Great point. But the Obama campaign can't respond in kind. It's just bait! There will be a backlash! She's a delicate woman! We mustn't let her be shattered!

Give me a break. I say run this woman through the ringers. She can give as many swarmy speeches as she wants....

The entire world press could condemn this lie and the McCain campaign will go right on saying it. This from the Rove playbook: we create reality.

A "naked" lie? I'd call it a "bald-face" lie. No way in hell would Palin let a whopper like this one go untouched if Biden were the liar.

Breathtaking that the party that has been running the country for the past 8 years can call for change and reform.  Reminds me of the scene from "Brother, Where art though" when an exasperated Gov. Pappy O'Donnell beats his son and campagian adivers with his hat and cries "I can't run as the reform candidate! I'm the incumbent!"

See if the MSM picks up on Palin's "Bridge to Nowhere" fiction.  They were all over Al Gore for his "earth tones".

V-centrist:

"Give me a break. I say run this woman through the ringers. She can give as many swarmy speeches as she wants...."

I agree but for the time being let her flail away. I think she may turn off as many voters as she turns on. Regardless, it will take a soft touch at first while her persona sets and becomes firm, then it should be open season. "All in good time, my pretty, all in good time."

That's not the only lie in the ad.  Seems the entire Republican party has bought into Roveing into fantasy land as a way of life.

Two obvious routes of attack here:

(1) Call Palin a "fibber." A fibber is like a liar, except a fibber is small-time. Like, if the president tells a lie, he's a liar. But if the crazy lady down the street who has too many cats and never mows her lawn tells a lie, it's a fib. Or if a child tells a lie, it's a fib. "Fibber" as a word communicates more than just the concept of dishonesty -- it also communicates being small-time and unserious.

(2) Call out Palin for "padding her resume." This is how you go after her "experience" without calling into question Obama's. It's not that Palin lacks experience, it's that she's dishonest about the experience she has and feels the need to claim credit for stuff she didn't do. You can't really go after her directly for tokenism, which if you could would be a potentially effective way to turn working-class voters against the McCain ticket. But if you've ever had to apply for a job, other people padding their resumes pisses you off. A lot.

Can you make both attacks stick? I'm not sure. But there's already ample evidence, and a moment of media willingness to go along, to make one or the other stick and so define Palin's identity for the rest of the campaign. If I had to choose, I'd go with number two, which is a slightly more complex narrative but, I think, more devastating if it sticks.

"Sara Palin has been so busy campaigning, she forgot to check her record. The McCain campaign wants us to leave her alone on the campaign trail, and let her record remain in Alaska. I think maybe it *is* time to open up the Alaska pipeline so we can get a little information."

Or some damn thing like that.

NO!!

Keep the focus on McCain.  This is a ruse to rile up and distract the Democrats.  Palin is not the issue; McCain.  His hug to Bush, his votes for Bush, his campaigning for Bush - he IS Bush and this should be the only message.  No need to distract surrogates or the VP.  Everyone, all, have to attack McCain and his record of the past four years, and the Republican platform.

No one votes for a VP and no one will change his or vote on whether Palin is a reformer.  The issue is McCain, Republican policies and his judgement.  That is all.

I'm with icarus.

Cross post from the dying bounce thread:

Yesterday McCain sort of acknowledged that people were suffering economically.  

Then he offered his solution: keep government out of the way.

Sick 'em, Barack!

"John McCain has--belatedly--acknowledged that in today's economy people are losing their jobs, that people are losing their homes, that some people are even having trouble putting food on the table.  So what does he offer to do to help?  Get out of the way!  Does he want to provide any assistance for American families who're having trouble making their payments?  Does he offer to use the tools of government--the keys to which he wants you to hand over to him at the ballot box--does he offer to use those tools to help?  To change the law so that predatory lenders cannot play with people's aspirations for a better life and destroy them?  Does he offer--as I do--to use the tools of government to create 5 million new jobs in clean energy technology?  Does he offer to help with job training for laid off workers and better, cheaper childcare for working parents?  Hell, no!  He offers to stand aside!  He offers to stand there with his hands in his pockets while people get run over by the runaway bus that is this George Bush economy."

I still think "George Bush in Lipstick" is the way to go. You tie the ticket to Bush and remind voters what happened last time we chose a folksy evangelical with ties to the oil industry who conned us into believing he'd reform Washington. That plus the Bush=McCain line of attack they've already got running the two reinforce each other. Full frontal assault on the Maverick ticket b.s., just as they assaulted Obama's strengths over the summer. And I agree with posters over at 538 that the Obama ad team should be borrowing a few tricks from last weeks Daily Show convention coverage.

dubyadoubt: That "O, Brother Where Art Thou" clip would be perfect for an ad if it hadn't come from Hollywood.

That ad is awful, It's looks like something the Onion would have produced.

I agree with ick -- the whole orientation of the campaign should be to make people think about a choice between "new ideas" or "four more years of the same," especially when they go into the booth on 11/4.  Palin is, despite all the Alaskan bells and whistles, a distraction.

You don't hit Palin; you hit McCain (it is, after all, a McCain ad, not a Palin ad).  There are two possible explanations for McCain's statement: either he genuinely doesn't know that Palin supported building the bridge, which would be alarming, or he does know and he's just flat-out lying (the actual explanation).

Here's the Obama campaign's response:

"“Despite being discredited over and over again by numerous news organizations, the McCain campaign continues to repeat the lie that Sarah Palin stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.  John McCain has voted with George Bush 90% of the time and he and Sarah Palin will continue Bush's economic policies, his health care policy, his education policy, his energy policy, and his foreign policy.  McCain and Palin will say or do anything to make people believe that they will change something besides the person sitting in the Oval Office.  That's the kind of politics people are tired of, and it's anything but change.”

I think this is roughly the right type of response.  Point out the lie and pivot to the broader message.  It's about McCain, not Palin.  Problem is that people see the ad and not the response.  

I really hope the press steps up here and it was good to see Chris Wallace do this.  But it is delicate.  It has to be about what Palin does, or has done, and not about Palin herself.  Which is tricky because, at base, they are one and the same.

McCain-Palin - a bridge to nowhere from Bush-Cheney.

Stop saying that attacking Palin is a set-up.  There are enough things here, like EBay and of course this Bridge to start up the meme that Palin is a "serial exaggerator."  That's what they called Gore.  It was unfair to him, it will be fair to her.  And the way to do this is to pin it on McCain more than her, as in "John McCain is not telling the truth about his running mate.  Every objective source has said that McCain's central reason for choosing Palin, her supposed opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere, is phony.  But McCain continues to lie about it.  Oh, and Sarah Palin did not sell that plane on EBay either.  Do we need more fibs like the ones we've been hearing from Bush? "

OK, not great but that's the theme.

The statement is good but to upset the narrative about Palin, teevee is the only way to go, not little press releases to Politico and Mark Halpern.  Cut an ad now regarding all the lies at the Repub Convention, leading with McCain's.  

"Palin was for the infamous bridge before she was against it."

Dismiss her with that Kerry-izing line, then go back to blasting McSame.  Seems like the best strategy.

To see some big-time McCain flip flops and bad judgement, watch this clip starting at about 3:20 in. Obama should use it to make an ad:

www.thedailyshow.com/.../index.jhtml

Are you sure the "She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere" line is a lie? The Alaskan Democratic party said she did:

www.retireted.com/.../earmarks

Also here:

www.retireted.com/.../gravina-bridge

Governor Palin's office issued a press release on September 21, 2007:

-- “Ketchikan desires a better way to reach the airport, but the $398 million bridge is

not the answer,” said Governor Palin. “Despite the work of our congressional

delegation, we are about $329 million short of full funding for the bridge project, and

it’s clear that Congress has little interest in spending any more money on a bridge

between Ketchikan and Gravina Island,” Governor Palin added. “Much of the public’s

attitude toward Alaska bridges is based on inaccurate portrayals of the projects here.

But we need to focus on what we can do, rather than fight over what has happened.”

-- “The original purpose of this project was to improve access to Gravina Island, and we

will continue to work with the community to help them attain that goal,” Von

Scheben said.

Less than a year ago Sarah Palin was of the opinion that the American public was hostile to the bridge to nowhere - and the pork it represented - solely because of "innacurate portrayals of the project."

www.dot.state.ak.us/.../PR_0921_GravinaAccessProjRed.pdf

I don't think the McCain camp will be able to use the Bridge to Nowhere story for much longer. Even the Wall Street Journal has now started to call it a load of bull - the story not the campaign (although either would be true). Elizabeth Holmes and Laura Meckler write:

-- The Bridge to Nowhere argument isn't going much of anywhere.

-- Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government "thanks but no thanks" to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.

online.wsj.com/.../SB122090791901411709.html

She did stop the bridge, so be careful what you say. What is false is her implication that she told the Federal Government "thanks but no thanks". She told the Feds "thanks but I'll keep the money". And it is fair to point out that she supported it until it became clear that the state was going to have to pay too much money for it, with no Federal help.

To me, what she actually did relative to the bridge is defensible (Congress took out the earmark but left the money going to the state), but instead of telling us the truth about it she chose to turn it into a snappy line that is false. She and McCain should be hammered for that (we can hit both at the same time) until they have to resort to some kind of legalistic-seeming defense.

I really like the idea of hitting the McCain-Palin campaign for serial exaggeration and deception:

(1) she didn't tell the Feds thanks but no thanks

(2) she didn't sell the jet on eBay

(3) McCain claimed that being close to Russia was a basis for foreign policy expertise

(4) and more

Ht the McCain-Palin campaign over and over for exaggeration and deception. Hitting her is good, but just don't make the mistake of hitting her only -- its the McCain-Palin campaign.

Apparently, the Obama campaign reads TNR.  They put out the response ad that LDuncan wanted with the "for it before she was against it" line that cspencef wanted and the "Nowhere, Alaska" t-shirt picture that I wanted (ok, I didn't say that but it just goes to show that they can read minds as well).  And the ad quotes Crowley's post at the end.

www.youtube.com/watch

Looks like ABC just ran a story about how Dems in Alaska just credited Palin for doing precisely what she claims . . .

Fighting a Different Alaska Republican, Alaska Dems Credit Palin with Killing Bridge to Nowhere

September 08, 2008 4:38 PM

Conservative bloggers point out that in their campaign against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Alaska Democrats gave credit to Gov. Palin for helping to kill the Bridge to Nowhere.

“Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it," the Democrats say. "She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities."

On another page the Dems say, “Gov. Palin recently cancelled the Gravina Island Bridge near Ketchikan that would have connected the Alaska mainland with Gravina Island (population: 50)."

When good oppo goes bad!

- jpt

desmondclee -

There's a lot of Republican spin in the interpretation you propose. Josh Marshall unwinds the spin in a post titled: "Is the meme taking hold":

--We've now had a week of blaring headlines and one-liners about Sarah Palin as the mavericky, pork-busting reformer from Alaska. But we seem to be witnessing the first stirrings of a backlash and a dawning realization that the 'Sarah Palin' we've heard so much about over the last few days is a fraud of truly comical dimensions.

-- The McCain camp has made her signature issue shutting down the Bridge to Nowhere. But as The New Republic put it today that's just "a naked lie." And pretty much the same thing has been written today in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the AP, the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday even Fox's Chris Wallace called out Rick Davis on it.

talkingpointsmemo.com/.../214828.php

The bridge to nowhere is certainly not a case of "good oppo" going bad since the mainstream media is now calling the McCain camp out on its lie that Palin was responsible for ending the bridge to nowhere pork.

Susan Crabtree wrote the following in The Hill in October 2007:

-- This is the second time Republicans have leaned on Young to make major changes to an earmark he requested. In late 2005, as the result of pressure from the public and his own party and negative press attention, Young and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) agreed to release the obligation that Alaska use the $315 million earmarked in the transportation bill for the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” officially called the Gravina Access Project, and another known as “Don Young’s Way” (formerly called Knik Arm Bridge).

-- The state of Alaska still received the money, and last month as Stevens and Young faced FBI investigations in a separate matter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she would abandon efforts to build the Gravina Access Project.

Abandon does not look much like kill to me.

ndmackenzie,

I'm not sure what Republican spin you're talking about.  My post cut-and-pasted a blog by Jake Tapper of ABC News.  He's the one that characterized the Alaska Dems attack on Stevens as "good oppo gone bad."  To follow that up is a WaPo story where Stevens esssentially parrots back the same thing and where he absolves Palin of any wrongdoing.

I've heard both sides of this story, and I'll say that McCain's campaign insistence on pushing the "Bridge to Nowhere Story" is either aggressive campaigning of their reform agenda or inexplicable folly in pushing a story that has no legs.  

My hunch, McCain's campaign will not stop putting out the story nor will they answer to anybody in the press who disses them for doing so. If the howls grow too loud and often, they will blame Obama and the press, and blithely go on.

MSM doesn't matter, facts don't matter, comparing truth to. distortions and lies is irrelevant, all that matters is that John McCain is a war hero POW, Sarah Palin is a smart talking, pistol packing mother of five who zings Democrats with abandon.

Which do you believe? What don't you believe? That doesn't matter either.