Obama hits harder on McCain
RALEIGH, N.C. –
In a strategic shift foreshadowed by two days of tougher attacks on GOP rival John McCain, Barack Obama’s campaign will use the four-day Democratic National Convention next week to relentlessly portray McCain as a carbon copy of President Bush and criticize his economic policies, ties to lobbyists and decades-long tenure in Washington.
The Obama campaign, aides confirm, is setting out to offer a stark contrast to McCain and his GOP brethren. The move is a conscious rejection of John Kerry’s decree that his 2004 convention project a positive message about Kerry and the Democratic Party while minimizing or eliminating entirely so-called red meat attacks on President Bush and the GOP.
“The convention will offer a series of contrasts and comparisons of the McCain record so voters can see how clearly the choice will be in November,” campaign spokesman Bill Burton told Fox. “The convention will also introduce Senator Obama to the country, but it will make sure to convey strongly the differences and choices Obama’s campaign presents with McCain’s.”
The convention will also, of course, highlight the Obama biography and serve as the broadest platform to date to introduce Obama to the country.
But far more memorable, perhaps, may be the speeches that attack McCain on the economy and portray, for example, his new-found commitment to offshore oil drilling as an industry-driven flip-flop rather than a shift driven by new facts and circumstances – as McCain characterizes it.
Here’s how Obama’s camp described McCain’s visit today to an offshore oil rig near New Orleans.
“For three decades, as our energy crisis grew, decision-making in Washington has been rigged against our national interests and the interests of American consumers,” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement. “And for almost that long, Senator McCain has been part of the problem. For decades, he has stood with the big oil companies and voted against the development of the alternative energy we need. And now he’s standing with the oil companies in opposing a bipartisan compromise in Congress that would expand offshore drilling and, at the same time, make serious investments in alternative energy to break our dependence on foreign oil. When it comes to solving our energy problems, John McCain is just more of the same and America can’t afford it.”
Obama’s camp offered another taste of things to come with biting remarks from Obama on Monday and Tuesday about McCain’s approach to politics and policy.
Today at the national Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Obama struck back at McCain’s speech to the same group Monday.
“…instead of just offering policy answers, he turned to a typical laundry list of political attacks,” Obama said. “He said that I have changed my position on Iraq when I have not. He said that I am for a path of ‘retreat and failure.’ And he declared, ‘Behind all of these claims and positions by Senator Obama lies the ambition to be president’ – suggesting, as he has so many times, that I put personal ambition before my country. That is John McCain’s prerogative. He can run that kind of campaign, and – frankly – that’s how political campaigns have been run in recent years. But I believe the American people are better than that. I believe that this defining moment demands something more of us. If we think that we can use the same partisan playbook where we just challenge our opponent’s patriotism to win an election, then the American people will lose.”
On Monday in New Mexico, Obama said McCain’s support for Bush-era tax cuts renders him out-of-touch to the concerns of average Americans. Obama also said McCain’s political advisers don’t know how to debate issues, so they’ve resorted to undermining Obama personally.
Obama strategists believe Kerry’s convention was too passive and gave Bush and the Republicans space to create their own message without having to respond to Democratic criticisms. The advisers say the convention contrasts will not be personal, but will cast a harsh light on McCain’s record, lobbyist relationships and similarities with Bush.
The approach is also meant to minimize the heavy emphasis on Obama’s charisma-driven campaign, rooting the attacks in choices about which candidate can better address voters’ economic anxieties.
The strategy does not come without risks.
First, it could damage Obama’s image as a rise-above-it politician who doesn’t want the campaign to become an endless series of charges-and-counter charges. Engaging McCain and attacking him could allow McCain to say Obama’s not really a new and inspiration leader, but a brass-knuckle politician like all the rest. Second, it’s sometimes unwise in politics to re-fight the last war with new tactics. Third, it was Kerry’s emphasis on a positive message that allowed Obama to wow the convention floor and first attract national attention with his upbeat keynote address.
Even so, Democratic strategists say Obama needs to toughen his stand on McCain and the convention is the best place to start.
“They do not feel like they’re slipping (in the polls), but they just think they need a clear definition of McCain supporting Bush economic policies, as well as being totally a DC figure,” said one Democrat familiar with the Obama campaign’s thinking.
As for the risks of “going negative,” another top Democratic strategist said it’s not a close call.
“He needs to do it because if you don’t fight back voters think you won’t fight for them,” said Mary Anne Marsh. “Therefore you have to do it to win their support. The benefit outweighs the cost.”
But other Democratic strategists wonder if taking on McCain might backfire, provoking sympathy for a Vietnam war hero who has built up a reputation – muddled to some degree by election-year conversions – of a GOP maverick who has defied lobbyists by pushing campaign finance reform and seeking to block pork-barrel spending carried out via congressional earmarks.
“The question would be how would McCain respond,” said one Democratic strategist. “Typically, you would want the status quo of this campaign to continue (in a pro-Democrat year in the polls). It’s risky. They must have polled this and focused-grouped it.”
I hope Obama does outline HIS plan……
to cut our military
to increase our taxes
to increase taxes on businesses
more tax credits to people who don’t even pay taxes
to continue to allow earmarks
to implement more social programs
to avoid true access for energy/ oil exploration and extraction
Change…..not really – just more left liberal antics
We need change alright…………….let’s start with electing a congress that will WORK for us.
We just don’t need Obama’s change…….
as bad as he looked saturday nite, he needs to get a pair because negotiating with our enemies is not going to work. an intellectual midget at the heigth of a mediocre career…..
Oh, thank goodness! We’re finally going to be “introduced” to Barack Obama. We haven’t seen nearly enough of him already. I don’t see how the conventions are going to make any difference in the election. From what I’ve seen, Obama’s supporters and McCain’s supporters can both watch the exact same footage of the candidates (like the Saddleback Forum Saturday night) and each side will have opposing opinions about how each candidate did, based on their preference before the whole thing started. I was already leaning toward McCain before the Forum, but after hearing his answers and his surprising sense of humor, I am strongly in his corner now. The contrast between the two was impressive, and I think Senator McCain hit it out of the ballpark. What is interesting, though, is that a supporter of Obama would say that he gave the better answers. To get back to the article, though…It would be nice if both candidates at their conventions would concentrate on what they can do for America, rather than nitpicking their opponent. And I would hope that the voters in this very important election will learn all they can about each candidate and vote based on the issues. We have so many resources available to make an informed voting decision. It would be a shame if people voted based solely on what they see in political ads and on bumper stickers. Maybe the debates will help clarify the candidates’ positions. I can dream, can’t I?
bo-rock (the chosen), says Bush is Mccains president. would someone ask him WHO IS his president.
… Just seeing how this new blog works.
He is not hitting hard enough. Obama’s total over at the real-time on-line poll at http://www.bop-o-rama.com are about to top 400,000. He is getting bopped by a over a two to one margin over McCain. Was it something he said?
Everybody, apart from the liberal dems, know that McCain is nothing like Bush and will offer something different to what the bush administrationis offering. He has crossed party lines when he thought it was right, but mostly votes in line with his party, like all dems and republicans.
Obama is banging on a dead door with this as its doing nothing but making him look like a weaker candidate, if its all he can come up with.
I would take McCain’s morals, values, his ability to make a stand on what he believes is right and best for our country over Obama any day. BHO paints a pretty picture with his eliquent speeches but BHO I believe is politicaly self motivated for his own gain and could care less about the directions this county is headed in.
BHO trying to make McCain look bad at the Demecratic convention will backfire on him for sure.
McCain invited BHO to townhall meeting to discuss the political issues with the American people but BHO knew he was no match for John McCain and that’s why he never accepted. BHO is so transparent and flip flops on almost every important issue for this country.
God Bless John McCain. Our next President of the United States.
Vote Obama and get a invitation to Putin’s next cocktail party.
Obama looks like he is doing a set at a comedy club. I guess it’s his attempt to talk down to the less intelligent people that support him. I saw one of Obama’s supporters on Hanity’s America and he did not tear Sean up like Obama said he would. Can you believe he sent someone to go after Hanity and not go on the show himself? McCain has been on the show many times with Colmes so don’t go there. McCain never called out Colmes like Obama has Sean and Sean has invited Obama to go on any of his shows. He will give him a list of questions just so Obama will know what’s coming and Obama send in a stunt double. So who is more Hollywood?
What a sweet plan by Obama, it is two fold. One he has people around him say nasty things about McCain. He then would appear to be the good guy by denouncing the people who made the comments. He himself makes comments that makes McCain look racist so McCain would fire back that he is using the race card. Now Obama closes the trap by saying that is not what he meant and McCain is cynical. The message that Obama wants to get out about McCain is delivered. Obama looks good denouncing the people that said it and makes McCain look bad by Obama calling him cynical because he is reading what he has said the wrong way. This make Obama look like the victim. Good plan just don’t be fooled by it. Obama is going to say whatever it takes to win and after he will, he will show his true intent which will leave people saying he didn’t say he would or wouldn’t do that. I don’t care that Obama does not look like George Washington or his name sounds like a terrorist. I vote for the Man and this man is trying to con us and should not win this election!
Who is this? UUhhhh,Welllll, UUUMMMM, IIIIIII, WEllllllll, Ummmm……the jerk is so worried about crafting the answer that caters to both sides, he doesn’t even have the gonads to say what he actually believes. What a coward. NOBAMAS 08
With O’bama’s experience, or should I say lack of it, I think the Dems need to spend their time at the convention convincing us independents that he capable of doing the job. I need to hear WHAT HE’S GOING TO DO, AND HOW HE’S GOING TO DO IT. If they’re going to spend their time attacking McCain, I don’t have to watch a convention for that. Just read the newspapers and watch anyone of O’bama’s speeches.
Obama has really been looking bad ever since his “Citizen of the World” speech in Berlin. Coming out now with the “tuff” talk after getting his butt kicked at the Saddleback Showdown, only makes him look that much more foolish. Comes across like a kid that got a bloody nose during recess and now wants to claim the other guy threw sand in his eyes.
Hillary said it best when she summarized the breath of Obama’s experience. He gave a pretty good speech in 2004, but there is not much else on his resume.
You’re all correct. We really need a president with strong morals like John McCain (cheated on his first wife). A leader who knows the ways of the world (no idea how to use a computer). A leader who can restore America as the leader and protector of the free world (Most other developed nations are scared to death of the idea that another Republican will be in power in America). Someone who can turn our economy around (Mccain has admitted he has very little knowledge of economics). Someone who is eloquent and well liked overseas. (my friends….my friends…my friends…Czechoslovakia)
‘McCain does not know what he is up against’…..O.K. to my mind that about sums up and does ‘in’ the Obama Campaign. Wouldn’t you rather have your candidate say ‘who’ McCain is up against instead of ‘What’ ?…..What this means to me is, that Obama is admitting he is a ‘fabricated’ ‘thing’ out before the public ‘built’ by a huge liberal, leftist , Marketing machine rather than a ‘true’, ’sincere’ ‘human candidate’. The reason he lost 9 points in a week in this recent ‘landslide’, is that millions of ‘human voters’, are leaning away from the ‘what’, and toward being ‘against’ the side of a great ‘human’ American and patriot, and not a ‘What’. It’s over folks.
The Cross in the Dirt issue is complex.
McCain told a story in 1999 about how when he was in capitivity in Vietnam on Christmas day, a soldier loosened his restraining ropes and drew a cross on the dirt floor of his cell with his boot, then erased it. McCain said this was a defining moment in his faith, as it showed him that two Christians could connect no matter their circumstances.
This is near identical to a story accredited to a Russian author named Solzhenitsyn in which he’s serving in a gulag in Siberia I think. He decides life isn’t worth living, so he leaves his labor line and walks over to a beach and sits down in the sand. He knows a guard will come over and shoot him in a head, and he’s fine with it. He hears the footsteps and braces himself. But its another prisoner, who draws a cross in the sand and walks away without saying a word. This renewed his faith in God and he found the willpower to survive through the rest of his imprisonment.
McCain is a huge fan of Solzhenitsyn:
“In McCain’s 2007 book Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them McCain devotes an entire chapter to Solzhenitsyn and his experiences as recounted in The Gulag Archipelago.”
Remember where I said McCain hadn’t talked about it until 1999? This is important, because he gave detailed accounts of his capitivity in both 1973 and 1995. In fact, the 1995 interview was about being a POW during Christmas. So it’s a little weird that he would leave such an important detail out. Especially one that would mirror an experience had by an author he admired.
“He needs to do it because if you don’t fight back voters think you won’t fight for them,” said Mary Anne Marsh. “Therefore you have to do it to win their support. The benefit outweighs the cost.”
Was Mary Anne the one that advised Obama to “implicate racism” against McCain just a few short weeks ago as well?
Did that not lose him about 10 percentage points in one week?
Brian,
Let me get this straight. You say McCain is immoral for getting a divorce yet you whack job libs stand around and cheer when babies are murdered from abortions.
BRIAN!
That was your kindergarten teacher telling you it’s time for a nappy.
McCain/Whoever ‘08 AND ‘12