(Jake Turcotte)
Obama, McCain campaigns blast each other over economy
By Jimmy Orr | 09.17.08
As financial fears escalate in the wake of continuing Wall Street chaos, both presidential campaigns are hitting the economy and each other hard.
Fanning out to the expected states (Ohio, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, and Michigan), the respective campaigns are trying to communicate to the American people that they are the ones who can better reform Wall Street.
Meanwhile, campaign offices full of young staffers are watching the speeches and press releases, ready to jump on any fumble. Both camps have displayed aggressiveness in their rapid responses.
Fire
Back out on the road — someone must have put something in Joe Biden’s coffee. The guy is on fire.
The Democratic nominee has a new stump speech, and there’s a lot of attack dog in it. Yesterday Biden blasted GOP charges that Obama isn’t as supportive of US troops as McCain.
“I am sick and tired of this Republican garbage,” he said. “I am sick and tired of being told we don’t care.”
Yeah, I’m angry
Today, in speaking about the financial crisis, Biden went after McCain for what he said was the Arizona senator’s revolving positions on financial deregulation.
“If I sound angry, it’s because I am angry,” Biden said. “I am sick and tired of this.”
“John has said to the folks on Wall Street, and again I’m quoting here – this is in the Wall Street Journal – I’m always for less regulation,” Biden said. “Here now, John has said he’s going to crack down on the greed on Wall Street. The greed of American corporations.”
“Lets take a look at John’s conversion here,” he continued. “Something happened on the road to Damascus. John fell off his horse, but he got back on the same horse.”
Oh yeah?
The McCain campaign shot back an email this morning, responding to Biden’s charges.
“If Barack Obama’s running mate wants to criticize distortions and misrepresentation, he should aim his accusations at Obama’s tax-talk versus his tax record – because Barack Obama has voted almost 100 times in just 3 years in support of higher taxes,” said Ben Porritt, McCain spokesman. “No matter how fiery the sales job, Ohio voters prefer John McCain’s maverick record of reforming government and fighting for change.”
Another volley
Campaigning in Elko, Nevada, Obama issued the sound bite of the day when responding to a McCain pledge to take on the “ol’ boys network” in Washington.
“Now he tells us that he’s the one who will take on the ol’ boy network,” Obama said . “The ol’ boy network? In the McCain campaign, that’s called a staff meeting.”
Ad wars
When the candidates aren’t talking at a campaign event, new political ads are doing the duty. Both campaigns released new commercials focused on the economy.
They are similar in that each features candidate talking directly to the camera about the credit crisis and the need for reform. But they are different in the length of the spots. McCain’s is the standard 30 seconds while Obama takes more of a “director’s cut” approach, issuing a rare two-minute commercial.
McCain’s mixes it up a bit, mentioning his opponent:
My opponent’s only solutions are talk and taxes. I’ll reform Wall Street and fix Washington. I’ve taken on tougher guys than this before.
Obama leaves out mention of McCain, opting just to explain what he’ll do to fix the economy:
End the “anything goes” culture on Wall Street with real regulation that protects your investments and pensions.
Negative campaigning
McCain goes negative and Obama does not — a pattern? No. It’s actually the opposite, according to a new study released today. The Wisconsin Advertising Project found that Obama went negative in 77 percent of his commercials last week while McCain’s were only 56 percent negative.
The director of the study, Ken Goldstein, said “advertising reflects reality” and that reality appears to suggest that Obama needed to fight back.
“It suggests that the Sarah Palin pick and the newfound aggressiveness by MCain got into Obama’s head a little bit,” Goldstein says. “He was under great pressure to show some spine, be aggressive, fire back.”
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2. CKU | 09.17.08
Wake up America?
Please, Republican corruption and incompetence? Don’t forget who the elected pawns of America have to go through… the Senate! Last I heard, it was mainly controlled by Democrats. I am not saying anyone is corrupt though, we have enough biased slander slung about, just merely stating you can’t leave all blame on the president. Unless you aren’t smart enough to realize that the Senate has the true power to get things done?
It will be interesting how this all ends up though… pretty interesting indeed!
3. Oregon4Obama | 09.17.08
McCain is a war hero….he’s already said he doesnt know much about the economy….he cant he still doesnt even know how many houses and properties he owns…..
Obama and Biden understand….Obama got a couple million from his books only a couple of years ago and biden is the poorest senator in congress…..they understand and their policies will actually help!!!!!
McCain is the person who has voted 90% of the time with bush….in 2002 he voted against regulations for corporations…..that kind of “turning a blind eye” to the business practices of the rich got us into this mess in the first place…..
McCain’s philosophy and voting record have come true under the Bush administration……For God’s sake people, put age, race and gender out of your mind and focus on the mission, vision and philosophies of these two candidates…..Obama’s plan will work and has been proven from his educational plan to his healthcare plan to work far better than Mccain according to independent analysts….Obama will take away corporate loopholes and tax breaks, and reset the Bush taxcuts to before he had taken office to afford his plans and put our country on the right track…..
Obama is the Change We Need, He understands the economy and his plan will work…..
4. Mike | 09.17.08
Hmm.. Interesting spin on Obama going more negative than McCain. I have seen his ads and they are truthful. He quotes the media and journalists who report that McCain is lying to all of us. You can call pointing that out as negative. I call it the truth about negativity.
5. Rusty | 09.17.08
Blame Pelosi and those cronies, we will never have an energy plan. Read the Obama tax code!! He says he won’t raise our taxes, but when the Bush tax cuts expire, he’s not going to do anything. He gets his tax raise without saying anything! sneaky, Obama is a socialist, he wants to redistribute wealth, and that is not the American way!!
6. Desert Storm Vet | 09.17.08
McCain gets a D rating from Vets group on his record. Obama gets a B+. Just more lies from McCain on his voting record. He does not support us Vets so why should any of you expect he will do anything to save your mortgage or lower the costs of education or healthcare. The guy votes against any of that stuff.
Keep lying McCain about your record. You rate right up there will Al Gore as the inventor of the Internet with the claim you invented the Blackberry.
When is the media gonna get tough on this guy and really compare his rhetoric to his record? He is going to regulate the banking industry? What a joke and its sad the we will all have to keep paying for it.
Media, please grow a pair or borrow one!
7. Andy | 09.17.08
I think ultimately, the financial crisis can be attributed to a single factor that has been at the root of all major crisis - Human nature. In an article analyzing the Lehman Brothers collapse, Tom Raum of the AP opines, “People bought homes they couldn’t afford. Investors eagerly bought mortgage-backed securities they didn’t understand. Human nature was a guiding force in markets that were first driven by greed and then shaken by fear.”
While age old economic theories work well against macro market behaviors, regulation that is informed by the erratic probabilities of human motivations is a new school that offers some new solutions to our current situation. Obama’s economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, is an economist who has been studying a branch of economics called behavioral economics…
I made the correlation after reading an article on MIT’s Technology Review - https://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/21220/
If my link gets stripped, search “Obama’s Geek Economist”, “Technology Review”, “MIT”.
It is easy to take McCain’s claims that Obama offers “big government” and “more regulation” and reform at face value, but we need specifics. America does not need MORE regulation, but SMARTER regulation that factors in the chaotic nature of human behaviors. While McCain wants to set up a commission to study this problem…Obama and his advisors have ALREADY been studying this for a long time…and have applied some of this thinking into his plans.
This is the kind of economic firepower we can expect from an Obama administration…this is the kind of innovation that will take America to our next stage of growth. Can we really trust McCain, who has said he does not understand old economics, to even begin to understand his new era?
I don’t know about you, but I’m voting for the smart one.
8. ea7 | 09.17.08
I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..
* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12&n bsp;ye ars as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
Yeah right.
9. Chris in Indiana | 09.17.08
I’ve been a life-long Republican and a proud one. I voted for Bush twice. But with the recent financial crisis, I am very concerned about McCain’s apparent lack of knowledge on the economy. It is very upsetting to me that as recently as Monday McCain said that ‘the fundamentals of the economy are strong’ but then today he has flip-flopped and now supports a more populist position which sounds intentionally non-specific as to what he would actually do.
As for negative campaign ads … the only ads I’ve seen are McCain’s and they are all negative.
I always vote … I could never fail to turn out on election day. Consequently, I fear I will have no choice but to vote for Obama in November unless McCain can inject some substance into his message.
10. jefflz | 09.17.08
Anyone like McCain who says the economy is fundamentally sound and then says what he means is that he has confidence in the soundness of the American worker is to say the least, confused in their thinking. He clearly lives in a dream world - if you have a family assets in excess of $100M you can afford to. The economy is teeteering on the brink of disaster due to Bush tax policies for the past eight years along with the laissez-faire attitude toward Wall Street. mcCain is way outside his element when it comes to the economy and it couldn’t become clearer every time he says anything about it. Is he unaware that Bush through his unrelenting degradation of all federal agencies including the SEC has let the Wall Street investment banking community leverage themselves into a crisis that resembles a potential Stock Market Crash of 1929? Tax payers will have trillions in debt to pay off before this is over. McCain backed him on these polices 100%. McCain is led in economic policy by Phil Gramm who is a bare-knuckle fighter against any oversight. McCain is the wrong person to take the lead in November.
11. al abama | 09.17.08
McCain, Obama and Biden have released their tax returns from recent years. Is Palin going to release her tax records before the election? I would like to see them.
12. Nobama | 09.18.08
Too many lies from Democrats who can’t handle the truth. All the McCain ads expose the truth and Dem’s can’t stand it; they are also afraid of a woman in power, and should get into this century already. And Please, Obama is black when he wants to be, and white when it’s convenience, and even then he’s not certain what religion he is. Do we want a racist for President? Hardly.
13. dom | 09.18.08
Obama and his supporters are growing desperate. The Obama campaign is sending me almost daily e-mails hitting me up for a $5 donation or sending me chicken little e-mails warning the sky is falling and only Obama can prevent the sky from crashing into the ground.
Oh yeah, should have mentioned this first up front. I’m in battleground Ohio and voting McCain/Palin 08.
Just wanted to relate the Obama campaign desperation to the nation. Hey that’s catchy — Obama’s Desperation Nation.
14. dom | 09.18.08
Obama and his supporters are growing desperate. The Obama campaign is sending me almost daily e-mails hitting me up for a $5 donation or sending me chicken little e-mails warning the sky is falling and only Obama can prevent the sky from crashing into the ground.
Oh yeah, should have mentioned this first up front. I’m in battleground Ohio and voting McCain/Palin 08.
Just wanted to relate the Obama campaign desperation to the nation. Hey that’s catchy — Obama’s Desperation Nation.
15. poetry | 09.18.08
How hilarious is it that Obama is picking fights with the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate? What a sorry excuse for a presidential candidate Obama is.
He is supposed to be showing the country that he is presidential material, yet all he is proving is that he is a common street thug who picks a fight with anyone who dares come onto his turf.
Obama thought HE was the “beauty queen” in this race, but it turns out that Sarah Palin is, in the BEST sense of the word. Sarah actually HAS reformed government in Alaska, whereas Obama has just joined hands with every Washington lobbyist and corporate CEO in sight (they are all singing “Kumbaya” together) — and they are all giving Obama piles of money and do not expect anything from Obama in return if he gets to be president. Oh, here come the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny, holding hands and singing “Hopey, changey Kumbaya.” Sweet. No, really … I really, really mean it … those corporate CEOs giving all that money to Obama neither want nor expect and would not even accept ANY favors from a President Obama — they just like the cut of his jib. I also believe there actually IS a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow! “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Here comes Santa Claus … here comes Santa Claus … the real one … the actual one … no, really, there is a Santa Claus and a Tooth Fairy and an Easter Bunny and Obama has not promised anything to all those “generous” corporate execs at Goldman Sachs ($689,280), JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($449,671), Citigroup Inc.($411,504), and UBS AG ($390,000). They just like to give Obama money, and Obama just likes to roll around on his living room floor on those dollar bills singing “Hopey, changey Kumbaya.”
16. StopTheAttacks | 09.22.08
Poetry wrote:
“How hilarious is it that Obama is picking fights with the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate? What a sorry excuse for a presidential candidate Obama is.”
We couldn’t agree more (with the former, not the latter). It sort of pokes holes in the whole ‘big tent’ mentality that we are sold by Democratic charlatans peddling their global citizen elixir. Such hypocrisy.
But perhaps not as hypocritical as the feminist movement that has, as they always do, proven that you can’t be a Republican and be a feminists (or a woman, for that matter).
Such a paradigm shift in positions; once thought of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, Republicans seem to be the ones who believe a woman can raise a family and pursue a career outside of the home (and the kitchen); liberal feminists, however, now suggest that it’s too much for a woman to balance.
Oh, how times have changed.
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. Michael | 09.17.08
McCain has allready said he “doesn’t know much about the economy”. And if he wins he will have Fiorina and Gramm running it. Wake up America, we don’t need another 4 years of Republican corruption and incompetence!