John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis–under the spotlight because of his work for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–is skipping a Wednesday lunch with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. On Tuesday, word came that McCain political director Mike DuHaime will substitute for Davis because he is “heading out on the trail
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The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign’s war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized
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Barack Obama canceled a pre-planned visit to the troops in Germany yesterday after being told that the trip would violate a Pentagon policy. However, the McCain campaign is now blasting Obama to say that he is ‘anti-troops’ because he didn’t visit the army bases. Note that McCain was denied a visit under the same policy [...]

I understand why John McCain’s campaign is desperately looking for negatives in Obama’s overseas trip. But why have so many in the media internalized the McCain campaign’s claptrap? Many of them have painted this as a negative aspect of Obama’s trip.
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One of the hallmarks of events at which George Bush appeared was the complete elimination of any dissent. At the center of this suppressive policy was Gregory Jenkins, the former deputy assistant to President Bush. The placement of Jenkins in charge of McCain campaign events is already producing the same heavy-handed, dissent-suppressing tactics.
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One of the hallmarks of events at which George Bush appeared was the complete elimination of any dissent. At the center of this suppressive policy was Gregory Jenkins, the former deputy assistant to President Bush. The placement of Jenkins in charge of McCain campaign events is already producing the same heavy-handed, dissent-suppressing tactics.
read more | [...]

That’s why the McCain campaign went into all-out outrage mode over General Clark’s comments. It wasn’t about being offended. It was about lashing out so strongly that the media would cower in fear, and not even think about putting a question like this to McCain — a question to which he has no answer, and [...]