…but I supposed the PeeDee and their coherts in the dead tree media will figure out a way that this ad is false and misleading. Bunch of bought and paid for schmucks.
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Posts tagged as:
campaigns
“Pocket” illustrates the clear choice in this election between an approach that keeps us sending billions to oil companies and foreign governments and one that gives middle class families a $1,000 rebate funded by a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.
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That’s question (and a good one) that Jonathan Chait asks:
Obama’s strategy seems predicated on convincing voters that they really, really like the inexperienced black guy with the foreign-sounding name. Convincing them not to vote for the other guy, the one who embraces the least popular president in modern history, sounds like a better bet to me.
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I mean, seriously. Do they smoke crack in meetings? First they criticize Obama for ditching troops in an ad that contains video of him visiting troops, now they put out an ad that when you watch it all you can think is:
“Fuck alot of people come out for Barack Obama”
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“He’s the biggest celebrity in the world”
Damn, that’s a HUGE concession that I wouldn’t be willing to make. Joe America is probably going to at least ask “well, if he’s that popular something must be up”. The beginning of this ad almost looks like it could be an Obama ad and the enduring message of it makes you completely ignore the ending. Hell, by the time they are talking about higher gas prices, taxes, and foreign oil I’m still thinking:
“Fuck alot of people come out for Barack Obama”
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Last word on the hypocrisy of McCain’s attacks against Obama for a trip he dared him to take. We’ve already established that McCain took a similar trip with similar motivations (paid for not by campaign funds like Obama, but with taxpayer money). I’m glad Obama is making the point I’ve made here with the last few posts:
“I was puzzled by this notion that somehow what we were doing was in any way different from what Senator McCain or a lot of presidential candidates have done in the past,†Obama said.
“Now, I admit we did it really well,†he added to laughter from the audience, “but that shouldn’t be a strike against me.â€
Yes. McCain came back from his trip with an embarassing video clip of Lieberman having to remind him of his foreign policy expertise. Obama returns with video of 200,000 in Berlin cheering him on. I’d say it’s clear who did it better. I’m OK paying for one via my political contributions, but I sure didn’t want to pay for McCain’s boondoggle. I guess the GOP robbed me though and forced me to pay for McCain’s trip by calling it Senate business.
The shame.
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John McCain is playing checkers. That wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem so long as it were good checkers – and it’s not. Oh, and the fact that the Obama campaign is playing chess. Checkers requires good strategy and solid moves. Chess requires a mastery of the game and imagination.
This past weeks proves that there is a difference in how the two are playing the game. On the one hand you have the Obama camp’s absolutely stunning move to host his acceptance speech in an outdoor arena open to all, which will no doubt fill to a capacity 75,000 crowd. This move is both imaginative and symbolic. Lines up squarely with his narrative of being different and doing things differently. Change. It might even be such a bold move as to signal the beginning of a new era. Good stuff.
Then we have the overseas trip, which so far has completely wiped out any notion of Obama being too inexperienced and not Presidential. He looked entirely Presidential as compared to McCain who couldn’t get a grip on his supposed greatest strength – foreign policy. When you don’t know that Iraq and Pakistan don’t share a border or completely ignore Afghanistan in claiming Iraq is the “first major conflict after 9/11″, you appear to be losing the foreign policy battle. Checkers.
That the McCain campaign so much as dared Obama to go to Iraq is the final checkers-like move. To follow it up with whining about media coverage, buying ads in cities named Berlin in the states, and getting a cheese puff at Schmidt’s in German Village is further indication that the recent change in McCain campaign leadership made not one bit of difference.
McCain continues to play checkers and desperately try to jump Obama’s pieces. Obama turned McCain’s jump into Bxa4, beginning what will no doubt end in checkmate.
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Here’s an open question to anyone on the right who cares to answer it. Will the same WorldNet Wingnuts who demanded John Kerry open up his records also demand that John McCain sign Standard Form-180 and open up his military records as well? Full scrutiny is, aftterall, very important for the public to get a true sense for the man they may elect President in November. Right?
There are indeed very many questions to be answered. What does John “The Maverick War Hero” McCain have to hide???
…and where are the other 617 pages Senator?
The Navy may claim that it already released McCain’s record to the Associated Press on May 7, 2008 in response to the AP’s Freedom of Information Act request. But the McCain file the Navy released contained 19 pages — a two-page overview and 17 pages detailing Awards and Decorations. Each of these 17 pages is stamped with a number. These numbers range from 0069 to 0636. When arranged in ascending order, they precisely track the chronology of McCain’s career. It seems reasonable to ask the Navy whether there are at least 636 pages in McCain’s file, of which 617 weren’t released to the Associated Press.
I expect Blumer and Newsbusters to be all over this.
No wait. No I don’t!
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The faux outrage over public financing is laughable when you remember the deal John McCain too with the devil back when he was an also-ran. Finally the Obama camp (normally timely with this type of thing), thumps Senator McCain over the head with it:
David Plouffe brought a prop to his briefing with reporter: a copy of John McCain’s signature on a state election document in which he attested that he’d be taking public financing.
“John McCain is spending tens of millions of dollars, we believe, unlawfully,’ he said, waving the document.
The details of the argument over whether McCain used an acceptable or unacceptable loophole to secure a loan with the possibility of public financing is now before a court in a DNC lawsuit and subject to the FEC’s consideration.
“John McCain signed his name, ‘John McCain,” Ploufe said. “He got on the ballot attesting he would be in the primary system.”
“They’re out there throwing stones in glass houses on this,” he said of McCain’s attacks on Obama on public financing.
Thanks David. Little quicker on the trigger next time bro. Narratives set pretty quickly nowadays…like super glue.
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Very good decision. Why would you limit yourself to less than 100 million when you’ve already taken 250? In a primary? You don’t. Especially since there will likely be more as the movement of $25-$100 donations continues. We are not even close to tapped out, those of us who gave up to $100.
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$50 your way Senator. Anyone serious about change should signal their support of this decision to be financed by us and donate today!
McCain is toast from a fundraising standpoint. It’s the main reason – despite all the reformer straight talk BS – that he wanted desperately to corner Obama into taking public funds. No dice, John. Let’s belly up to the bar of public opinion and see who can raise the most money. How ’bout that? His only hope will be the slimeball 527s, and boy will they pile it on! You better believe it. All the more reason to hit the donate button!
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Apparently, having a Republican heap praise on a Democrat running for President is not so good for another Republican who happens to be running for the same job. Back during the primary, Illinois State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) was featured in an Obama ad talking about how the Senator did great work in Illinois getting both sides to work together (ie: get shit done).
John McCain has but the kibosh on any of that kind of talk. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Dillard has sent a letter to Obama strategist David Axelrod asking him not to use any of the footage shot with him in any ads in the general election. The Obama camp has said they will not.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were pissed back then when Kirk did the honorable thing and told the truth about Barack Obama’s service in the Illinois Senate. His response to these critics is something we should remember:
“I owe it to the American public and my friend, Sen. Obama, to tell the truth, for better or for worse, [about] what were the early years of his elected life in Springfield,” Dillard said recently. “In many ways, because he is the first African-American to have a realistic chance of being the president, I owe it to everyone to not be partisan in my reflections upon what was Sen. Obama’s record in a city in which Abraham Lincoln lived.”
Yes, Senator. You should tell the truth. Thanks for doing so. Took great courage.
I guess the stories of John McCain not getting this new media thing (along with staff) are true. I mean doesn’t the Senator understand that we on teh Interwebs can slice and dice Kirk’s ad spot any way we wish and that if it is desired to be seen it will?
:10 – :15 in this :30 spot:
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In case there were any feminist outliers who wanted to think about voting for John McCain over Barack Obama due to perceived treatment of Hillary Clinton:
Clayton Williams is a prominent person in Texas politics. Prominent enough to secure the GOP gubernatorial election in 1990. During this election campaign he said various things that decent people find abhorrent, such as joking about rape that “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” These remarks were publicized in Texas and perhaps played a role in Williams’ 1990 loss. But this is a big country, and there are lots of non-decent people out there. Thus, Williams was tapped as a fundraiser for John McCain and put together an event that was going to raise $300,00 for McCain.
Event gets cancelled. 300k is alot. Uncancelled. Bundled. Blah.
If you give two shits about women’s issues you will fervently work to defeat McCain and defend Obama at every turn. If we end up with McCain, we won’t be lying back and taking it, we’ll be bent over…for 4 more years. Think about it.
(via Atlantic)
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via AP:
Obama camp sees possible win without Ohio, Fla.
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Barack Obama’s campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections — Florida and Ohio.
In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections.
At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry.
The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.
Asked about his remarks, Plouffe said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.
They’ve changed the electoral math already. No reason for me to believe they won’t continue to. They won a nomination in a way that speaks to this untraditional methodology.
I’m hoping we can deliver Ohio and seal the deal, but it’s nice knowing we may not necessarily LOSE it for him. I think we’ll deliver and you’ll have to stay tuned to learn how. It’s in the works. 
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Today is the day. After some tough talk from some trusted friends, Hillary has finally decided to read the handwriting that has been on the wall for months. She will suspend her campaign and throw her support behind the presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
About time. I’m an Obama supporter and have been for a long time now, but I say the following as someone who wants real change from the Republican nightmare that got me blogging in the first place. Here is what I want to hear from Hillary:
She should rally her supporters and thank them for their loyal support. Nobody can question their loyalty, which rivaled anything Obama supporters could bring. That’s the reason for the division, this equal loyalty on both sides that was equally as stubborn as well.
She should remind her supporters that they can still honor her and support what she believes in by supporting Barack Obama. She should also tell them in no uncertain terms that any talk of protesting her not getting the nomination by voting for McCain would dishonor her personally. She shouldn’t give some weak “that would be the wrong thing to do” as she has in the past. She needs to make it personal. Tell them they will be offending her personally if they do such a thing.
Her tone in this speech needs to be precisely opposite from her speech after the June 3 contests. She should stand proud, but not be defiant. She should lament a loss, but be hopeful in what an Obama campaign in the general can bring.
She should remind everyone of the danger of not uniting and losing the momentum that has seen Democrats come out in record numbers while Republicans have essentially settled for John McCain. We’ve not settled, we’ve fiercely battled and picked the best candidate in an energetic process that set records. We must continue to set records in taking back this country from a McBush continuation of the George W. Bush nightmare.
Hillary is a political professional. She needs to pull out all the stops and give the speech of her life. it will not only help us in the general election and help to heal divisions and give us a spark going into the Obama-McCain battle, but will enhance her future political ambitions. To do that, she needs to talk just enough about her race and what she accomplished. Her focus, however, should be on what happens now and what her and her supporters should do to help us win.
Obama has given her and her supporters the space they need to do the right thing. It is hard. Thinking of Obama suspending his campaign makes me nauseous. I can completely relate to what some Hillary supporters must be feeling. I’m truly empathetic to that. I know it will take some time and all the right moves by both Hillary and Obama. She can open the door to that process. I expect he’ll continue it in a way that will honor her and her supporters. He has to.
I look forward to a new day of unity and focus on winning in November. It’s the most important contest since I began blogging and those of us on our side of the political spectrum can not take this lightly. We have to win.
Go Hillary. Help bring us together. You do that and I’ll work hard to forgive and forget the primary.
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I don’t think it can be said much better than this:
You know where I’m going, for you know where she went. Hillary Clinton complained again this week that sexism has been a major dynamic in her unsuccessful bid for political dominance. She is quoted by the Washington Post’s Lois Romano decrying the “sexist” treatment she received during the campaign, and the “incredible vitriol that has been engendered” by those who are “nothing but misogynists.” The New York Times reported she told sympathetic bloggers in a conference call that she is saddened by the “mean-spiritedness and terrible insults” that have been thrown “at you, for supporting me, and at women in general.”
Where to begin? One wants to be sympathetic to Mrs. Clinton at this point, if for no other reason than to show one’s range. But her last weeks have been, and her next weeks will likely be, one long exercise in summoning further denunciations. It is something new in politics, the How Else Can I Offend You Tour. And I suppose it is aimed not at voters — you don’t persuade anyone by complaining in this way, you only reinforce what your supporters already think — but at history, at the way history will tell the story of the reasons for her loss.
So, to address the charge that sexism did her in:
It is insulting, because it asserts that those who supported someone else this year were driven by low prejudice and mindless bias.
It is manipulative, because it asserts that if you want to be understood, both within the community and in the larger brotherhood of man, to be wholly without bias and prejudice, you must support Mrs. Clinton.
It is not true. Tough hill-country men voted for her, men so backward they’d give the lady a chair in the union hall. Tough Catholic men in the outer suburbs voted for her, men so backward they’d call a woman a lady. And all of them so naturally courteous that they’d realize, in offering the chair or addressing the lady, that they might have given offense, and awkwardly joke at themselves to take away the sting. These are great men. And Hillary got her share, more than her share, of their votes. She should be a guy and say thanks.
It is prissy. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters are now complaining about the Hillary nutcrackers sold at every airport shop. Boo hoo. If Golda Meir, a woman of not only proclaimed but actual toughness, heard about Golda nutcrackers, she would have bought them by the case and given them away as party favors.
It is sissy. It is blame-gaming, whining, a way of not taking responsibility, of not seeing your flaws and addressing them. You want to say “Girl, butch up, you are playing in the leagues, they get bruised in the leagues, they break each other’s bones, they like to hit you low and hear the crack, it’s like that for the boys and for the girls.”
And because the charge of sexism is all of the above, it is, ultimately, undermining of the position of women. Or rather it would be if its source were not someone broadly understood by friend and foe alike to be willing to say anything to gain advantage.
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It could be related to Israel. It could be related to misinformation. Or it could be related to skin color. It most likely is all three. I think the primary reason why Florida Jews (and all Floridians, really) aren’t warmed up to Obama is because he hasn’t been allowed to campaign there. Everywhere else he hasn’t campaigned yet he starts low and gains momentum. A recent New York Times piece examines why Florida Jews are expressing doubts about Obama.
Race within the Jewish community there does seem to play a factor:
“The people here, liberal people, will not vote for Obama because of his attitude towards Israel,†Ms. Weitz, 83, said, lingering over brunch.
“They’re going to vote for McCain,†she said.
Ms. Grossman, 80, agreed with her friend’s conclusion, but not her reasoning.
“They’ll pick on the minister thing, they’ll pick on the wife, but the major issue is color,†she said, quietly fingering a coffee cup.
The article points out how crazy misinformation about Obama is in the state, particularly South Florida. It will be important for Obama to campaign and for surrogates and other Democrats with sway to correct this.
Sometimes the racism isn’t even under the surface at all:
Some of the resistance to Mr. Obama’s candidacy seems just as rooted in anxiety about race as in anxiety about Israel. At brunch in Boynton Beach, Bob Welstein, who said he was in his 80s, said so bluntly. “Am I semi-racist? Yes,†he said.
Decades earlier, on the west side of Chicago, his mother was mugged and beaten by a black assailant, he said. It was “a beautiful Jewish neighborhood†— until black residents moved in, he said.
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