Obama Questions GOP 'change'

(Political Animal)  OBAMA QUESTIONS GOP 'CHANGE'.... The more the McCain/Palin ticket tries to bill itself as an agent of change, despite embracing the Bush/Cheney policy agenda in its entirety, the more Barack Obama can't seem to believe it.

At an event in Flint, Michigan, this afternoon, Obama, for the second time in three days, questioned the Republican version of bringing "change" to Washington, and publicly questioned Sarah Palin's claim to the change mantle.

"She's you know, an up and comer from Alaska," Obama said. "They're starting to run an ad now saying she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Well now, let's get the facts clear here. When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks -- pork-barrel spending. All the things that John McCain says is bad, she lobbied to get! And got a whole lot of it. When it came to the bridge to nowhere, she was for it until everybody started raising a fuss about it and she started running for governor and then suddenly she was against it.

"You remember that? For it before you were against it?" Obama added. "I mean, you can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid."

Obama has begun including that line in just about every speech -- "The American people aren't stupid" -- as a catch-all way to respond to Republican talking points. I think it works pretty well. It's a rather direct way of making clear the fact that the Republican campaign strategy is premised entirely on the notion that voters are fools.