McCain's Face Value

The reason Lettermen lashed out at McCain last night in playing a make-up outtake from Mac's interview before Couric's program?

It's not just because McCain ditched Letterman at the last minute to do the interview.  It's because the McCain campaign has so manipulated and abused both the infotainment complex and the news and visual media, the people with the cameras are retaliating by calling McCain on just what a show he is. 

With McCain aspiring to Rove-level media manipulation (but butchering it), this frame, in particular, highlights a make-up artist simply toning up McCain's already applied "deadly serious, no-can-campaign, certainly-no-can-do-Letterman, national crisis face." 

Given McCain's spiraling level of acting out, by the way, it's no coincidence a McCain make-up feature would simultaneously pop up in the media sphere pulling at the surface of what is coming into clearer view as layer upon layer of phoniness.

David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign (YouTube)

Comments

[chimproller]

Funny to see McCain plaster on the makeup like a trollop, the old emotional queen.

[sadja]

I want to know/hear what it was McCain was saying to Couric while he was having his make-up done. Can anyone out there find this out? Dave started talking over him but he clearly mentions something with the word "democrats". What the hell did he say?!!!!!!

[NoContest]

McSane was shown, split screen on CNBC just now arriving at the airport at the same time Dodd, Schumer, Frank and others were announcing a compromise and agreement on The Big Deal. Too late, so sorry. The setting screamed out "poser" and "fraud" as he did his hurried penguin walk to the limo, racing against time to place his jowled mug in front of the cameras and in the middle of the action. Not the way he anticipated this playing out last night, starring in the role of Superman. Here I come to save the day.

[Rai]

One of the most interesting things Letterman said last night was that the road to the White House goes through him. It really wasn't a joke because the reality today is that shows like Letterman, Jon Stewart etc do hold enormous influence on viewers because they are able to say things that the MSM won't or can't, like calling McCain out that he really wasn't jetting off to DC to work on the bailout. Couple that with this type of image & McCain will pay a big price for dissing Letterman.

[Gasho]

The Dems in congress should finalize the bailout and announce all of the details, but not turn it over to Bush to sign until Monday morning. McCain will have to honor his pledge to skip the debate.. but have nothing important to do as an alternative. He'll be sitting in some hotel room with a scotch on ice watching his opponent on the TeeVee hammering his absent butt into the ground. Can you imagine the feeling in the pit of his stomach?

"Ohh, gosh, I should probably really really be there. [sip] Gosh, I should.. uh, awe this can't be good.. "

Did you ever have that dream that you missed the final exam.. or forgot to study.. or you're driving the car but you can't reach the steering wheel because you're in the back seat..

Poor Fella. What did the Republicans think would happen when the put the worst candidate they had on the ticket and let him pick a Mavericky VP as a running mate (.. and all as a follow-up to the worst President in history)???

[Tina]

McCain wears that much makeup because he looks like hell; he's not very healthy. So you can always see a visible layer of rosy foundation, even from a distance. That can't be good.

Letterman will have his pound of flesh. Count on it.

And yes, skipping the debates was bad and I think it will play out that way with the public.

[charlie]

If anyone hasn't seen the video of Letterman, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E
I'm surprised it's still on youtube.

It's interesting that the video appeared before the show aired live, very unusual. It actually appeared on Drudge first, which makes me think there is definitely a concerted effort on the media's part to expose this fraud.

[donna]

You forgot to mention the make up artist McCain hired makes $5000 a day.

Edwards $400 haircut? We heard about that endlessly from the media. This? Not so much.

[arizonaTOM]

dear BAGnewsnotes----
i love you & i read you all the time.....
would someone PLEASE do a post on eye-blink rates?
when Paulsen was "testifying," he was blinking a hundred times a minute.
when Bush gave his "panic oratorio," he hardly blinked At All.
i know there have been some psychological studies done regarding eye-blink rates----
have you thought about exploring this topic on your magnificent blog?

[Amber Vaesca]

Fluctuation in blink rates can be an indication of dishonesty. The key word there is fluctuation. With some people, when they are being dishonest they will start to blink more often than they would otherwise, and since this rate can change with over-all stress, it is best to make comparisons with their statements around the suspected lie, rather than historic footage. This makes it difficult to gauge because quite often we only have bits of footage available to look at. The tricky thing is that not all liars fluctuate, and blink rate fluctuation is really just an indicator of stress or nervousness changing within a person's mind. Some other factor could be causing them to act this way.

[Jan Angevine]

I have a dollar that says the McCain team is right now discussing whether the Maverick should wear a fight suit to the debate. Big sign, too: "Bail Out Accomplished."

[James Boettcher]

Eye Motion, Blink Rate, and Lying:

You can tell if someone is lying by looking at their eye motion.... as long as they are not consciously forcing themselves to look you "straight in the eye". For example, usually when someone lies, their eyes will look up and to the left briefly, which indicates that they are accessing the creative side of their brain during the formulation of their response. Eyes shifting up to the right indicate that they are accessing the memory portion of their brain and giving their answer out of an actual memory, not a creative response. This can be opposite for some people, and often correlates with whether a person is left or right handed. There are other ways to verify the honesty of a persons story too. If they always use the same words when they describe something that happened, it's a tip off that it is a fabrication. If you stop them, and ask for details in an interested friendly manner, then you will surely see this behavior, as they have no carefully practiced story to tell, and if lying must suddenly invent details. Now researchers in England say that their study confirms the relationship between lying, and blink rate. If you watch McCain's performance, you will see the correlation. I'm surprised his handlers didn't do a better job of coaching him. There's a polygraph on his face, and he fails the test! It's not so much a matter of exactly how fast they blink, but when.

---Liars are exposed by blinking
By Lucy Cockcroft---The Telegraph
20 Aug 2008

The best way to spot a liar is to look them in the eyes, according to scientists who say the number of times a person blinks will show if they are speaking the truth.

Liars blink less frequently than normal during the lie, and then speed up to around eight times faster than usual afterwards.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Non-verbal Behavior, means that blink rates could soon be used by professionals, such as the police and security forces, to tell when someone is being duplicitous.

Dr Sharon Leal, co-author of the study at Portsmouth University, said: "It is striking what different patterns in eye blinks emerged for liars and truth tellers.

"Such striking differences in behavior between liars and truth tellers are rarely seen in deception research."

Dr Leal said: 'Liars need to make up their stories and monitor their fabrication so that they are plausible and adhere to everything the observer knows or might find out.

'In addition, liars must remember their earlier statements, so that they appear consistent when re-telling their story and know what they told to whom. Liars will be more inclined than truth tellers to monitor and control their demeanor, so they will appear honest.'
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--Other Notes:

Our blink rate reflects psychological arousal in the manner of a polygraph test. The normal, resting blink rate of a human being is 20 closures per minute, with the average blink lasting one quarter of a second. Significantly faster rates may reflect emotional stress, as aroused, e.g., in the fight-or-flight response.(Karson 1992)

"Eye-blinking is another well-known primate movement. The moment you have the least little bit of stress, the eyelids blink, bang! bang! bang!" (Niko Tinbergen, in a 1974 Psychology Today interview)

In mental patients, eye-blink rates rise with anxious or tense topics, and with changes to a new topic (Kanfer 1960).

The average rate for someone speaking on TV is 31 to 50 blinks a minute--twice the relaxed rate (Tecce 1996).