Local boy makes good. See, this is how you give an interview.
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I almost felt sorry for the pathetic republican response to this Ari guy. He just crushed the fake republican smiley guy. McCain and his spokesperson were just destroyed by this Ari guy – is he local?.
We need more of him calling out the lies of McCain in a rational, but pointed manner and not taking a backseat to republican lies. I especially liked how he called out the McCain lobbyist ties. About time democrats started calling him on his hypocrisy.
Ari took him to school. That was beautiful.
Note that it’s the MSNBC analyst that’s the Republican. So much for the liberal media.
Woodshed beatings are what the Wingnuts need. I saw this interview live and was literally cheering from my seat.
Ari Melber, is he a nice Jewish boy or what?
Born and raised in Seattle. Here’s his bio from arimelber.com:
Ari Melber is the Net movement correspondent for The Nationmagazine, the oldest political weekly in America, a writer for The Nation’s campaign blog and a columnist for The Politico. He is currently traveling with the Obama Campaign for The Washington Independent, and a contributing editor at the Personal Democracy Forum, a nonpartisan website covering technology’s impact on democracy.
Melber served as a Legislative Aide in the U.S. Senate and was a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign. As a commentator on public affairs, Melber has been quoted by publications such as The New York Times, Roll Call, and Time, and appeared on national radio and television, including CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX, FOX Business, NPR and Air America, on programs such as “American Morning,” “Washington Journal,” “Power Lunch,” “The Live Desk,” “Verdict,” “Weekend Live with Brian Wilson,” “MSNBC Reports with David Shuster,” “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” “MSNBC Election Night After Hours,” “MSNBC Live with Contessa Brewer,” “MSNBC Live with Amy Robach,” “MSNBC Live with Chris Jansing,” and “MSNBC Live with Alex Witt,” among others.
Melber has been a featured speaker at forums sponsored by the Harvard Law School, Yale Political Science Department; Campaign for America’s Future; Young Democrats of America; Democracy for America; New York’s Blogging Liberally; Personal Democracy Forum, YearlyKos 2006, the first national netroots convention, YearlyKos 2007 and Netroots Nation. He also served on the Advisory Committee to the YearlyKos Leadership Forum for seven presidential candidates in August 2007.
Melber’s commentary has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Forward, Alternet.org, CBSNews.com, TPMCafe, and The American Prospect Online, among others, and he has reviewed nonfiction books for The New York Post, Kirkus Reviews, and The Stranger. His writing has also been widely cited by publications across the spectrum, such as the New York Times Magazine, NYTimes.com, The Week, The Washington Times, WashingtonPost.com, Economist.com, Wired.com, Time.com, Reason.com, Slate, The Wall Street Journal Online, The National Review Online, The American Conservative Online, The Atlantic Monthly Online, The American Spectator Online and New York Magazine Online, among others. He is a contributor to “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” a bestselling book about political activism (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004). He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
hahahahaha.
Ari you have the last word.
What a piece of ambush “journalism”.
When the day is done and the ideas are on the table, John McCain wins.
Obama has been shouting from the rooftops that he is the agent of change.
But Obama has no record to back him up.
McCain does. Not only creating positive change, but reaching across the aisle to do so.
Deep down inside, you know this.
@ 5
When the day is done and the ideas are on the table, John McCain wins.
Which John McCain are you talking about? The one that was against the AIG bailout, or the one that as for it? The one that said our Economy is fundamentally sound, or the one who has now become a populist?
When the days is done and the ideas are on the table, John McCain is incoherent. And, so are you.
Incoherent. Hardly. Wishful thinking on your part.
McCain-Feingold.
McCain-Kennedy.
McCain-Lieberman.
The Gang of 14.
Who is reaching across the aisle to promote effective change? John McCain.
Who has no record to stand behind? Barrack Obama.
Where’s the beef? Where’s the Obama Record?
Nonexistent that’s where.
“In 2006, he pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — while Mr. Obama was notably silent. “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole,” Mr. McCain warned at the time.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....59_pf.html
@ 7 & 8
You’re talking about McCain the Senator, who was a very different person from the person McCain the Candidate has become.
Obama, Has reached across the ocean he forgot his running in America and never has here.
Obama brings up the RACE CARD DAILY.
OBAMA said he has a funny name and is not white.
OBAMA is NOTHING but words.
Obama’s economic plan, he said is coming someday maybe after Congress agrees with Bush on the plan.
Obama needs time ,time ,time ,days, days weeks,weeks, months,months, to see which way the wind is blowing. We can’t wait for the boy to learn. NOBAMA !
Vote McCain/Palin
@7,
McCain-Feingold: Gutted by the GOP dominated Supreme Court
McCain-Kennedy: Immigration reform shot down by the GOP filibustering obstructionists.
McCain-Lieberman (gun control). Opened more loopholes than it closed.
McCain-Lieberman (climate change) See GOP obstructionists above.
Gang of 14: A survile sniviling group that gave the Bush admin. what it wanted, an activist conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
McCain on Torture: Utter capitulation to the administration.
Note: McCain has pretty much renounced these “maverick” moves in his current kow-towing to the wingnut base of the party.
So which John McCain are you referring to? How many McCains are there? What evidence exists that McCain would ‘move to the center’ if elected? I submit there is none.
With the explosion in Islamabad, expect McCain to adopt Obama’s stance there too.
@8: The bill never passed the GOP Congress (they had their chance!), and was aimed at FannieFreddie management and accounting practices (Harold Raines, et al). It proposed shifting oversight to a private corporation, and actually DEregulated other federal oversight agencies. The bill was shelved when Democrats took control in 2006.
The bill was simply partisan nonsense and had nothing to do with the housing crisis then fully underway.
Nice try though. I see it’s now a big item on wingnut boards, and they are all telling the same lie. Bootstep lockstep–you guys never change.
I note Rob appears to have gone off his meds again.
@8: Have you read the bill?
All it did was give private control over Fannie and Freddie – less regulation and less control than now. It would have done nothing to stop the bad loans, the gambling on loans and the selling of loans that led to the banking crisis. The bill died a merciful death in the republican controlled congress.
Calling that bill reform is like calling the banking crisis a minor problem in confidence – like Phil Gramm did. The guy who actually wrote the deregulation bill and McCain’s main advisor on the economy is Phil (whiner) Gramm.
Is this the best example of leadership you have? Pathetic.
Exactly. You are pathetic.
Where is the bill?
Private Control over Fannie and Freddie?
Did it die in the Republican Controlled Congress?
Or was it shelved when the Democrats took control in 2006?
You can’t even get your stories straight.
Your lies and distortions don’t even take 5 minutes to expose as untruth.
You receive the following marks:
Totally Pathetic 9/10
3rd Rate Liar 4/10 (not quite competent yet)
Ability to win an argument using this facts when debating your left foot 0/10.
Mumbling Goldytard 10/10, your one area of excellence.
http://themountainsage.wordpre.....-may-2006/
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f.....nted=print
http://www.govtrack.us/congres.....ab=summary
@ 16
What’s pathetic is the right wing’s “social activism” argument. As I’ve asked several times before, and which no one from your side of the aisle has answered, please show the connection between Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and AIG. There is none.
This borders on comedy. Anyone who buys the idea that poor, minority folks can generate enough leverage, of any kind, to require a $700 billion bailout on Wall Street is an asshat of the first order.
@17 – Ok, let’s recap.
I point out that John McCain is the true agent of positive change, with a solid record of reaching across the aisle to make it happen.
When I point out several of McCain’s good works, I’m lambasted and McCain is accused of trying to add sham oversight, which is not the case.
And when I call that bluff (putting it kindly), and show that McCain called for actual reform and increased oversight, we turn to “social activism”?
The bottom line is that McCain has a solid record of positive change created by reaching across the aisle and working effectively with Democrats.
Please do show us the Obama record of positive change, facilitated by working closely with Republicans?
Deep down, you really like John McCain and you know he is the better, more experienced, more capable candidate for America.
@ 18
Let’s start with Obama’s record. While there’s the ethics reform work he did in Illinois, there’s also The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. That, alone, is a significant accomplishment for a first-term Senator.
As for McCain, apparently you didn’t read all of the information at your last link, which includes the following summary statement:
Excludes the Federal Home Loan Banks from certain securities reporting requirements.
So, exactly what “positive change” are you talking about? Greater oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? As has been pointed out several times already, that wouldn’t have done a thing to stem the current crisis.
Are you taking about excluding the “Federal Home Loan Banks from certain securities reporting requirements?” That’s exactly the kind of deregulation that has led to the current crisis.
Or, are you talking about the John McCain who would appoint Phil Gramm to Treasury Secretary?
No, there’s no way I want this John McCain in the White House. I love him as a Senator. In the White House, he’d be an even worse disaster than our current president has been.
Indeed, McCain is so bad a choice for President, that, even if Obama had no significant accomplishments whatsoever, I’d still prefer him over McCain.
hahahahahahaha.
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006?
Yeah.
Um.
Ok.
Did you happen to notice that McCain’s name is on that bill as well? Reaching across the aisle (well, you know the rest).
Your rationale for Obama is crumbling before your very eyes.
John McCain. True Change.
Wingnuts like McCain, NOW, because he’s flip-flopped to represent more of the same. He started singing their tune and they hummed along. They’re sheep.
But 6 months ago, wingnuts couldn’t hate him enough.
@ 20
“This was a real accomplishment for Obama in the name of reform.” — David Freddoso
If you don’t know who David Freddoso is, you don’t belong in this debate.
Your rationale for Obama is crumbling before your very eyes.
First of all, my rationale for goes well beyond any accomplishments he’s had as a reformer. ‘Course, this isn’t the first time you’ve pressed a straw man into service for rhetorical purposes.
Secondly, you’ll have to come up with more than a few campaign slogans to rehabilitate the case for McCain. You can start by answering the questions I asked above. In particular, exactly what has McCain done that has, or would have had, an indisputably “positive” outcome?
It’s pretty hilarious that a “leader” Zapporo has admitted to admiring in his distant trolling past, George W. Bush, makes no mention of McSame in the signing ceremony for the Transparency Act of 2006.
None, zip, zilch, nada. McSame of course is curiously absent during the ceremony.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.....60926.html
Quite amusing.
What? Conservatives still cringe at McCain’s name. Gang of 14. Ouch. McCain-Feingold? Double-Ouch.
To directly answer your question, John McCain nearly single handedly put campaign reform front and center before the American public and did so as a Republican.
It wasn’t so long ago that the Republicans outspent the Democrats by significant margins and brought us to this point of half a billion dollar presidential campaigns. So, yes, it says something about John McCain’s character for bucking the Republican establishment for campaign finance reform. And he’s paying the price dearly this election. Isn’t that positive?
I just look at Obama and just don’t see the charisma, accomplishments or even the conduct of someone ready to be President.
“Hillary, you’re likable enough”
@ 24
To directly answer your question, John McCain nearly single handedly put campaign reform front and center before the American public and did so as a Republican.
Then promptly ran afoul of that same law during the present campaign.
I’d hand you a shovel, but you’re doing an outstanding job of digging that hole all by yourself.
No.
No.
No.
George Herbert Walker Bush.
Get it right.
Naval Aviator.
The youngest pilot in the navy when he received his wings.
58 missions in the Pacific.
Shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire.
Rescued by an American submarine.
Ambassador to the United Nations
Chief of the U.S. Liaison office to China.
West Texas Oil Millionaire by age 40.
Most importantly, husband to Barbara Bush.
@25 Ran afoul? The Federal Election Commission disagrees.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26209231/
Did Obama break his pledge?
http://2008central.net/2008/06.....wn-pledge/
http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....break.html
http://donklephant.com/2008/06.....ce-pledge/
@ 27
You didn’t think that a feckless FEC was going to actually rule against John McCain, did you? Seriously, the violation has to be egregious and all McCain had to do was get his friends in the finance world to say that those loans weren’t really collateralized by his pledge to use public financing.
As for Obama’s pledge, do you even read the stuff that you link? Obama’s pledge was predicated on Republicans also using public financing, which is where your argument re McCain’s original loans becomes incoherent. The only way you can claim that Obama broke his pledge is if, in fact, McCain ran afoul of his own campaign finance reform.
By the way, speaking of McCain’s friends in the finance industry, McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis (well, the lobbying firm that Rick Davis owns), had been getting $15K a month from Fannie Mae through last August, and doing so for no services rendered. The only way that makes any sense is if the payments were made in anticipation of future services. Hm… Wonder what these future services might have been…