The John W. McBush P.R. Agency Strikes Again!

I’m still trying to figure out exactly why anyone would care about any possible association between John W. McBush and BobDole BobDole BobDole, since this is the second week in a row that Adam Nagourney has written a column about the two, alternately trying to compare them and also show how they are different (here).

Maybe it’s because George W. Milhous Bush has done such a thorough job of destroying the Republican “brand” that the Times wants to create some kind of a linkage between the present day and a time before the life form from Crawford, TX and his fellow crooks took over the White House and anything dealing with the executive branch of our government.

Maybe Nagourney thinks that we’ll just consider Dubya to be nothing but an aberration who has “governed” in a manner atypical for Repugs, though in reality, his horrific term in office has been the manifestation of everything they sought during our last period of prosperity in the ‘90s, when the “government is bad” crowd could do nothing but complain from the sidelines (not so easy to do that when you’re responsible and all that surrounds you is misery, is it?).

So this is some of the “ripe stuff” Nagourney has come up with…

Mr. Dole was not just a creature of the Senate but the very face of the Washington legislative establishment. Mr. McCain has promoted an image as a renegade in the body, scolding it, for example, for its pork barrel spending.

Mr. McCain is, to a considerable degree, sprinting away from his own party and looking to distance himself from an unpopular incumbent president.

A “renegade” whose votes just happened to coincide with Bushco 100 percent of the time (here – I’d be looking to “distance myself” from something like that too).

Also…

Mr. Dole could be funny, although his jokes had a bit of stiletto in them; indeed, friends of both suggested that their humor was as much an asset as a potential liability. “Dole was a master of political humor,” said former Senator Alan Simpson, Republican of Wyoming. “McCain has a very wry sense of humor. Sometimes it’s the kind of humor that drifts over the heads of people who have no sense of humor.”

Oh, I don’t know. I thought it was pretty uproarious when Dole said to Poppy Bush “Stop lying about my record” in 1988 when they were both running for the Repug presidential nomination. And when McBush made that joke about Chelsea Clinton? What a “laff riot”!

And the fact that Dole was the only politician who ran for both President and Vice President and attained neither office?

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

OK, I’ll stop (yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about the proverbial “conventional wisdom” worshipped so dearly by the Beltway Villagers and rampant in Nagourney’s column; you can tell it’s full of “CW” because Bob Kerrey and Charles Schumer are interviewed also).

I know some of this is “water wet, sky blue” stuff, but when our corporate media concocts this nonsense, we have to call them on it.

And in a related post, Chris Bowers at Open Left shows us how any good news for Obama must really be bad news for Obama (seriously)…

Really. John (McCain) is really "driving the daily political debate?" Really? Well, unless McCain’s goal with the debate was to use it to drive down his own poll numbers, then I am not sure how it can be argued that McBush is driving the debate. Clearly, the only scientific measurements of public opinion on the campaign--aka, polls-indicate that Obama is gaining due to recent campaign events.

And as long as I’m dealing with the dreaded “CW,” I might as well get to this also which tells us that McBush’s May fundraising numbers “went up” while Obama’s “dipped.”

Get a load of this (obligatory note that I shouldn’t be covering “the horserace”; sorry that I am)…

For Mr. McCain, of Arizona, it was one of his best fund-raising months, with $21.8 million coming in from individual donors and from three joint Republican fund-raising dinners. For Mr. Obama, of Illinois, it was one of his weaker months, drawing $21.9 million.

Uh…call me crazy (and I’ll admit I’m not a math genius), but doesn’t this show that Obama still out raised McBush in May?

The article then tells us of Hillary’s campaign numbers, including her debt…

…of the millions Mrs. Clinton owes vendors, some $4.6 million is owed to Mark Penn, a controversial pollster, who is not popular in many Democratic circles, making debt-retirement an even harder sell.

Runs her candidacy aground and still cleans up; pardon me while I open a few windows to let out the stench.

Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, ended her campaign with nearly $27 million on hand. But $23 million of it was raised for the general election and must now be returned to donors. Overall, Mrs. Clinton raised $238 million since entering the race.

And Times reporter Leslie Wayne tells us that Obama has raised $296 million total (these are ungodly numbers, but until this country decides to get serious about campaign finance reform...).

So how much has McBush raised total? Oh, about $122 million, a little more than half of what Hillary Clinton raised, and she isn’t even in the race any more.

But May was “one of McCain’s best fund raising months.”

And don’t you forget it!

Update: Yep, looking beter and better for McBush here (h/t The Daily Kos).