by a group of disturbed individuals.  Funny how they tell us that McCain is going to add jobs, but NEVER tell us how.   Alex Conant should understand that McCain has been part of the last 8 years, which are the reason we are where we are today.
WTF! This is crazy!
I'd rather lose the world than lose an election.
What do you mean, "Well, that didn't take long. A day after one of the most substantive debates in quite some time -- over the economic mess on Wall Street -- the presidential campaign has devolved back to the trivial."

At long last do you have to admit that FR and all the rest of the media pack are at a loss for words until the campaigns tell them what to think about anything?  What happened to crafting a few choice questions and pushing them until you get answers.  What DO they teach you in journalism school these days!

Jeez. Shiny-object syndrome.

Obama/Biden '08
GOP:
A gang of overfed maggots feasting on the corpse of the middle class and poor.
Exterminate them.
Vote Obama
LMAO!  The blackberry - LMAO! OMG!
AN OPEN LETTER...DEAR SENATOR MCCAIN, WOULD YOU PLEASES LOAN ME $65 BUCKS TO FILL UP MY CAR ,SO THAT I CAN GO TO WORK AND EARN $6.75 AN HOUR, SO THAT I CAN REPAY YOU AT THE END OF THE WEEK, AND HAVE ONLY $2 BUCKS LEFT TO BUY GROCERIES. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP ! BOY I FEEL "FUNDEMENTALLY" STRONG, LIKE OUR ECONOMY.
Hahahahahahahaha.....John McBush44 invented the Blackberry...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaahahahah.

Now that is fuuuuuunny.

And if the 'toaster' line is all the McBush44 camp has then they better pack it up and head back to one of those seven houses.
Research In Motion, creators of the Blackberry, well they are a canadian company!
Give the tax break to consumers and they will spend the money on product...increase demand....increase production....increase jobs.

Give the tax cut to those making over $250,000 and they will buy stock and fund the growth of corporate America....either here or abroad.
That's right. Obama thinks anyone who can't use a computer is an idiot.  He just lost a ton of votes from poor and rural people that don't have computers.  All they do is sit around and bitterly cling to their guns and religion.
McCain does not know how to use a computer but invented the Blackberry??   Med time John!
A Canadian company is responsible for the Blackberry. I can not believe the LIES coming out of this candidate and his VP.
Alex Conant hasn't gotten the memo, yet.  The McCain brand is so badly damaged, that you do not help matters by LYING about what the Obama campaign is focused on.  NOBODY is going to believe that Obama-Biden are trying to "add toasters".  Of course, that won't stop certain folks from parroting that pathetic talking point, but no one really believes it.

Kinda like how no one really believes in the Republican ticket anymore, despite their feverish propping-up of the campaign.
We need a real conversation... this is like a stupid ,slow moving game of scrabble in which all the players  have begun  to lose focus...
I will be soooooo glad when this GE is over in November.  The Repugnants think Americans are so stupid (well some are), that they can change the subject to all of this insignificant drivel and expect us to fall for it.  Republicans are corrupt, and we know it.

OBAMA/BIDEN, 2008!
The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device introduced in 1997 as a two-way pager. The more commonly known smartphone BlackBerry, which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services, was released in 2002. It is an example of a convergent device. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on e-mail. RIM currently offers BlackBerry e-mail service to non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through the BlackBerry Connect software. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display, but all current models have color displays.      Wikipedia
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I do not trust ANYTHING that comes through the McLiar filter.
Would someone tell that gasbag Joe Biden that 90% or more of us out here aren't "desperate"?

Joe, buddy, I'm doing OK.  I don't need the hyperbole you spew to get votes from that choir you are constantly preaching to.

In fact, I have a toaster that will do four slices of bread at once.

And what about the tax increase on individuals and employers that will occur when Obama raises the cap on incomes that are subject to social security taxes?

It's in his economic plan on his website, so individuals, businesses and self-employed individuals making between $97,500 and $250,000 will be subject to higher taxes.  So McCain is right when he says Obama will tax the middle class and small business more.

And there is this:

From Chicago Public Radio  May 23, 2008:

"Some of Illinois' most powerful politicians are defending the use of earmarks. They discussed the controversial funding mechanism today at the re-opening of a busy bridge on Chicago's North Side.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, and Congressman Danny Davis were on-hand to dedicate a new, reconstructed bridge at North and Clybourn.  The project cost $25-million.

All three politicians say the bridge couldn't have been built without federal earmarks. Earmarks are a way for politicians to set money aside for a specific project and bypass some legislative procedures. Mayor Daley says the new bridge is an example of the good earmarks can do.

DALEY: This is what you send people to elected office for, especially in the legislative body: to vote for a budget and vote for infrastructure. That's what this is all about. There's nothing wrong with earmarks.

Earlier this year, Illinois U.S. Senator Barack Obama called for a one-year moratorium on earmarks. He said earmark funding needs to be more transparent."

Mr. $900 million in earmark requests didn't exactly offer dramatic action on earmarks, did he?  A one year moratorium that would end early in the first term of the next presidency and transparency that would tell us clearly just how much he's sending to Durbin, Daley and Davis. D-D-D-Duh!

Obama wants nothing to do with changing the earmark system.  Any statements otherwise are hypocritical and political calculation.  Any criticism of other politicians who request earmarks is hypocritical as well.

He's a politician, folks.  Nothing more, nothing less.
Obama.  Mr. Slogan.  Mr. Platitude. The One.  And the same.

Are you sure he meant a device called blackberry coz we have fruits too....maybe he meant that...Fruits- you know berries- good for health!!!
Of course, it took 3 seconds for McCain to mischaracterize the Obama-Biden economic plan.

And as far as John McCain and Blackberries.

Well... I guess you don't have know how to use 'em to invent 'em.

http://www.rodneyhopper.com
I read over the weekend that Alan Greeenspan take on the tax plans.He stated that trhe McCain plan has very little chance of working unless he planned to shrink the goverment,and the debt.The repuks tax brakes for the rich,and there trickel down mush talk from the Reagen years, while they contuinue to ride the backs of the middle.They think times are just dandy and the suffering will just have to continue.(So stop your whinning and pull yourself out of your own mess)That they created.I saw the Bomber at the race this weekend,does that mean he will be driving in NASCAR,Oh that right the wife does all the driving.The blackberrie story is a hoot,this guy can;t even reinvent himself since he has fallen from the express.
The difference is a) McCain didn't say he invented the Blackberry, one of his advisors held the darn thing up; and b) this advisor held up the Blackberry and talked about the congressional committee McCain headed that opened the pathway to communications advances.

But, it was dumb, dumb dumb.
McCain doesn't know how to send an e-mail, but somehow he managed to invent the Blackberry!  This is rich...
Get back on message.  Its as much about vision for the future as anything... for the 4 Es, education, energy, economics, environment.. all things with landg term effects.  Obama has a vision for the future, McCain has hindsight. Palin lives in a vestage of the 1800s that remains in the far reaches of the country. Women, unite with OBAMA & Biden if you yearn for a future of equality!
McCain and his people are making me tired.  Disingenuous and literal to a fault, they give new meaning to the term "small-minded."
Also, is there someone named "James in San Antonio, who's using my moniker???

OBAMA/BIDEN, 2008!
The company RIM(Research in Motion) is Canadian. The owners moved to the US a few years ago after becoming billionaires just outside of Toronto.

Where is the outrage at all the lies?
This is getting funnier by the minute, all we have to do is ask John McCain " how many toasters do
you own?" And if you can get a straight talk answer, then the world will be fine, until then, Grow up already McCain camp, we all know as you get older your mind retain to childish ways, as we have seen over and over again!  Don't even respond to this childish pitbull pig tatics!


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