As promised earlier, in today's episode of TPMtv we delve deeper into the question of how the McCain campaign is attempting to combat Obama on the issue of patriotism/Americanness (which is, in fact, a word).



You may notice a new face in today's episode. That would be TPM News Editor pro tem, Mr. Will Thomas (you can't see his name on the front page masthead because Will is a ghost, and ghosts are invisible on the masthead). As Dr. Venkman (yes, more doctors) would say, TPMtv has worked with better, but not many. Especially delightful is the way Will looks down at his own name on the screen just after saying it at the 9-second mark, as if to confirm.

Anyway, TPMtv is really quite thrilled that it's not just Sean Hannity and his Fox News buddies but now no less prominent McCain surrogates than former candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani coming out to question Obama's patriotism and link him to those American-despising Europeans. Predictable? Yes. Effective? Yet to be determined. But if the GOP really wants to play the Obama un-American game, they are going to have to go through Obama's most Real-ly American endorser: a one Hulk Hulkster J. Hulkamania Hogan. So then, a question to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani:
"What'cha gonna do? What'cha gonna do brother when the 24-inch pythons run wild on you?"



(Bravo, Huffington Post. Bra-vo.)

Late Update: So, you know that part in today's episode where Mitt Romney bashes Obama, saying he thinks Obama "looks toward Europe for a lot of his inspiration"? Will Thomas reminds TPMtv that as a matter of fact Romney himself spent two and a half years in guess where France serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And he's fluent in the language. So is his criticism of Obama a hypocrisy? Perhaps not. Mitt's in fact quite consistent disdain for France might be explained by this line from the above-linked National Review piece:

For two and a half years, he tried to spread his faith. He had a lot of doors slammed in his face. At one point, he was involved in a head-on car collision -- the driver in the other vehicle was drunk -- and French authorities said that he had been killed. Fortunately, the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated.

Reports of his death... where has TPMtv heard that before? Ah yes: