NY Observer > John McCain

Lancman Impressed by Obama's Middle East Trip, Friedlander Less So

Azi Paybarah — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:22:37 -0400

Last night at the Bronx Democratic County Dinner, I ran into Ezra Friedlander, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Brooklyn and does political PR. He said he thought Barack Obama’s recent trip to the Middle East was good, but that John McCain “has a clearer understanding of the history and the players.”

Friedlander goes on to say he's "leaning towards" voting for McCain.

The trip did win over a once-skeptical Assemblyman Rory Lancman of Queens, who had offered his unsolicited advice to Obama before the trip.

This afternoon, Lancman put out a rather supportive statement, saying in part:

“For those of us whose familiarity with Senator Obama comes almost entirely from his twenty months as a presidential candidate, this closely scrutinized trip to the Middle East has been an opportunity to see him not as a mere candidate but as a potential president in a president's most important and challenging role - as commander in chief and leader of the free world. read more »

John and Cindy McCain's Former House Listed For $12 M.

Tom Acitelli — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:03:26 -0400

The former North Phoenix home of John and Cindy McCain has been listed for $12 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. The seller, Jane Popple, hopes to capitalize on the prospective first family's cachet: She's listing it for nearly four times what she paid Cindy McCain in 2006.

"If Mr. McCain does get elected," said Ms. Popple's broker, "obviously there will be a lot more value in a potential buyer's mind."

The house, on two acres, was Ms. McCain's childhood home and Senator McCain's family residence for 20 years.

So Much for the 'Nader Effect'

Steve Kornacki — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:38:33 -0400

It’s the summer of a presidential election year, which means it’s time to renew, for the fourth time since 1996, our quadrennial discussion of the hugely consequential role that Ralph Nader is poised to play in November.

The aging consumer advocate, in case you’ve forgotten or didn’t know in the first place, announced his candidacy on Meet the Press over the winter and, besides scoring some headlines in June when an indicted referee lent some (but not much) credence to his NBA conspiracy theories, hasn’t been heard from much since – until this week, when NBC News and The Wall Street Journal included his name in their latest poll. read more »

Cartoonists Agree: John McCain Old; Wife Fond of Pills; Constitution Very Flammable

Matt Haber — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:49:16 -0400

On Tuesday, Vanity Fair's Power & Politics blog posted a satire of The New Yorker's now legendary Barry Blitt cover of Barack and Michelle Obama as flag-burning, Osama bin Laden-honoring terrorists. In VF's version, drawn by illustrator Tim Bower, John and Cindy McCain are portrayed as their own worst caricatures: The presumptive Republican nominee for president is seen hunched over a walker, while his wife is juggling various prescription pills. On the wall is a painting of George W. Bush; in the fireplace, the Constitution.

But to several commenters—you know, those scourges of civilization—on VF.com, the cartoon was a little too similar to one by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's David Horsey that ran a week earlier. In it, the McCain's appear on the cover of The National Review, he's drooling in a wheelchair (mumbling to himself, "Bomb, bomb, bomb—bomb, bomb Iran"), she's pouring prescription pills into her hand. On the wall is a painting of Dick Cheney; in the fireplace, the Constitution. read more »

Sabato: Obama's 'Risky' Trip Has a Big Payoff

Jason Horowitz — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:49:32 -0400

The McCain campaign just released another statement taking issue with what they argue is the presumptuousness of Obama's speech in Berlin today:

"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. "Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it." read more »

Recent

McCain Camp Strikes After Obama Cancels Visit to Troops

Jason Horowitz — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:21:57 -0400

After Der Spiegel reported that Barack Obama canceled a trip to visit injured American troops in Germany, campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said it would have been inappropriate to go on a campaign-funded trip.

Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign does not agree.

“Barack Obama is wrong," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. "It is never ‘inappropriate’ to visit our men and women in the military.”

Media Fascination With Obama Is No Liberal Conspiracy

Steve Kornacki — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:12:00 -0400

Once again, the right is up in arms, yelling that the Liberal Media is conspiring to distort coverage and silence opposing views so that their chosen candidate might claim the White House. Several specific developments account for the current clamoring.

One is the presidential-level press coverage of Barack Obama’s trip to Afghanistan and the Middle East, where he’s been accompanied by all three network news anchors and many of the most prominent television and print correspondents. John McCain, meanwhile, has taken many similar excursions but never received remotely comparable coverage. And this week in particular, McCain seems sort of like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone – left by himself while everyone else heads overseas. read more »

A Why-Am-I-Here Moment for John McCain

Niall Stanage — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:44:42 -0400

Anyone who doubts the possibility of a landslide victory for Barack Obama in November probably didn't see John McCain on the stump this week.

The problem with Mr. McCain's appearances in Maine and New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday was not merely that the crowds he attracted were smaller or less ardent than those who customarily flock to see Mr. Obama – though they were. Nor was it that asserting his opponent would "lose a war in order to win a political campaign" smacked of frustration – though it did.

The more fundamental weakness was Mr. McCain’s failure to answer a very basic question: Why does he want to be president? His stump speech provided no compelling rationale for his candidacy and no real road map for where he wants to lead the nation. read more »

Real Estate Sits Out '08 Race—For Now

Dana Rubinstein — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:22:44 -0400

During a June 18 appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Steven Roth, New York real estate kingpin and the chairman and CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, suggested that a President Barack Obama could lead the United States out of its economic imbroglio.

“President Obama comes in, O.K.—that’s not a political prediction by the way, this is just a fantasy—and somehow or other, he does what he says he was going to do. He gets us out of the war,” began Mr. Roth in his heavily inflected New Yorkese.

In Mr. Roth’s imagined course of events—related to a deeply skeptical roundtable of pundits—the future president would use the billions of dollars that aren’t wasted overseas, coupled with increased tax revenues, to pay down the deficit. read more »

Charles Barron Slightly Less Unhappy With Obama Than With McCain

Azi Paybarah — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:30:32 -0400

I saw Charles Barron in City Hall earlier this morning and asked him what he thought of Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East.

Barron said he's unhappy to hear that Obama wants to send more troops into Afghanistan, but at least, in Barron's opinion, Obama is using his time better than John McCain.