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MCCAIN GOES NEGATIVE, IOWA REPUBLICANS BRING IN KARL ROVE

Thursday, July 24, 2008
 

Des Moines, IA – The divided and increasingly desperate Republican Party of Iowa has shown just how out of touch they are by inviting embattled Bush/McCain advisor Karl Rove to headline a closed door fundraiser in Des Moines on Friday.  Rove's visit comes on the heels of Senator John McCain's unveiling of the first negative ads of the general election campaign here in Iowa.

John McCain has two new smear ads currently running in Iowa.  These misleading ads are right out of Karl Rove's playbook.

In response to McCain's new attack ad on gas prices titled "Pump", the fact-checkers at Politifact said "we find McCain's claim to be false," and a fact-checker for Ohio's major newspapers said the ad's premise is "laughable."  The New York Times said the ad is "misleading on nearly every substantive point," and Washington Post notes that Senator McCain is attacking Obama on a position he himself held up until last month.

In the ad, Senator McCain laughably blames Sen. Obama for high gas prices.  However, McCain himself said recently that "our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been thirty years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington."  As someone who's been in Washington for 26 years, it is outrageous that Senator McCain would not acknowledge his failures to support renewable energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Senator McCain has repeatedly called for a positive and respectful campaign, but he has already broken this promise to the American people.  In addition to his negative television ads, Senator McCain has released fear-mongering internet ads that attempt to link Senator Obama to controversial foreign leaders.  

"John McCain is playing straight out of Karl Rove's playbook of fear mongering, attack ads, and smears," said Scott Brennan, Chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party.  "John McCain and Iowa Republicans are not speaking to the issues that Iowans care about, and instead are resorting to the same negative and divisive politics that have lead to Republicans' defeats in Iowa."

You can view the internet ads here and here.

 


McCain Put "Steve Schmidt, A Protégé Of Karl Rove, In Charge Of Day-To-Day Operations." The Detroit Free Press reported: "John McCain is restructuring his presidential campaign for the second time in a year, diminishing the duties of campaign manager Rick Davis and putting Steve Schmidt, a protege of Karl Rove, in charge of day-to-day operations." [Detroit Free Press, 7/6/08]

There Has Been Increasing Influence From Veterans Of Rove's Shop In The McCain Operation. The Star Tribune reported: "The move is the latest sign of increasing influence of veterans of Rove's shop in the McCain operation. Nicolle Wallace, who was communications director for Bush in the 2004 campaign (and in his White House) has joined the campaign as a senior adviser, and will travel with McCain every other week. Greg Jenkins, another veteran of Rove's operation who is a former Fox News producer and director of presidential advance in the Bush White House, was hired by Schmidt last week after a series of what McCain's advisers acknowledged were poorly executed campaign events." [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 7/2/08]

Krugman: McCain's Use Of Ex-Swift Boaters As Spokesmen "Tells Us The Campaign Has Decided…To Use The Strategy Karl Rove Used So Effectively." Krugman said: "The irony, not lost on Democrats, is that Col. Day himself has done what he falsely accused Wesley Clark of doing: he appeared in the 2004 Swift boat ads that impugned John Kerry's wartime service.  The willingness of the McCain campaign to engage in these tactics, employing such tainted spokesmen, tells us that the campaign has decided to go negative  --  specifically, to apply the strategy Karl Rove used so effectively in 2002 and 2004 (but not so effectively in 2006), that of portraying Democrats as unpatriotic." [New York Times, Krugman, 7/4/08]

Rove Has Been Offering Advice In Recent Days To McCain's Adviser On How To Get His Campaign On Track. New York Times reported: "Mr. Rove, who was Mr. Bush's senior political adviser until he left the White House last year, was said by Mr. McCain's advisers to have offered advice in recent days to Mr. Schmidt and others on how to get Mr. McCain's campaign on track, but has stayed mostly on the periphery." [New York Times, 7/3/08]

Dan Rather: "McCain Wants to Win…He Has Bought Into The Rovian Strategy." Dan Rather said on The Chris Matthews Show: "They want to win, and John McCain wants to win, because he has bought into the Rovian strategy for this next election." [NBC News, Chris Matthews Show, 6/20/08]

Former CIA Counterterror Boss Said He's "Disgusted" By McCain's Use Of Rove Strategy. New York Daily News reported that former CIA counterterror boss Richard Clarke said: ""I'm frankly a little disgusted by the attempts of some of my friends from the McCain campaign to use the same old, tired tactics," Clarke said. "To say [Obama] is weak on terrorism strikes me as just another example of the sort of Karl Rove strategy of taking what the truth is and doing the opposite."" [New York Daily News, 6/18/08]