[big campaign] Media Monitoring Report - Evening 07/09/08

From:jacob@progressiveaccountability.org To: bigcampaign@googlegroups.com Date: 2008-07-09 23:58 Subject: [big campaign] Media Monitoring Report - Evening 07/09/08

*Main Topics:* McCain on Iran, McBush, cigarette joke *Summary of Shift:* Pentagon reverses course after it awards contract to Europe. Indrid Betancourt's freedom continued to receive vast amounts of airtime. Jesse Jackson made some rather distasteful remarks in regard to the presumptive democratic nominee, for which he immediately apologized. That story was central to tonight's news programming. The missile tests Iran ran today took up seemingly only slightly more coverage than Jackson's remarks. Highlights 1) McCain interviews a. CBS: McCain suggests we must avoid impending second holocaust b. ABC: McCain suggests that we must avoid impending second holocaust c. NBC: Williams asks McCain about his newest ad 2) FNC: Graham likens Ahmadenijad to Hitler and diplomacy to appeasement 3) McBush a. MSNBC: McCain sounds like Cheney b. MSNBC: On Iran, McCain is identical to Bush 4) CNN: Panel finds McCain's kill Iran with cigarettes joke to be basically dismissable 5) MSNBC: Delay on Iran: 'We should've moved a lot earlier' *No Clip* 6) CBS: *Entertainment Tonight* does a piece on Cindy's hair 7) MSNBC: *Hardball* discusses McCain's most recent joke, plays "Bomb, bomb, bomb" clip 8) MSNBC: Contrasts McCain's 2004 quote to Maliki Quote 9) MSNBC: Hegseth argues that Maliki's statement is good news, a sign of the surge working 10) MSNBC: Veteran calls McCain out on voting record at town hall Clips Highlight #1 *Couric Presses John McCain on Iran, His Budget Plan and the State of His Campaign *(CBS 07/09/08 6:33pm) KATIE COURIC: The presidential candidates were quick to react to Iran's nuclear test . . . Republican John McCain called for, quote, "meaningful sanctions." Earlier today, I asked Sen. McCain about a possible attack by Israel against Iran. [cut to interview] Would you discourage Israel if their leadership came to you as President and said we're going to strike Iran's nuclear sites? JOHN MCCAIN: I can't get into that kind of hypothetical but the Iranians are testing these missiles not because of action on the part of the Israelis in my view. *This is part of a calculated plans [sic], developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. And nations led by all of our European friends as well as other countries, we have to impose meaningful, tough effective sanctions on the Iranians to modify their behavior. We cannot ever allow a second Holocaust.* COURIC: Do you get a sense, Sen. McCain, that an attack by Israel on Iran is imminent? MCCAIN: I have no idea. I know this, that Iran continues to develop nuclear weapons in violation of various treaties and their own commitments and we need to do everything we can to modify that behavior in the form of very tough economic and other sanctions. Their economy is not strong because they have a lousy government. COURIC: What do you think should be done right now that isn't been done in that department? MCCAIN: Impose tough sanctions. There are European financial institutions extending unlimited lines of credit to the Iranians. Shut all that down. Make things very, very tough economically on the Iranians and trade and other ways and I think it can have a beneficial effect. COURIC: Beyond a summer gas tax plan that nobody thinks will pass, are you offering any kind of relief to the American people who as you know are really struggling right now? MCCAIN: Well, uh, we've got quickly, um go offshore if the states agree and explore and exploit those areas. If you lift the moratorium on offshore exploration, uh, I think that will send a signal and have an affect on gas prices immediately. The gas tax holiday was just a chance to give some people a little bit of relief [laughs] that's all it was. A lot of people say it was a gimmick and wouldn't work. A lot of people who are driving the furtherest [sic] in the oldest cars are low income Americans, really would like to have a little bit of relief. COURIC: Your advisors say you're promising to balance the budget by the end of your first term, Sen. McCain. Are you personally making this commitment to the American people? MCCAIN: Yes. Absolutely. And if we reduce spending, then we can do it. It all has to do with spending. It all has to do with discipline, which is out of control. COURIC: What's your reaction to leading economists who say it's all but impossible to meet that goal? That you'd have to cut spending or raise taxes beyond what anyone could anticipate is possible. Is it really achievable? MCCAIN: I'm saying that there is five Nobel laureates and 300 economists who think my economic plan is a good one. I say that those that disagree, I respect their opinion but growth and revenue increases is what will balance the budget. COURIC: Some Republicans meanwhile have privately complained that your campaign organization is in disarray and if you can't effectively run a campaign, how can you effectively run the country? What's your response to that? *MCCAIN: My response is that I do town hall meetings all the time.* And not a single person in the town hall meetings says, "How's your campaign organization doing?" What they say is, "How you going to get my health care affordable?" "I'm worried about my job." "I can't afford to drive my car anymore." "How am I going to, uh, er, keep my home loan, stay in my home, afford my mortgage." That's what they're talking about. That's what I'm talking about. *John McCain Invokes Specter of a Second Holocaust with Regard to Iran* (ABC 07/09/08 6:44pm) JOHN MCCAIN [on Iranian missile tests]: It's alarming. *It's part of the overall effort on the part of the Iranians to acquire nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. I strongly feel that we must enact meaningful and powerful sanctions, joined by our European allies and others who consider this threat very seriously.* CHARLES GIBSON: But, with all due respect, that's what the president has been calling for for some time in reaction to the Iranians and it hasn't gotten us anywhere MCCAIN: Well, we haven't done it, Charlie. I hope that this may be a catalyst to actually come together and impose these sanctions on the Iranians. At the end of the day, also *we cannot afford to have a second holocaust.* [...] GIBSON: [...] Well John McCain has been hammering away at Barack Obama for his position on Iran and he's also criticizing Obama for changing position on a number of other issues [...]. GIBSON: I'm curious, there's been a lot of speculation in the press about whether your opponent may be shifting positions in some areas, moving to the center, a little more right than he was in the primaries. Do you see him shifting positions? MCCAIN: It appears so, although I have not been pa ying real close attention, but I would say on the issue of Iraq, I'm glad he's going for the first time in 900 days. I'm glad he is, for the first time, asking for a sit-down briefing with General Petraeus and I would be very interested in what his position on Iraq is when he returns. GIBSON: You're not ready yet to call him a flip-flopper? MCCAIN: Oh, *it's obvious that what I say doesn't affect American public opinion nearly as much as what he says does.* GIBSON: You think so? MCCAIN: Well, the fact is he has changed his positions on FISA, on public financing, on his agreement that he says he'd go back any time, any place to have a town hall meeting with me. We were before the same organization yesterday. We could have just stood there together and answered their questions. I think LULAC would have gotten a lot more out of it. He said that he would do that. He said he would take public financing for the general election if I did as well and said that he agreed to it, but those things will be judged by the American people, but I won't hesitate to point 'em out. *Williams Asks McCain about His New Ad, Iran *(MSNBC 07/09/08 7:20pm) BRIAN WILLIAMS: . . . since this day, again, started with that missile launch of Iran, that topic dominated a morning round of interviews, ours included, with the presumptive nominee John McCain . . . MCCAIN: Hopefully, at this event, it will serve as a catalyst that will gel all of the different factors that have been out there that will allow us to act with our friends and allies in the most effective fashion and modify Iranian behavior but we cannot allow a second Holocaust. WILLIAMS: Senator, let's switch to the domestic campaign. You have a new ad out that contrasts a lot of behavior in this country in, one presumes, the sixties with your record of service. What it says is your record of patriotism, love of country. In the ad you say we live in a dangerous world and you call the US economy a shambles, which seems to be a tougher, more morose message than you've been using on the campaign trail. Do you stick by that message? MCCAIN: I think our economy, it, it, it is certainly in dire situation. We continue to see the economy deteriorate. We continue to see the increase in a price of a gallon of gas. We continue to see jobs lost in this country and we have a great deal to do. WILLIAMS: The ad seems to play on the word "hope" many times and in the script it appears in quotes, "don't 'hope' for a better life, vote for one," . . . the implication is rather clear, but matched against the video, say the height of the domestic uprising, 1968, your opponent was about six years old. What are you trying to imply about what he was doing during the Viet Nam years as opposed to what we know you were doing? MCCAIN: [laughs] I-I-I'm not, I think the point is that this nation has be--, was united after the Ronald Reagan came to the presidency, we joined together in common cause we joined together to win the Cold War. Now we face new challenges, the threat of radical Islamic extremism, we're in two wars, we were just discussing the Iranian threat and we have major challenges obviously to our economy and our children's' future. I'm trying to say that I'm prepared to take on those challenges. Highlight #2 *Lindsey Graham Invokes Hitler in Relation to Iran* (FNC 06/09/08 4:05pm) DAVID ASMAN: [�] is there any room for dialogue do we have to stand tough? LINDSEY GRAHAM: The dialogue has to be between the world community and Iran. We have to be tough. The world should unite around the idea that this missile testing along with Iran's refusal to abandon their nuclear weapons program presents a grave danger to the world. So the right solution to this problem is not to sit down unilaterally with the Iranians and give them something. It is for the world to coalesce around the idea that Iran will punished if they move forward with their efforts to get a nuclear weapon and put it on top of the missile. ASMAN: We do not have to give our man anything if we sit down and talk to them. GRAHAM: What are you going to talk to them about? [long silence] ASMAN: You cannot think of anything? *GRAHAM: No. [�] Talk does not matter to Iran. They will respond to action *and I do not want a military engagement with Iran. It would be a very difficult task for us, the world at large, but talking is not going to work. What we need to do is impose sanctions that will. They depend on gasoline. The western world, China and Russia can change Iranian behavior if we act. Talking will embolden *these people*. Acting will deter them. ASMAN: We just had a release of hostages in Venezuela and we had been in this almost endless conversation. Hugo Chavez got in the middle of it. We had been told time and time we have to sit down with the rebels. The sitting down obviously did nothing but in power the rebels and Hugo Chavez at the same time. Is there a similarity here in these situations? GRAHAM: Yeah, the Colombian president took matters into his own hand. They came up with the military strategy that was marvelous [...]. *We sat down with Hitler and it never worked. Give him one more country. Appease this guy. Talking with Iran is a form of appeasement.* We need world action, not just United States action, not just Israeli action. The world needs to rally around the idea that we' re not going to let Iran get a nuclear weapon. ASMAN: Would we support Israel if, on its own, it tried to take out those nuclear installations? GRAHAM: In my opinion there is time to avoid that choice. *Now is the time to act decisively* with the world, speaking with one voice, but here is the question for the world. Are we going to sit on the sidelines and allow a nuclear weapon and missile technology to start world war three? The answer to me is not. ASMAN: Israel will not. The question is, will we support it if they act unilaterally? GRAHAM: It is my belief that the scenario of Israel attacking Iran is not a good scenario for the world or Israel, *we need to avoid that if possible*. If I'm the Israeli prime minister I am not going to sit the sidelines and listen to the rhetoric coming out of Iran, watch this weapons test and their nuclear program mature without doing something. The worst option in my opinion is to do nothing while you still can do something. Highlight #3 *Matthews: McCain Sounds Like Cheney *(MSNBC 07/09/08 5:55pm) JOHN MCCAIN: We cannot allow a second Holocaust. CHRIS MATTHEWS: . . . a second Holocaust. Of course John McCain there this morning referring to the test firing of the Iranians . . . Jill Zuckman, a second Holocaust, it looks to me like politics is in play here. Serious politics. JILL ZUCKMAN: Well, Sen. McCain has taken a very hard line on Iran for a very long time and one of the things he talks about is President Ahmedinijad's own words. Calling Israel a, "stinking corpse," calling the Holocaust a "myth." He goes on and on ad on like that and Sen. McCain is very clear that he doesn't think Iran should get any benefit of the doubt from the United States . . . MATTHEWS: . . . is this usual politics in America? . . . anything unusual about it? Over the line? Within the line? Appropriate politics, whatever? JOAN WALSH: I think a little bit over the line. I mean, "second Holocaust"? Come on. Again, this is John McCain helping Barack Obama because he sounds like a lunatic and he makes clear that he's running for Bush's third term. He sounds like a neocon in the room with Cheney planning the next strike on Iran. It's really beyond mainstream politics in my opinion. [. . .] MATTHEWS: Sometimes I do hear Dick Cheney talking when John McCain talks. WALSH: Absolutely. *Republicans in Senate Move Towards Obama's Position on Iran While McCain Sticks With Bush *(MSNBC 07/09/08 5:07pm) CHRIS MATTHEWS: Here's Sen. McCain talking to Brian Williams . . . JOHN MCCAIN: This kind of progress and this kind of testing that the Iranians are making is here and now and it cries out for collective action to cut off now the liens of credit that the Iranians are getting to cut off now the trade and diplomatic activities . . . we're in a situation where we have to act now . . . we can't just wait until next January to take meaningful action. MATTHEWS: Andrea, I feel like one of those people with the earphones on trying to figure out the translation there. What is the difference there between what Barack said and what McCain said? ANDREA MITCHELL: Barack Obama is saying that we should have aggressive diplomacy . . . John McCain is saying we need sanctions, economic punishment, diplomatic pressure on Iran, not diplomatic engagement. *Interestingly Dick Luger, the Republican vice chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee during a hearing on Iran this afternoon agreed with Barack Obama . . . Luger and other Republicans are beginning to move to the side of those Democrats . . . calling for some kind of diplomatic involvement with Iran without preconditions. The McCain position is identical to the Bush position but it is not universally accepted within the Republican Party.* MATTHEWS: Let's talk about the politics on the home front. Everybody in America, practically, roots for Israel in a general sense, obviously people that are Jewish have a deeper commitment than most people. But there's also a huge Christian conservative element in this country that's deeply pro-Israeli. When John McCain made a statement, here, let's talk a look at what he said . . . MCCAIN: If Iran attacked Israel, I'd have no doubt that the entire nation would erupt in conflict. The Irani�the Iraqis would have to respond, as any nation does that's attacked and the entire region and the United States would probably be drawn into the conflict . . . MATTHEWS: Sen. McCain also talked this morning about the possibility of a second Holocaust, that's certainly incendiary language politically. ROGER SIMON: . . .Sen. McCain has used that as his argument for staying in Iraq . . . we have to have a peacekeeping presence in the region otherwise we face open warfare. The problem is, the other bite you showed, *Sen. McCain calls for isolating Iran. The trouble with isolation is, once you isolate them, then what'd you have left?* Highlight #4 *On Iran 'Joke,' Borger Says: That's Just McCain Being McCain* (CNN 07/09/08 6:41pm) WOLF BLITZER: What do you make of Senator McCain joking�and it was clearly, he was trying to be funny�when he said, you know the US is exporting a lot of cigarettes to Iran and he said maybe that's good 'cause they'll all die from the cigarettes then he quickly said, 'You know, I'm just joking.' DAVID BRODY: I mean, obviously McCain's critics will say he's got an itchy trigger finger so clearly, a comment like that isn't gonna play well initially, but let's take a step back here for a moment and go to pre-implosion McCain. Remember that where he was the front-runner and a lot of people said that he was too guarded, that he was too close to the vest and he didn't really open up too much and he needed to get back to that straight talk express. Well, you know, some of those moments are really gonna have to work for him to be successful. In other words, he may have a bomb like the one we're talking about today and the 'Bomb [�] Iran' one as well. That may backfire, but, if he gets nine out of ten right, it actually could actually [sic] help him a little bit. BLITZER: When you're running for president, you've gotta have a filter. JACK CAFFERTY: Well, you know, the cigarettes are slower than 'bomb [�] Iran' as was just suggested. The essence of the story is that our sales of exports from this country to Iran are up more than ten-fold during the seven and a half years of the Bush administration. They've gone from $8 million a year to $150 million a year while President Bush stomps around, talking tough about sanctions. 'We gotta crack the whip. We gotta isolate Iran.' We're selling 'em cigarettes and braziers and a whole bunch of other things to the tune of about $150 billion a year. It's a hypocrisy with a capitol HIP. [�] GLORIA BORGER: *I say let McCain be McCain.* *This is who John McCain is and you knew it was real because his wife started jabbing him in the back, telling him to be quiet and this is John McCain. The public ought to get to know who he is.* Highlight #5 *Tom Delay Expresses Classic Liberal Views on Deficit, Declares Willingness to Bomb Iran *(MSNBC 07/09/08 5:07pm) CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about your Republican party which you have fought so hard and some people would say over the top in winning for . . . Tom Davis . . . he said if the Republican Party were a dog food, it would be taken off the shelves right now, is it that bad? TOM DELAY: It's pretty bad and I'm done pointing fingers . . . MATTHEWS: A lot of people would say the biggest thing that went wrong with the Republican party wasn't the personality of this president or ther war in Iraq but the fact that Republicans weren't Republicans, they ran up big spending in the last seven years . . . DELAY: We did balance the budget, back in the 90s� MATTHEWS: I'm talking about the last eight years. Did you know the national debt has gone from 6,000,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000,000? DELAY: And we fought a war. MATTHEWS: I know. 4 trillion. That didn't all go to the war. DELAY: Almost 1 trillion of it is the war. MATTHEWS: 4. Trillion. DELAY: Yup. MATTHEWS: The world economy's 50 trillion. We owe 10 trillion. DELAY: I understand but as a percentage of GDP it has grown a little but� MATTHEWS: What are you, John Kenneth Galbraith? DELAY: No. MATTHEWS: Those are the old liberal arguments, it's a percentage of GDP. You don't think overspending has been a problem for the Republicans? DELAY: The perception of overspending has been a problem for Republicans. And it's a bad problem for the Republicans . . . it's not spending, it's redefining government, we need to go back to constitutional principles that go back to our base . . . they want to see leadership, and they're starting to do that. Whether our members can do that by '08, I don't know . . . MATTHEWS: Do you think we're going to go to war before the election? DELAY: I think it's possible. MATTHEWS: . . . Olmert's got a weak government in Israel. He might . . . feel in a position to show his strength? . . . we may decide, Dick Cheney may say, influence the president, say, if Israel has to attack, it'll take them two thousand sorties to do the job, we can do it in a day, why don't we do it clean and get it over with because we'll get blamed anyway? DELAY: And particularly if Obama is the next president. MATTHEWS: Tell me what you think as a conservative hawk, do you think we should move over there-- DELAY: Absolutely. MATTHEWS: --between now and the election? DELAY: We should've moved a lot earlier. MATTHEWS: What should we do? DELAY: First and foremost we should blockade Iran, quit dallying around in all this diplomatic and sanctions . . . [. . .] DELAY: We should never take a military strike off the table. MATTHEWS: What if Olmert calls up you and says, "should I go?" DELAY: I'd say go. But maybe we want to go too. . . MATTHEWS: Is that where you are on that right now? DELAY: Yes. MATTHEWS: Go. *DELAY: No. Not right now. But if things deteriorate over the next two to three months . . *. [. . .] MATTHEWS: Do you think that's a common thought around the White House crowd? The Dick Cheney crowd? Are they thinking about acting now, while they still have a chance to end that nuclear threat from Iran? DELAY: I can't answer that . . . -- Jacob Roberts PAO 208.420.3470 (c) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. 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