McCain Campaign Plagiarizes from…Rachel Ray?

Remember that section on John McCain’s website devoted to his wife Cindy and her so-called favorite family recipes? Earlier I commented on how silly it seemed for the campaign to put something like that on a major presidential candidate’s website. But now I’m glad they did. On Monday, the Huffington Post reported that a New York woman who was searching for recipes on Google kept noticing that in her search results, both the Food Network and Cindy McCain’s page consistently popped up next to each other:

On a section of McCain’s site called “Cindy’s Recipes,” you can find seven recipes attributed to Cindy McCain, each with the heading “McCain Family Recipe.” Ms. Handel quickly realized that some of the “McCain Family Recipes,” were in fact, word-for-word copies of recipes on the Food Network site.

Apparently the campaign is blaming “Farfallegate” on an unscrupulous intern who was supposed to get in touch with Mrs. McCain about her favorite recipes, but instead decided to just lift some recipes from the Food Network instead. The Food Network had no immediate comments about the matter, but Rachel Ray, a Democrat, was actually flattered:

My recipes are supposed to be accessible to everyone — interns, students, senators and families alike,” Ms. Ray said through a spokesman, Charlie Dougiello. “I personally find it flattering when anyone cooks my food.” Ms. Ray, a Democrat, then invited both McCains to share recipes on her show.

Why I’m bitter over the coverage of Obama’s recent speech

After the Rev. Wright story began to cool down, the media has apparently been salivating at the potential for another Obama misstep. Last week, Senator Obama spoke at a fundraiser in San Francisco and commented on his electability in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. Remember how the media chose to only play select clips from Rev. Wright’s sermons that were for the most part out of context? Well, here’s the snippet of Obama’s recent speech that has been flashed on TV screens nationwide:

So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Out of context, his choice of words seems a bit questionable, right? Well, here are some parts of his speech that you might want to read:

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide health care for every American. So we’ll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Now, I don’t have firsthand experience speaking with residents of Ohio or Pennsylvania, but from what I can gather from polls, people all around the country (especially in these two states) care about their economic well-being above all else. They’re worried about the prospect of a recession and are concerned about their job security, and apparently our current administration doesn’t give a hoot. It’s an understatement to say that people are bitter and cynical. I’m not someone who has to worry about being laid off, and I don’t go to bed at night wondering how I’m going to pay my bills, but I assure you that there are plenty of people just like me who also have an awfully sour taste in their mouths because of the way that the Bush administration has governed this country.

Senator John McCain went on the offensive, explaining that “These are the people that produced a generation that made the world safe for democracy. These are the people that have fundamental cultural, spiritual and other values that in my view have very little to do with their economic condition.”

Sen. Clinton called Obama’s remarks “elitist and divisive” and opined that he is “out of touch” with voters.

Cut the crap guys. When the economy is doing great, people are happy. Sure people care about their faith and the right to bear arms, but remember: it’s the economy, stupid. I would also vehemently disagree with the notion that Obama is elitist or out of touch. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; Obama has the will and some would say the audacity to say what we are all thinking. He spoke to us like adults in his historic speech on race relations, and once again, he is doing the same with these remarks. I think a lot of Americans would appreciate a president who finally speaks to us with candor and honesty.

I’ll leave you with some video responses by Sen. Obama.