I've been informed that I can no longer use the term, Epic Fail,so I'll just say this, in a nutshell, is why these guys will lose. Who thinks the way to close the argument for McCain is to secure a Cheney endorsement? I would have loved to been in on that strategy meeting. Like, "Oh Obama's doing that Afromercial and is rallying with Clinton, but we've got something for them...."
These cats need to October Surprise harder. Plumbers with recording contracts? White-chicks who can't even execute the old Scottsboro boys joint? Aunts overstaying their welcome? These guys give good, decent tax-paying demagouges a bad name. They should be ashamed.
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"These cats need to October Surprise harder."
Odd choice of words, considering the date.
Too bad about Epic. Did you place top 3 in the atlantic.com readers poll for "Which election buzzword are you most sick of"?
Just wait until tomorrow, when McCain announces that Victoria Jackson will be his choice for Ambassador to the UN.
I prefer "extinction event at the K-T boundary" to epic fail.
TNC, u r teh uberl33t.
Gamerspk, FTW!
A Cheney endorsement is an epic fail. It's what the phrase "epic fail" was created for. I agree that its been overused (We're out of milk? Epic fail!), but in this case, its appropriate.
My first reaction was, "What, you can go all collard green on us, but don't touch that epic fail?"
But here's some perspective:
Fail of the non-epic, mundane, everyday kind: "Hey, let's use Cheney's endorsement on the last weekend. He'd be a great closer!"
True Epic Fail: "Hey, look, the Greeks packed up and left last night after 10 years. Oooh, and they left us a great parting gift. I guess that's because they've decided we are studly. (Get it? stud, horse, hehe). That's gonna make a great centerpiece to tonights party!!"
What did McCain do to piss off Cheney?
He lost.
Cheney's working for Palin. He wants BHO to lose so that when McCain succumbs to one of his many ailments Cheney can step in and become Palin's vice president.
Oh, and Karl Rove is a genius!
I see this as just another example of Cheney refusing to consider the fact that he might be wrong.
With my car on the line, I would bet at least five people told him this was a bad idea, or at least asked if he should run it by McCain first.
TNC,
Consider this. Dick Cheney is not a stupid man. Quite the opposite - he has deep knowledge of the political process and knows how to get things done in Washington. Now - he's wrong on all counts and uses his personal acumen in just about the worst way possible. But he knows how to make the trains run on time so to speak.
Cheney has been missing in action this whole election. He even skipped out on the RNC. His speech the first day got canceled and never got rescheduled.
Then all of a sudden after what amounts to the longest campaign in history he decides to come out of the shadows and publicly endorse two days before election day?
Cheney knows his endorsement would only hurt McCain. That's why he didn't do it a month ago or even two weeks ago. So why now? And why so publicly - Cheney never does TV. Why not simply endorse in print?
My guess is that Cheney got sick of listening to McCain bash him and Bush in the press. McCain over the past two weeks has really tried to throw the administration under the bus, including calling out Cheney by name in the press this past week.
Cheney and McCain don't have a good relationship to begin with (see McCain's criticism of Rumsfield one of Cheney's closest allies...).
I think this was classic Cheney politicking. He endorsed McCain as pay back. He knows McCain is going to lose as it is. His endorsement won't cost McCain the election. So that freed him to throw up another barrier. This was Cheney's way of piling it on this last weekend to take away some of McCain's made up "momentum" in terms of press coverage. He wanted the video image out there.
Cheney knew the minute he did that public endorsement - an endorsement done on TV not simply in print - that Barack would cut and ad with that clip the next day.
This was no slip up or mistake. This was Cheney playing hardball politics.
TNC, I'm confused...are you suggesting that the McCain campaign plotted this endorsement? I really doubt that...in fact, all the indications are that this is was an instance of Cheney going "rogue". He's a smart man, Cheney, evil but surely not lacking in political intelligence. This must be his way of sticking a fork in McCain's candidacy.
Snowman,
That would dovetail nicely with everything I've ever heard about Cheney's temperament and personality. He sullies the executive branch with his presence, and considering some of its other inhabitants, that is saying a lot. To me his arrogance makes him a damn traitor. They betrayed us. We should have impeached him and his partner for their trashing of our Constitution, but I pray that they are still prosecuted for their war crimes. -sv
"To save the Republican Party I had to destroy it." - Richard Bruce Cheney.
(I completely made that up, but based on observation of Republican campaign tactics, I gather that's now completely Kosher.)
jsg,
one out of two ain't bad? wait..
PS don't forget to credit Karl Rove and the people Sullivan calls "Christianists" for their part in taking the GOP down in flames. I believe that (a) they've not yet hit rock bottom, and won't until 2010 or 2012, and (b) as bad as the Republicans of the last 10 years have been, the direction they've taken their perverted 'conservatism' is a logical extension of the "Southern strategy" they chose to follow forty years ago. Thus do Christians make a mockery of themselves by calling themselves "pro-life" while becoming fear-mongering, war-mongering, racist, completely disparaging of the poor (and I don't mean opposing a welfare state)... Not that I've never been a hypocrite myself, but I'm embarrassed for them.
Snow is right.
This is deliberate execution....I wonder if this is designed to give Palin some cover so they can still use her in the GOP post election?
btw, in gamerspk, Palin is what's known as a "retard" and a "baddie".
Retard is sort of selfexplanatory, but baddies are peeps that show for raid grouping with crappy armor and no skillz, and expect everyone else to carry them.
Also baddies cause drama.
"My guess is that Cheney got sick of listening to McCain bash him and Bush in the press."
I've always thought Cheney was driven by power but not ego.
I have a theory that there's a gene in all human beings that motivates us to do stupid shit. It's evolution's way of making sure we don't get lazy. This is why we smoke, drink and abuse other substances. This is why we eat junk that we know is bad for us. This is why we drive like NASCAR finalists, cheat on our partners, have unprotected sex with people we barely know, and so forth.
This is the best explanation I have for the way McCain has been campaigning recently, and that goes especially for Cheney's endorsement. I think there's a part of him that's doing its best to make sure he doesn't become President. And if it keeps doing its job so well, it just might cost him his next reelection to the Senate, too.
As much as I'm amused to see Obama using this as a club to beat McCain over the head with, I don't think this is particularly significant. My guess is that Cheyney was trying to fire up a partisan crowd and wasn't thinking too much beyond that. Sure, the guy's pure evil and all, but it would have been pretty conspicuous if he had mad a public political speech and not endorsed McCain/Palin, no? Three days in, this isn't going to make a bit of difference anyway.
Just wait until tomorrow, when McCain announces that Victoria Jackson will be his choice for Ambassador to the UN.
LOL. Rick Moranis for Dept. of Justice.
TNC, this wasn't planned. No strategist thought of this. Cheney was campaigning for a Congressman in his home state of Wyoming, and he decided to mention, of his own accord, that he supports McCain. Cheney and McCain hate each other; for all we know, he was just trying to screw McCain over. He is clever like that.
"Afromercial?"
lol
that is so funny.
Snowman is on the money about The Evil One and his intent.
>"These guys give good, decent tax-paying demagouges a bad name. They should be ashamed."
I wonder if they are, ashamed. I wonder if they feel like complete assholes post no-WMDs, Abu Gharib, Guantanamo, Katrina, Halliburton, HHS Scully, The Energy Task Force, Enron, no Osama, domestic spying, Valeria Plame, stop-loss orders, Chalibi, Walter Reed, the deficit lie, 10+ trillion in debt, fannie, freddie, AIG, the downing street memo, ImGlone, Global Crossing, Dusty Foggo, Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, the Dubai ports deal, toxic air at ground zero, Darfur, Harry Whittington, and last but not least, mission accomplished.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
By the way, I just saw the Reverend Wright commerical on television. I only mention this because I live in San Jose, CA. Does the McCain campaign seriously believe running this ad, or any ads really, in California is a good way to spend money in the last 2 days before the election?
I think this endorsement just days before the election is the 2008 version of the 2004 Bin Laden tape.
To give the devil his due, Cheney isn't stupid. He had enough sense to sink out of sight post-Nixon, didn't step back in the light until Bush II, and doesn't care what happens next because he's old.
Meanwhile the geniuses of the TalEvan know only they can save the GOP and the only way to save the GOP is to make it even more socially conservative. (And we know who they've picked to lead the way.)
It should be fun to watch, provided we don't overdose on popcorn.
Ta-Nehisi,
Check it out. First good impression I've heard done of Barack Obama. Pretty funny too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0D1w2mjqzk&feature=rec-fresh
I agree with the comments above. Dick Cheney is fully aware that his approval rating is on par with that of gonorrhea (incidentally, they have pretty much the same base). This wasn't some brilliant campaign maneuver, this was the Kiss of Death.
Cheney and McCain hate each other. And rather than try to make a case for the Bush administration--try to rescue them from the inevitable "worst president ever" label--McCain tried to sweep them under the rug. Even in this he fucked up, and now the Bush administration is not going to be followed by Rove's Permanent Republican Majority, but by several straight elections in which Democrats make large gains and Bush/Cheney are roundly repudiated by the American people. Bush still daydreams about being vindicated by history, but Cheney was never that delusional.
Cheney gave that poisonious "endorcement" to jam McCain, but also to help Obama. Don't forget that they are distant cousins.LOOOL.
In gamer terms, I nominate Palin as a "camper." She goes and finds a vantage overlooking a spawn point, then snipes everyone coming in before they can draw. Then she spams "LOL N00B" until she's booted.
If anyone spawnkills her, of course, the ~moral outrage!~ capslock spam overwhelms your feeble connection.
Based on this hysterical comment:
Let us hearken back to the SATs.
Penicillin is to gonorrhea as ________ is to Dick Cheney.
McCain has decided to waste his money sending me mailers in Virginia, even though I voted for Obama last week. But please spend more money on me, McCain!
I just saw the Rev. Wright ad in Maryland. Now it was during Sunday Night Football, so it might be a national ad buy, but jeeze… blowing what money that you have on a toxic ad like that two days before the election, seems kind of desperate. No, strike that, it is desperate.
The McCain campaign has been robo-calling center-city Baltimore neighborhoods the last week and a half in places that are affluent census tracts, but are not at all McCain Country.
I'm convinced that the media buying folks on Team McCain are trying to justify their existence. Why would anyone in their right mind buy Maryland for the GOP?
Pretty sure the wright ad is national as I saw it during Sunday Night Footie here in Oklahoma.
It's fucking weak. Seriously, can you see ANYONE who had decided to vote for O saying "Oh yeah, he had an anti-american preacher, I think I'll vote for the old guy instead"?
Thanks to Pox news for beating the shit out of this subject earlier in the year (Fuck, did I just thank Pox News???).
History will be made on Tuesday!
So, TNC, the "blacks are responsible for Prop 8" meme is picking up some steam - they're now even calling it an "Obama Effect" (blacks turn out en masse to vote for Obama, then vote for Prop 8):
http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/ww/ww081030prop_8_same-sex_marr
I would not give Palin Camper cred. She's much more like the retards that spam "Camper" in a ctf or defense oriented game.
We got the Wright ad on Sunday Night Football too, in Vermont. Must be a national buy.
I'm waiting for McCain to denounce it as he promised, and will no doubt be waiting through Election Day and beyond.
Tessa,
I agree I've seen the Reverend Wright commercial, twelve times by my count since 4:00 p.m. CT yesterday and I live in Illinois. Obama's home state. Yeah, that's brilliant, run the ad in the guy's home state cause that's really gonna switch voters over to your side. Seriously, how stupid can the McCain campaign be? I mean talk about a waste of money.
It's a national ad, by a conservative PAC. (http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/conservative_group_to_run_anti.php) So McCain technically isn't bringing Wright up, like he promised. Even the RNC isn't touching that one. Not sure where these dudes got the $2 million to run it, but whatever, I can't see it making a bit of difference at this point.
EPIC FAIL!!! This is Ilidan endorsing Kil'jaedan at the end of a Kara run. Time for a bubble hearth.
(Toon: Garteric, Guild: Seduction, realm: Muradin)