The file has been circulating online recently, but Buzzfeed has posted the McCain 2008 campaign’s entire 200-page opposition research file on Mitt Romney. Enjoy the light bedside reading.
Posts Tagged ‘John McCain’
The Dirt on Mitt Romney
Posted: January 17, 2012 in 2008 Elections, 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, PoliticsTags: 2008 Elections, 2012 Elections, GOP Primaries, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Politics
The Martin Eisenstadt Hoax
Posted: November 13, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Hell Freezes Over, Humor, John McCain, Media, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, Carl Cameron, David Shuster, Fox News, Hell Freezes Over, Hoax, Humor, John McCain, Martin Eisenstadt, Media, MSNBC, Sarah Palin, Urban Myth
This could very well be the greatest stunt ever pulled on the media in modern times.
It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.
Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. “Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks,” Mr. Shuster said.
Trouble is, Martin Eisenstadt doesn’t exist. His blog does, but it’s a put-on. The think tank where he is a senior fellow — the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy — is just a Web site. The TV clips of him on YouTube are fakes.
And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.
I don’t know what’s sadder, that Sarah Palin set the bar so low with her gaffes that people believed this to be true, or that the media ran with it without checking his bona fides. Remember the famous line from Ronald Reagan: “Trust but verify.”
Circular Firing Squad
Posted: November 6, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah PalinTags: 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah Palin
Campaign post mortem edition. First up, Carl Cameron at Fox News:
And there’s also this contradictory account of whether foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann (who would have likely been National Security Adviser in a McCain administration) was fired by the campaign for making disparaging comments to the media days before the election.