McCain Sacks Campaign Staffer Who Sent Out Obama Video

The Whistler • March 21, 2008

The McCain campaign suspended blogger Soren Dayton from his campaign (full disclosure: I have a passing acquaintance with Soren in that we’ve exchanged a few emails and a Facebook friendship) for sending out a link to this YouTube video:

An aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for blasting out an inflammatory video that raises questions about Barack Obama’s patriotism.
Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, sent out the YouTube link of “Is Obama Wright?” on twitter at 12:31 today with the tag, “Good video on Obama and Wright.” It has since been taken down. . . .
Informed that Dayton was circulating the video, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said he had been suspended and “reprimanded by campaign leadership.”
“We have been very clear on the type of campaign we intend to run and this staffer acted in violation of our policy,” she said.

I really don’t see what’s so inflammatory about the video. All it really consists of is Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Rev. Wright talking so if it’s inflammatory it’s because of the subject matter, not the author. And Dayton wasn’t even the person responsible for making it.
But then again, why would McCain want to get mixed up in the Obama/Wright stuff? Obama is doing a pretty good job of imploding on his own right now, and McCain getting involved would only distract from that. So when Dayton innocently sent out a perfectly legitimate video to stoke the fires a bit he becomes the sacrificial lamb to keep the McCain camp out of the line of fire.
Good politics, I guess, but sad that it had to happen to a good guy like Soren.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics, The Loony Left

http://Array pparets

Whistler at 6:37 PM

[ you quoting me] “He has said from the get-go that his campaign will be on this issues and he has been consistant in dealing with anyone who violates that principle.”

[Your response] Probably doesn’t want all his skeletons exposed.

One of us is confused….
robert108

My observations are directed to you and you alone.

Another lie from you; you have described many as having “attacked” McCain, when we have simply described his actions and voting record.

Why do you claim to have no feelings of hostility when you write hostile words?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

If you don’t want to rehash, then don’t bring it up.

HUH?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

He has said from the get-go, that his campaign will be on the issues and he has been consistant in dealing with anyone on his team who violates that principle.

Probably doesn’t want all of his skeletons exposed.
carrick

Who brought it up. Carrick made a post about McCain’s plan to run things on the issues and not the skeletons in his opponents closet.

No I said, he didn’t want to engage in personal attacks. That’s different than dredging up skeletons, which I hope he would do.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

and if he did, you’d believe him?

We’ve been over all of this over and over. The truth is I’d vote for him if he made a clear promise.

We know he’ll stab conservatives in the back if he gets the chance. Still I think his ego won’t let him break a clear promise he’s made.

And if he does we can hold him to account for breaking his promise.
carrick

Anna:

He did nothing but post the truth.

No. If he had left it to clips of what they said, I would agree with you. He digitally altered the audio, some might say, to belittle or ridicule the speaker.

That certainly goes beyond simply “posting the truth”.

Rob:

I gotta disagree, Carrick. I don’t think going after Obama’s pastor is “personal” at all. You are who you associate with. Obama chose Wright and his church, and I think that tells us a lot about Barack Obama.

Nothing wrong with drawing attention to Wright, if necessary. I think, in some people’s opinion, though not my, the modification of the audio in the manner that was done crossed over the boundary to a personal attack.

Anyway, at the moment, Obama is doing such a great job of torpedoing himself, everybody else should step back, pop a beer, and enjoy the show…
carrick

If he had restricted himself to simply replay what they said it would have been no problem. I think he go in trouble because he did more than that.

I agree with you that McCain is doing better by staying out of the bloody fray at this point. There is plenty of substantive things to attack Obama on without resorting to personal attacks.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

So, Whistler: You all gung-ho for the dems? Or do you just hope for a McCain defeat?

No I hope that McCain comes out and says clearly that he’s not going to destroy the economic environment with his pig-headed McCain Leiberman scheme and will stop blocking us developing domestic sources of energy;
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

He did nothing but post the truth.
I guess he should’ve handed it off for someone else to youtube for him.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Whistler: No problem. We’ve been doing that for months on SA.

Sorry for bringing up his public record as opposed to skeletons in his closet.
pparets

robert108:

you lie

you have pimped for him

the crap you dish out

you lie again

sorry you don’t have integrity

I don’t attack you for your opinions
carrick

McCain continues to disappoint me.

Not me. Great political strategy so far.

And if you have a real strategy, as he obviously does, you have the right to demand it from people who work for you.
Hannitized

Good politics, I guess, but sad that it had to happen to a good guy like Soren.

This just goes to show the type of guy McCain is right? I mean stand by your guy in private, but the minute he starts to hurt you in public, disassociate yourself from him for the sake of politics.

This is the sort of thing you have been attacking Obama for, isn’t it? Yups.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

9/11 attackers = bad
Saddam = bad
Ergo, Saddam = 9/11 attackers

Al Qaeda = bad
Iran = bad
Ergo, Iran = Al Qaeda

Lee Harvey Oswaldo: Nice straw man! Maybe you and he could see the Wizard for a brain?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

-

Most likely by a black man.

I’m thinking by his wife, Michelle. After all Barrack is part of the establishment now.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Who brought it up. Carrick made a post about McCain’s plan to run things on the issues and not the skeletons in his opponents closet.

I took a stab that he’s doing this because he doesn’t want any skeletons in his closet coming out.

From there you turn this into being about me. Why? My disdain for the man has to do with his public record, not his skeletons.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

Double standards wear well on you Rob

Hmmm.

Although Senator Obama would now have us believe that he is shocked, shocked, at what Jeremiah Wright said, that he was not in the church when pastor Wright said those things from the pulpit, this still leaves the question of why he disinvited Wright from the event at which he announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination a year ago.

Either Barack Obama or his staff must have known then that Jeremiah Wright was not someone whom they wanted to expose to the media and to the media scrutiny to which that could lead.

-Thomas SowellMaybe he was afraid Wright would scare his grandmother?
Oswaldo

McCain continues to disappoint me.

Tell me about it.

He goes around telling the world something we hoped nobody noticed: even America’s leaders don’t know who’s who or what in the Middle East. Sunnis, Shiites, Al Qaeda, insurgents, uhh… ? Who’s on our side? Who’re the bad guys? Most frequently asked question: what the hell are we doing here, anyway?

Simplified logic McCain learned from Hannito-Reilly school of thought:

9/11 attackers = bad
Saddam = bad
Ergo, Saddam = 9/11 attackers

Al Qaeda = bad
Iran = bad
Ergo, Iran = Al Qaeda

Deus meus! Quo vadim?
robert108

Most likely, McCain throws fellow Republicans and conservatives under the bus because he wants to pander to Dems and “independents”. They are his real constituency.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Carrick, your point about the clever editing is valid, but somehow I get the idea that if the video hadn’t included that it still would have been an no no in McCain’s campaign.

Now he’s got a right to run HIS campaign the way he wants. Still I think that this is an important topic.
pparets

Whistler: No problem. We’ve been doing that for months on SA.
pparets

robert108: No lying, personal attack… and you know it. Your comment was pompously hostile and innacurate.

and then you go right on to another one…

pandering to the dems

Standing on his principal – a campaign on the issues only – is hardly pandering.

Its a breath of fresh air when compared to the vacuous and bullet-dodging antics of Obama and the outright deceptions of Clinton. Indeed, it’s very much in the style of Reagan.
Seth Williams

We can know that he wasn’t doing this stuff through the whole campaign because…he apparently wasn’t. Can you point to another instance, Hannitized? Also, there was no uproar followed by a delayed and tepid apologia and excuses. No, in this instance there was a decided lack of uproar – just a swift denunciation and dismissal.

If you can’t see the difference, it’s because you don’t want to.
pparets

You:

Huh?

You:

We’ve been over this over and over.

Me:

Well, maybe so, but it was you who opened the door [again] on this thread.

Me:

If you don’t want to rehash, then don’t bring it up.

Is that better?
Seth Williams

…by the way, Hannitized, what’s with the comment about Rob and “knee dimples”? Is that the best you can do: sophmoric ad hominem? Did you run out of real ideas?
pparets

Right now John Mccain is running a steady, low-key campaign in which he is definingn the issues: the war on Islamic jihad, gun-control and taxes.

He has said from the get-go, that his campaign will be on the issues and he has been consistant in dealing with anyone on his team who violates that principle. [What the 507's do down the road will be out of his control.]

His numbers are steadily climbing and if he picks the right running mate, we may yet be able to stop the effort to put an anti-war, socialized medicine, high-tax President in the White House.
Hannitized

Well, first off, Dayton hadn’t been working for McCain for twenty years before McCain took action.

Ahh…the 20 year rule. Got it. How do we know McCain hasn’t had him doing this stuff through the entire campaign and secretly approving of it? Sound familiar?

This is the first time this issue with Dayton came up, and McCain reacted.

You mean the first time he got caught, and that we know of. This is more of the same.

Double standards wear well on you Rob. Sort of like knee dimples.
http://www.neofascist.org/ Socialist

It’s understandable why Republicans must latch on to this and ride it out until November. Republicans have nothing else to run on except catastrophe. This is the only diversion they have from their own criminal acts and scandals, hypocrisy, incompetence, violating the Constitution, 9 trillion dollar national debt, year after year of massive budget deficits, massive trade deficits, a shitty economy, allowing 9/11 to happen, letting Bin Laden go, and deliberately starting a war on lies.
Seth Williams

When your enemy is busy destroying himself, don’t do anything to take the focus off him.

Had McCain not distanced himself from this, partisans from the other side could easily have claimed that he was no better than Obama as far as the company he kept and the speech he tacitly approved of. Whether this is an apt or fair comparison is irrelevent to the fact it could have been claimed and could have gained traction.

Distancing himself was a canny political move. Presidential even.
pparets

robert108:

He wants to pander to dems and “independents”..

That’s your idea of integrity?

You:

You lie again.

You again:

nor do I tell lies about you.

That’s you idea of integrity?
pparets

robert108: No one has attacked you with lies.

get used to it.

Get used to what? You passing off your own opinion as fact? Did that a long time ago.
robert108

robert108: There you go again. You and you alone know what anyone is thinking or doing.

Another lie from you; is that all you’ve got? The fact is you continue to write hostile words directed at me.
This is a difference of opinion; sorry you can’t handle that.
robert108

Your hostile words…(again)

What you are doing is semantic parsing. Sorry you don’t have the integrity to admit it, and move on.
pparets

sorry, robert108:

You:

I have never addressed your feelings, only your words.

Me:

Since hostility is a feeling…

Doesn’t look like parsing to me.
robert108

Nice cherry-picking, but those were all responses to your attacks.
robert108

Look, I think McCain overreacted to both Cunningham and Dayton, and IMO it’s about pandering to the Dems. I know it’s because McCain wants to be thought of as a “nice guy” by the Dems, but he hasn’t been much of a “nice guy” to people who work for him who are conservative. It’s worrisome to me. I don’t trust him because of that, because of his belief in the lie of global warming, because he wants to bring the terrorist scum from Gitmo here to the US and because of McCain/Feingold. That’s just a partial list.
Your trying to paint me as a bad guy isn’t going to change any of that.
pparets

Ok. Accepted. But please remember that John McCain was not my first choice back in January. But today – in my view – he is the only choice to stop the Obama juggernaught.

If I ‘pimp’ for anything, it’s to keep a democrat out of the White House. Both of them are horrible! [I think we agree on that much.]

Nice job on the M. K. Ham post! ’nuff said.
pparets

We’ve been all over this over and over

Well, maybe so, but it was you who opened the door on this thread.

probably doesn’t want his skeletons exposed

If you don’t want to rehash, then don’t bring it up.
robert108

I have never addressed your feelings, only your words.
robert108

robert108:

He wants to pander to dems and “independents”..

It’s a fact that that’s my opinion of McCain. I have formed that opinion from observing him, especially since you have been trying to pimp him on this blog. Before your onslaught of attacks, I felt lukewarm toward him, but now, seeing your total lack of integrity in dealing with a diverse opinion, I am more against him than ever. As a result of your attacks, I have examined McCain’s record and recent actions very closely, and I don’t like what I see.
To me, his actions against Cunningham and this blogger are way overdone, and show a desire to pander to the Dems, rather than simply express his principles. To me, he seems to care more about what the Dems think of him than what his fellow Republicans think of him, and from that I have deduced that he is more interested in winning them over than he is about winning me and other conservatives to his “cause”. That doesn’t make me want to vote for him.
I can still be won over, but that window of opportunity is closing, and the crap you dish out to those who don’t buy his schtick doesn’t help the situation at all.
Your hostility to me and to others who don’t buy McCain’s brand of Republicanism expresses the same attitude that McCain displays to me and to other conservatives.
You aren’t helping your cause.
robert108

pp: You maintain you have no hostile feelings, and yet you have written(and continue to write) hostile words toward me and others who don’t accept your affection for McCain as our candidate. What’s up with that?
http://magyartruth.blogspot.com/ Chief RZ

Zsa Zsa, I totally agree with you. They have played out this victim status long enough. Time for them to earn a living on their own now.
robert108

You passing off your own opinion as fact?

You lie again; I have always been clear that my opinion on McCain differs from yours; sorry you get your panties in a bunch over that. My opinions are no better or worse than yours. I don’t attack you for your opinions, nor do I tell lies about you. It’s called integrity.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Mrs. Obama would make such a great First Lady. NOT!!!
pparets

Move_Zig:

calling our rights a loophole and voting his support for closing it.

Might be helpful if you could provide a link on this.

In the meantime, there seems to be evidence that your claim is not accurate.

http://www.helium.com/items.898634-right-people-shall-infringed

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Gun_Control.htm
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

“As a black man, Barack can get shot just going to the gas station.”

-Michelle Obama, indignant, but pointless. (WOOF may have a soulmate!)

Didn’t the DC sniper (who was black) shoot a white woman at a gas station not too long ago?

Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, was killed early October 3, 2002 at a Shell gas station in Kensington, Maryland.
robert108

You pompously hostile and inaccurate
pronouncements are another.

I express an opinion you don’t like, and you resort to lying personal attack. You disappoint me, as well.

I expect that McCain would criticize that video, but IMO he went too far to pander to the Dems, just like he did with the guy who introduced him. That’s what disappointed me. He seems to care more about Dem feelings than he does about the opinions of those who he hopes to be his constituents, or maybe he doesn’t look upon us as his constituents.(?)
robert108

I agree with you that McCain will probably be marginally better than either of the Dems, but that’s not something that generates much enthusiasm for me.
My long term concern is for the image of the Republican Party. If I end up voting for him, that’s all McCain will get from me.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/entry/homosexuality_is_wrong_-_a_compendium move_zig

Right now John Mccain is running a steady, low-key campaign in which he is definingn the issues: the war on Islamic jihad, gun-control and taxes.

Dohf!!

Gun control, PP?

Kinda’ reminds me of McCain’s Freudian slip the other day when the truth accidently slipped out and he called himself a Liberal.

My guess is that you meant to say Second Amendment, or even the RKBA (Right to Keep and Bear Arms) or even Self Defense issues.

We Second Amendment types haven’t forgotten his pooping on our RKBA by calling our Second Amendment Rights a loophole and voting his support for closing it. No doubt you will point out that he recently signed onto the Amicus brief on Heller which was recently argued before the Supreme Court.

Even little Tommy Terror started acting angelic in November back in the days the Christmas stocking could be filled with a lump of coal and a switch instead of toys and sweets.

And it is the Season…

Besides, he has the luxury of running a quiet campaign since all Conservatives have been eliminated and what is left is only the Left Field with the two openly-Leftists eviscerating each other.

No great accomplishments there.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

The anti-americanists should go live somewhere else for awhile & see how they like it. The Dems would do well to let Obama go. We don’t need an anti-american President or First Lady.
pparets

robert108: Nice try with the “me and others” ploy. My observations are directed to you and you alone.
pparets

robert108: There you go again. You and you alone know what anyone is thinking or doing.
pparets

robert108: I feel no hostility whatever toward anyone on this blog. When you say, “in my opinion”, you are on safe ground.
robert108

McCain continues to disappoint me.
pparets

responses

Hahaha! Thats one way of describing them…
pparets

robert108:

your hostility

Since ‘hostility’ is a feeling, I was assuming that you would comprehend.
pparets

dems and independents. they are his real constituency.

That’s just a crock, robert108. John McCain’s popularity among registered republicans is currently at 84%. And his numbers are rising among independents, ala Ronald Reagan.

Your distaste for McCain is one thing. You pompously hostile and inaccurate pronouncements are another.
robert108

Indeed, it’s very much in the style of Reagan.

Now, that’s pompous arrogance!

You attack me with lies because I don’t buy your candidate. Until McCain wins me over, that’s the way it’s going to be; get used to it. I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
robert108

“As a black man, Barack can get shot just going to the gas station.”

-Michelle Obama

Most likely by a black man.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Why does Obama not put his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance?
pparets

So, Whistler: You all gung-ho for the dems? Or do you just hope for a McCain defeat?
robert108

Your hostile words… Nice parsing, but you knew what I meant and are just being annoying now.
http://www.dartemis.net/blog/ sayanything-42

Seth,

How does one run out of what one never had?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Why would you put your hand on your heart when you’ve been taught to hate your county like Obama has by his pastor?
pparets

Tell me about it.

As`always, robert108 brings the intelligencia to the table….
robert108

Statistically, black on black crime is far more likely than white on black crime. That’s a fact. Race hustlers like Michelle Obama ignore this inconvenient truth for political propaganda purposes.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Looks like a couple haters to me.
pparets

… and if he did, you’d believe him?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

There is plenty of substantive things to attack Obama on without resorting to personal attacks.

I gotta disagree, Carrick. I don’t think going after Obama’s pastor is “personal” at all. You are who you associate with. Obama chose Wright and his church, and I think that tells us a lot about Barack Obama.

Socialist,

This is the only diversion they have from their own criminal acts and scandals, hypocrisy, incompetence, violating the Constitution, 9 trillion dollar national debt, year after year of massive budget deficits, massive trade deficits, a shitty economy, allowing 9/11 to happen, letting Bin Laden go, and deliberately starting a war on lies.

I’ll believe you liberals care about the national debt when Democrats start talking about reining in Government spending. After all, “raise taxes” isn’t the only answer out there.

As for 9/11, you act like Clinton wasn’t President for eight years just before that happened. Also, Democrats have as many scandals as Republicans and are as often guilty of hypocrisy, nobody let bin Laden go, the economy isn’t anywhere near “shitty,” and while we deliberately went to war with Iraq it certainly wasn’t predicated upon lies.

Oh, and I’ve got a “trade deficit” with my grocer. Big flippin’ deal.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Carrick,

Anyway, at the moment, Obama is doing such a great job of torpedoing himself, everybody else should step back, pop a beer, and enjoy the show…

We’re in agreement there, and previously I thought you were talking about bringing up Wright in general. Clearly, Wright is fair game especially given how Obama has included him in the campaign.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

This just goes to show the type of guy McCain is right? I mean stand by your guy in private, but the minute he starts to hurt you in public, disassociate yourself from him for the sake of politics.

This is the sort of thing you have been attacking Obama for, isn’t it? Yups.

Well, first off, Dayton hadn’t been working for McCain for twenty years before McCain took action. This is the first time this issue with Dayton came up, and McCain reacted.

Unlike Obama who listened to Wright’s “God damn America” sermons for two decades before deciding (conveniently after it was brought up as a campaign issue) that he didn’t like them that much.

So yeah, the situations are the same just like apples and skyscrapers are the same.

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