Barackanophobia

Does the MSM offer a more responsible form of journalism than the unchecked torrents of the blogosphere? The Daily Show on fear of Barack Obama:

Second generation Clark

Now the discussion of the discussion begins.

Wesley Clark tries to counter key McCain narrative

Retired General Wesley Clark appeared on Face the Nation and sought to call into question a key component of Sen. McCain's campaign narrative: to wit, that his experience as a prisoner-of-war and service on the Senate Armed Forces Committee demonstrate that he is a tried and tested leader on matters of national security. Host Bob Schieffer appeared flabbergasted at the argument, but offered little in the way of rebuttal.

Are there limits on a war-time president's authority?

That's the question that the House judiciary committee was trying to get at with two of the most prominent lawyers to have served in the Bush Administration, David Addington and John Yoo. The excerpts below do not shed much light on whether either man truly believes there are any limits, but do reveal a determined effort not to answer questions that they don't want to answer.

And now a cable ad on the same theme

The question will be: how will the Obama campaign seek to counter this frame as it is unrolled across media? A related question: will this frame be convincing to undecided voters and will they buy that McCain still is a maverick after his literal and figurative embrace of Bush beginning with the 2004 campaign?

More on the developing effort to frame Obama

Over at Salon's War Room, Alex Koppleman dissects a memo released today by the McCain campaign that argues that Barack Obama is just another self-interested Washington politico while he is only interested in serving his country. This is clearly an effort to undercut the narrative that the Obama campaign has constructed to frame perceptions of the candidate: he is offering an alternative to self-serving politics as usual. Was the discussion between Hannity and Gingrich later the same day a coincidence, a matter of independent thinkers reaching the same conclusion at the same time? Unlikely. While there may not have been direct coordination, the memo and the Hannity piece demonstrate the manner in which political campaigns are able to move their frames out into the public discourse in an effort to turn them into 'common sense.' The presidential campaign will turn, to a great extent, on which campaign is most successful at doing this.

Fair & Balanced framing Obama

The recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned the D.C. handgun ban provided another opportunity for Sean Hannity to work with Newt Gingrich to frame Barack Obama in a manner that counters his campaign theme.