Shooting Down The Maverick Myth

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBtbG5xjFBY]

Above is the latest ad from Obama to take on the claims that McCain and Palin are mavericks (via Marc Ambinder). There is far more which could be said on this subject in a thirty second spot. I have one specific complaint. When commenting on the often repeated charge that Palin has lied about changing her position on the “bridge to nowhere,” the ad quotes The New Republic. Rather than quoting a partisan liberal magazine it would have been better to quote on of many mainstream editorials which have hit McCain and Palin on such dishonest statements. Obama could have even quoted Chris Wallace of Fox News or The Wall Street Journal on this subject.

AP has done some fact checking on this ad noting, “McCain and Palin together have told a broader story about the bridge that is misleading.” They conclude:

Palin’s reputation for standing up to entrenched interests in Alaska is genuine. Her self-description as a leader who “championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress” is harder to square with the facts.

The governor has cut back on pork-barrel project requests, but in her two years in office, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. And as mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million.

While I agree with the need to debunk claim that McCain and Palin are mavericks, or that they offer anything significantly different from what the Republicans have already done to this country, I am also becoming troubled by the way in which the campaign is shaping up with Republicans being on the offensive and Obama responding. Perhaps he plans to do this more as we get closer to the election, but Obama needs to go more on the offensive with more arguments than comparing McCain to Bush. Defense might win football games, but it does not win political races.

There are many specific points to hit McCain on. Obama needs to summarize both his tax plan and McCain’s to show both that McCain has been lying in his attacks. He can even quote Fox News on that one! Obama needs to show that both candidates promise tax breaks but that the major difference is that McCain gives tax breaks to the top one tenth of one percent while Obama gives the breaks to the middle class.

Obama needs to go after McCain on health care, showing that McCain’s plans will not do hardly anything for the millions who are uninsured or underinsured. In the past Democrats have been at the disadvantage politically in being portrayed as bringing about radical change as their plans are mischaracterized as “socialized medicine.” This time it is McCain who has the health care policy which the average voter would find scary. Obama needs to show how McCain’s plans would increase out of pocket expenses even for the insured. What good is McCain’s puny tax cut for the middle class if they must pay far more for health care under McCain’s health care plan?

Obama needs to take on McCain more strongly on foreign policy. Rather than letting McCain take credit for supporting the surge, Obama needs to keep the issue focused on the primary question of deciding when to take the nation to war. Obama needs to point out that he was right and McCain was wrong, raising the question as to whether McCain can be trusted to make decisions of war and peace in the future.

We know McCain and Palin know how to attack. After all, they are Republicans. Force them to actually defend their policies when the facts are against them. Conservative are great at rhetoric, but their arguments fall apart every time when confronted with the facts.

1 Comment

  1. 1
    Angellight says:

    McCain and the GOP still want to play got-cha politics — Old-time Party Politics, which most Americans are weary and growing tired of.  The GOP lead us into a Pretend and Fake war, the Iraq invasion.  The Real war was and is in Afghanistan where Bin Ladin is hiding today.  That is not change you can believe in.  Most Americans want Truth and Authenticity.  We don’t want to be led into a fake war for oil!  We don’t want our young men and women dying for oil and a fake war that should have never been authorized.  John McCain likes to say he is good on national security, yet he voted Yes to authorize the fake war the Iraq War.  What we need desperately today is more honesty by our politicians in this nation instead of the politics of Got-cha, Lies and the tearing down of one’s opponent through dishonesty.  The debate should be about the real issues, not pretend wars or personal attacks and or empty and false slogans because it does nothing for the day to day lives of American people.
     
    The Republican operatives have belittled and berated Barack Obama as just speeches, however, Barack has over 20 years of experience in public service, plus a Natural Talent to organize and get things done, as evidenced by the successful running of his Campaign.  Barack Obama has an innate judgment as evidenced by his speaking out against the Iraq war when it was not popular because he had the intelligence and common sense to know that the real was was in Afghanistan not Iraq.  Bin Ladin did and does not live in Iraq.  Barack Obama has the ability to inspire people to unite in a common cause to bring about the Necessary Changes we need today.  Because if we do not unite for change, for true democracy, together we will all go down with the ship and be united anyway but in a negative way and not a positive way. 
     
    We definitely need a change in the way our politicians campaign which as to date, tears down one’s opponent through lies and dishonesty which only tears the country down and puts a bad taste in our mouths, though each candidate has the right to  point out true policy differences.   We should demand honesty and integrity from our politicians and stop letting them lead us down a yellow brick road of illusion, misstatements, lies and dirty political maneuvering!
     
    Barack Obama is no ordinary man.  He is not the Messiah, but he is an Old Soul or Disciple.  He was born to lead and born to take humanity to a higher stage of unity and prosperity.  His message has been throughout that all children are Everybody’s Children, and that we must change the “mindset” for going into wars.  He tells us that in order for us to make it as a society and solve our problems, that we must stop being divisive: gays against straight, Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, Christians must unite and respect one another’s religions.  That will be his greatest gift to humanity at this time — the ability to see each other as ourselves — or together we can go down with the ship.  Everyday he risks his life.  He is not running because he has a thirst for power.  He offers up his life for his love of humanity and to its next stage of evolution.  We should embrace this gift and offer up our prayers that he can finish his mission, his high calling.   We must stopped being fooled by politicians who only has the best interest of their pocketbooks and big corporations and not the pocket books of everyday average citizens.   It should not take 10 years for the minimum wage to be increased, there is no justification for that.  That should tell you there that politicians who vote no for an increase care nothing about your day to day struggles.  And you have to ask yourself “What has the GOP done for me lately”?  The years when the American Dream was thriving, they were years when there was Democratic Presidents and Congress.  That is the true party of the people.  If we are to get back to the American dream again we must put in office that party who has always been inclusive and the people’s champion.  That party is the Democratic Party.
     
    And lastly we must not listen to those who refuse to understand the changing of the old order, and the awakening of humanity to the new possibilities.  We need a complete purification of the political and economical arenas which would be of the greatest value in bringing back Americas greatness and strength.

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