Aug. 7, 2008
Obama Attacks Too Softly For Some
Washington Post: Some Democratic Strategists Want Candidate To Hit Back Harder Against McCain
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Video Candidate Branding Battle Presidential candidates John McCain and Barak Obama are getting personal in their campaign ads. Dean Reynolds reports on the success of this tactic.
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Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. answers a question from the audience, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008, at a town hall meeting at Concord High School in Elkhart, Ind. (AP)
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In-Depth VP Hot Sheet: Obama CBSNews.com ranks the top contenders to be Obama's running mate.
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Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
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Barack Obama released a television advertisement yesterday that questions John McCain's claims to be a "maverick," and he charged in a campaign appearance that the Republican displays independence only when it suits him politically.
Obama aides said Democratic hand-wringing about polls showing that the presidential race remains tight had nothing to do with the volleys.
"We are not going to base our campaign on the concerns of so-called campaign strategists on cable TV," spokesman Bill Burton said.
But the ad and the Democrat's rhetoric in Indiana appeared to up the ante in a campaign that took a distinct turn toward the negative last week.
"The price [McCain] paid for his party's nomination has been to reverse himself on position after position," Obama told a crowd of more than 1,000 at a high school gym in Elkhart. "That doesn't meet my definition of a maverick. You can't be a maverick when politically it's important for you but not a maverick when it doesn't work for you."
The parries come more than a week after his Republican opponent launched a string of increasingly personal attacks on Obama. McCain has said that his rival would lose a war in order to win a campaign, accused him of going to a gym rather than visiting wounded troops, and, while aides asserted that he had "played the race card," hinted that Obama has a messiah complex and portrayed him as a celebrity comparable to Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. That final line of assault continued yesterday with a new McCain ad, again mocking Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world."
Such attacks have raised worries among Democratic strategists -- haunted by John F. Kerry's 2004 run and Al Gore's razor-thin loss in 2000 -- that Obama has not responded in kind with a parallel assault on McCain's character. Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic strategists found those concerns to be widespread, although few wished to be quoted by name while Obama's campaign is demanding unity.
"Democrats are worried," said Tad Devine, a top strategist for Kerry who thinks Obama must stay on the high road. "We've been through two very tough elections at the national level, and it's very easy to lose confidence."
Obama's latest ad may be his toughest yet, using words and images to link McCain to President Bush and concluding: "The original maverick? Or just more of the same?"
But Democratic strategists said that it is nothing like the character attacks by McCain, and that the response could be far nastier, perhaps raising McCain's ethical scrape in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal, mocking his family wealth and designer shoes, or highlighting his age. After McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm suggested that the United States has become "a nation of whiners," Democratic strategists said Obama should have immediately started an ad blitz.
"If somebody attacks you, you have to frame the attack: 'This is the same old politics, or better yet, the Bush-Rove politics,' " something Obama has done well, said one Democratic strategist. "At the same time you do that, you have to counterattack. You don't want to look like a whiner. You want to look tough."
Said another Democratic consultant: "There needs to be a negative McCain track beyond the Bush policy stuff. One of the great strengths of the Obama campaign has been to not listen to the D.C. chattering class. They have a plan and they stick to it. But clearly, the D.C. chattering class are all wringing their hands."
A liberal advertising consultant said: "There's frustration there because they're watching these childish ad campaigns, and they know exactly how to answer it, but they're powerless to do so."
Powerless, that is, because most of the independent groups that would have taken the lead in such an independent campaign have been sidelined by Obama's insistence that Democratic donors channel their money to him, rather than outside groups. Obama's efforts have succeeded in maintaining message discipline in a campaign predicated on what the senator from Illinois has called a new kind of politics.
But that has hamstrung what would have been one of the three fronts on which Democrats had hoped to wage the 2008 campaign, said Donna Brazile, Gore's 2000 campaign manager. Obama's team was able to push back quickly against McCain's character attacks, she said, and the Democratic National Committee is beginning to engage the Republican National Committee in a more cutting effort, yesterday starting an "Exxon-McCain '08" campaign that portrays the Republican as the running mate of the oil giant.
But the surrogate groups remain dormant, Brazile said, because of Obama's decision to cut them out.
"There are no independent groups. Everybody's walked off the field," said Tom Matzzie, who left MoveOn.org to form Progressive Media USA specifically to launch a massive attack against McCain. The group has since disbanded for lack of funding.
So far, said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's executive director, the best response to McCain's celebrity attack has come from Paris Hilton herself, who released her own ad Tuesday calling McCain "the oldest celebrity in the world, like super old." (Read more about the Paris Hilton video)
Consultants close to Obama say the Democrat has good reason not to risk his own campaign by following McCain's lead. Because McCain has accepted public financing for the general-election campaign, he must spend all his primary campaign money before the party conventions. Obama is focusing on turning out voters, while airing a mix of positive ads and responses.
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And more ads may not help, according to a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. Nearly half of respondents -- including 51 percent of independents -- said they have been hearing too much about Obama lately, and 22 percent said all that news has made them feel less favorable toward him. On the other hand, significantly more Americans view McCain's ads as mostly negative than say the same of Obama's.There's frustration there because they're watching these childish ad campaigns, and they know exactly how to answer it, but they're powerless to do so.
a liberal advertising consultantBecause Obama opted out of public financing and the spending limits that come with it, he will be free to swamp McCain with television spots in the fall. If he needs to become more negative at that point, he can -- knowing that McCain would be hard pressed to reply.
Obama spokesman Burton said the campaign sees no reason to shift strategy.
"This is a classic Washington story, anonymous quotes from armchair quarterbacks with no sense of our strategy, data or plan," he said.
Bacon reported from Elkhart, Ind.
By Jonathan Weisman and Perry Bacon Jr.
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 122 CommentsNEWS FLASH!
Date line Cyberspace 8/10/08 6:49 am EST
BAM BAM OBAMA 45,298 vs BIG MAC McCAIN 67,399
"Paris Effect" still being studied by both campaigns.
McCain''s http://www.BOP-O-METER.com tops 67,000 BOPS!
Obama''s http://www.BOP-O-METER.com tops 45,000 BOPS!
After a furious BOP FEST that went into the wee hours of Sunday morning, Obama jumps out with the fewest BOPS to close out the first full week at http://www.BOP-O-RAMA.com.
This reporter has not seen the like of this contest since "The Rumble in the Jungle," the great heavyweight fight between George Forman and Muhammad Ali. This with the Olympic''s is making for a rip roaring political season just before the big shows at the conventions.
Who will do a better job mobilizing there base in this instantly updated BOP POLL? Clearly the grass roots effect is working for the Obama campaign.
And what if any are these frenzied results of the first week part of the ever growing "PINK EFFECT!" The result of what is looking like a strong possible third party run by Paris!!!!!!
Well this reporter is signing off to get a cup of morning joe! If yesterday was any indication, this Sunday, August 10, 2008, could prove to be a BOPPING long day!
"Bop early and Bop often." --Alphonso Carponzo
The Bops are on at http://www.BOP-O-RAMA.com
Right. THe left does it''s own slime attackes thru Soros funded slime websites (all known by Ubama and his campaign), but because he''s not directly involved, he can claim he doesn''t support it.
You''re a liar and intellectually dishonest. I don''t believe for a minute that you are an independent. Even an idiot wouldn''t say what you said and claim to be independent.
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Posted by standlee5 at 09:47 PM :
A fiscal conservative? Now THAT is funny. The guy who is going to continue to spend billions in Iraq while at the same time cutting taxes!? You do realize the Iraq conflict is the only one in history where a President cut taxes during a time of "war". This is not your daddy''s Republican party anymore.
Your post will undoubtedly seem credible to the John Birch Society, but that''s about it.
and Obama isn''t? McCain, just by virtue of being a fiscal conservative is lightyears ahead of Obama.
He has no ammunition. nothing. McCain is just getting started he''s run a quiet little reserved campaign plugging away at the issues with real americans whereas Obama has been rockstarring around theworld with the thinnest of resume''s, spouting idealogy like a college student.
"The issue of economics is not something I''ve understood as well as I should. I''ve got Greenspan''s book." John Mccain
John mccain is clueless on economics he is adopting the economic policies of George bush, the president that added 5 trillion to the national debt. Mccain''s adviser says the bush mccain tax cuts for the rich will add 2 trillion to the national debt.
By Aaron Klein
) 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM %u2013 Palestinian brothers inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are listed in government election filings as having donated $29,521.54 to Sen. Barack Obama''''''''''''''''s campaign.
Donations of this nature would violate election laws, including prohibitions on receiving contributions from foreigners and guidelines against accepting more than $2,300 from one individual during a single election, Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, told WND in response to a query.
The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign''s lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions.
Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a series of donations in 2007 made to Obama''s campaign from two individuals, Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan, totaling $29,521.54.
Be careful what you ask for, as you just might get it.
"Well, it''s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That''s well known. And it''s unfortunate." Mccain before correcting himself by saying Iran was training "extremists," not Al Qaeda
"There''s no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there''s no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators." Mccain on the Iraq war, "Hardball" interview, March 24, 2003
"We''re going to prevail and we will win and it''ll be one of the best things that''s happened to America and the world in a long time ''cause it''ll reverberate throughout the Middle East." Mccain on the Iraq war, "Meet the Press" interview, March 3, 2003
Mccain says he has always been right on Iraq? I wonder what wrong would have looked like???
"No, I''m calling you a f*cking jerk." Mccain to fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, when Grassley asked "Are you calling me stupid?"
"Only an a**hole would put together a budget like this ... I wouldn''t call you an a**hole unless you really were an a**hole." Mccain to Budget Committee Chairman and fellow Repulican Sen. Pete Domenici, during a Senate budget hearing
"At least I don''t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt." Mccain to his wife, Cindy, after she playfully twirled his hair and said "You''re getting a little thin up there,"
Mccain treats his friends like this. It is no wonder he addresses everyone "my friend"
The contributions also raise numerous questions about the Obama campaign''''s lax online donation form, which apparently allows for the possibility of foreign contributions.
Last week, the Atlas Shrugs blog outlined a series of donations in 2007 made to Obama''''s campaign from two individuals, Monir Edwan and Hosam Edwan, totaling $29,521.54.
In an online form on Obama''''s campaign site, the Edwans listed their street as "Tal Esaltan," which they wrote was located in "Rafah, GA."
Rafah is not a city in Georgia. The Atlas blog immediately raised concerns that the money may have been donated from the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
The Edwans'''' donations are listed in both FEC filings and other election filing sites, such as CampaignMoney and donordata.org.
Monir made 20 donations ranging from $717 to $2017.50 from October through November 2007. His donations totaled $24321.41. Hosam made seven donations ranging from $508.63 to $1725.96, totaling $5,200.13, all in October 2007.
As any of his colleages in the Senate will attest, he is cantankerous, ill-tempered, and quick tempered person. I believe "loose cannon" is more accurate.
YOu should have taken lincoln''s advice: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
It seems mccain never tells his audience what he would do , he always says what obama would do? Mccain has nothing to run on, for he lacks vision and a clear messasage of where the country is going. That is why he contiually attacks obama
YOu compare bush and mccains foreign policy as a street fight. LMAO As a nation we have held the moral high grounds until bush arrived. Now we are the out cast tath took our ball and went home.
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