Kerry calls on Sununu to denounce McCain robocalls, blasts McCain for negative campaigning

[ProSense]

October 18, 2008

Kerry calls on Sununu to denounce McCain robocalls, blasts McCain for negative campaigning

By Jeremy P. Jacobs



U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston) in Nashua, N.H., Saturday: Politicker PhotoNASHUA, N.H. - John Kerry called on fellow U.S. Sen. John Sununu on Saturday to denounce robocalls run in New Hampshire by Republican John McCain's presidential campaign that link Barack Obama to the 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

"Let me say something to John Sununu, those robocalls that are being run here in the state of New Hampshire by John McCain's campaign somehow trying to scare people and link Barack Obama with a past that he had nothing to do with are utterly disgraceful and have no place in American politics," the Boston Democrat said. "I call on John Sununu to break his silence and come out and tell the people of New Hampshire that those calls have no place in the Granite State."

Kerry was speaking to a crowd of about 150 before they set out to canvass on behalf of Obama and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen, who is currently locked in a tight race with Sununu. Politicker.com's Pindell Report currently ranks the New Hampshire Senate race as the seventh most competitive in the country.

McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee have launched a series of robocalls in competitive states across the country, including New Hampshire and Maine. Kerry noted that Susan Collins, a Republican U.S. senator from Maine who is running for re-election this year, has denounced the robocalls.

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[Hope And Change]

1. Thank you Sen. Kerry.K & R!

[ProSense]

2. It's great that he has the opportunity to

hit both McCain and Sununu. That seat should be in the Democrats' column.

[wisteria]

3. I wouldn't expect Sununu to come out and denounce anything that might help get a Repub elected.

I do like Kerry's strategy - call him out on this. Let's see if the media does their job.

[Tatiana]

4. Thank you, Sen. Kerry. He hit the Rethugs with a double whammy.

Smart strategy.

[ProSense]

9. Yes,

Of course, McCain has sold his soul. Sununu should lose his seat.

[HughMoran]

5. Good for Kerry

I doubt that filthy hateful troll Sununu will do anything to denounce hate.

[ProSense]

6. Big News Orgs Picking Up On Magnitude Of McCain's Robo-Slime Campaign

Big News Orgs Picking Up On Magnitude Of McCain's Robo-Slime Campaign

By Greg Sargent - October 18, 2008, 5:20PM

The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN are now getting serious about picking up on the story of John McCain's robo-slime campaign, all weighing in with pieces that endeavor to demonstrate the true breadth and scope of McCain's under-the-radar smear effort.

The Times piece is here. WaPo's is here. And you can watch CNN's report on the video below.

The Times piece hits directly hits on two key points: First, the calls are "misleading," as the paper puts it, perhaps too delicately. And second, the calls show McCain yet again jettisoning a formerly claimed principle as he faces the increasingly likely prospect of defeat. As the paper notes, McCain high-mindedly denounced such tactics when he was the target of them in 2000, and again during the GOP primary this year, when he described the robo-slime being directed at him as "scurrilous stuff."

It's worth stepping back to ponder what's really going on here. While McCain and Sarah Palin try to persuade you that they're running a relatively clean campaign and don't question Obama's patriotism or love of country, they are running an enormous shadow campaign to smear Obama in the ugliest of ways, one that's designed to portray him as a friend of terrorists, as a vaguely sinister other, as not genuinely committed to defending our country, and as callously indifferent to the lives of newborn babies.

Thus, while Palin was sweetly claiming yesterday that she knows "Obama loves America," her and McCain's campaign were funding thousands upon thousands of calls telling battleground state voters that Obama put "Hollywood above America" during the crisis negotiations, that Obama and Dems merely "say" they want to keep you safe and "aren't who you think they are," and that Obama has "worked closely" with a "domestic terrorist" whose group "killed Americans."

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[ProSense]

7. Photos

[globalvillage]

8. Great photos

The little boy is adorable, and the Senator seems awfully interested in that cake.
Love the Hockey Moms!

[No Elephants]

10. Just as Carter was respected more in his post-Presidency, Kerry is getting respected more in his

post candidacy. He wanted the Presidency--and maybe he got it, but for Diebold--but he is beginning to mnake a great senior statesman.