Obama looks to reclaim 'change'
DOVER, N.H. -- The pause for Sept. 11 now over, Barack Obama's campaign is setting a clear goal for the next 50 days: Reclaim the mantle of change.
With two new TV ads, a memo from campaign manager David Plouffe, fresh talking points for surrogates, and, presumably, a new stump presentation today from Obama himself, they are using the new tack to get back on offense after being knocked off message by John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin for his running mate.
"For the entire general election campaign, the McCain campaign has insisted that years in Washington should be the yardstick by which Americans measure their next president," Plouffe wrote in the memo, issued to reporters early this morning. "But in recent days, and with his selection of a running mate with no Washington experience, Senator McCain has abandoned his core argument. Now he and his strategists have belatedly come to the realization that, after eight disastrous years, the American people are demanding change."
He continued, "So the candidate who just months ago was openly boasting that he has been a faithful supporter of George W. Bush’s policies, and would continue them as president, now is improbably scrambling to offer himself as the candidate who will deliver the change America needs – even as President Bush holds a fundraiser for him today in Oklahoma. This is a debate we welcome. It is the debate America needs."
The two new ads (see below) are paired together to deliver a tandem message: The first ad features Obama talking directly to voters about what he calls "real change." The second, called "Still," is infused with 1980s footage of McCain in Congress. The narrator says, "Things have changed in the last 26 years. But McCain hasn't. He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an email."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds issued this statement in response: "What is becoming clear to the American people is the fact that Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan legislative accomplishment, no history of bucking his party and no chance of bringing change. The truth is, Barack Obama voted for $2.8 billion in corporate welfare for big oil companies, broke his pledge to voters on campaign finance, and has personally requested nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel spending for his home state – making his message of ‘change’ nothing more than an empty campaign slogan."
UPDATE: The McCain campaign released an ad of its own, again accusing Obama and his vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden, of making "desperate" attacks against Palin.
"He was the world's biggest celebrity, but his star is fading," the ad begins. "So they lashed out against Sarah Palin, dismissed her as 'good looking.' That backfired, so they said she was 'doing what she was told," then, desperately, called Sarah Palin a liar. How disrespectful."
Watch McCain's "disrespectful" ad:
Watch Obama's "Still" ad:
Watch Obama's "Real Change" ad:
Why wasn't Michelle Obama at the 9/11 Ground Zero ceremonies????
That's right, she's not proud of America. I forgot.
How childish can Obama get? How low? A six year old can use a computer and send an email. Does that make them qualified to be President?
How low can Obama get? Does it matter what clothes or glasses you wore in the 80s? Will our current look be cool in 2030?
I thought he was going to wage a different campaign. This is not Change and Hope. It's now called Hatred and Despair.
Obama is imploding.
You Republicans! I have seen people on the news saying they are going to vote for Palin because she is good looking.You guys say you are the more patriotic ones but yet you pick a VP because she is pretty.Just like you voted for Bush TWICE because you wanted to have a beer with him!!! People at the GOP Convention wearing buttons saying,"Palin is good looking." What is she going too do,sleep her way through problems like Interior Department did this week with BIG OIL COMPANIES!!!? No wonder we are disliked by other countries,because they see what idiots we are!
i was under the impression our president is definitely NOT A TYPIST -learning how to type and send email messages - perhaps Obama fails to comprehend the more important tasks our President is supposed to fulfill on a daily basis for the people who are instrumental in placing him there. President makes important decisions Obama- and sundry jobs of being computer savvy and transmitting emails are achieved by his underlings and helpers!!! If you don't even know that much, I fail to understand how you can manage the colossal and onerous task of leading our country in the right direction. I am scared to let my country in your feeble and inexperienced hands.
This is the right time for you to back off and do us a great favor.
Very much concerned Mom
Gibson is a joke, a morning talk show host and a silly womanly program to boot. Put her in front of Ted Koppel, a real journalist. The Gibber is now a journalist. She's ignornant, not bright, but republicans do not elect leaders; they elect people who follow instruction (e.g., George W., Reagan et al).
But something of greater concern to all Americans is the Nazi like tactics of the Evangelical party, the party of the anti-christ. Newt Gingrich is saying an attack against Palin is an attack against Jesus!! You got to be kidding.
VOTING MANIPULATION
State Republicans in Macomb Co, Michigan, though, have a plan to give the McCain campaign an edge: suppress the vote.
The chairman of the Republican Party in Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the GOP's effort to challenge voters on Election Day. "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," party chairman James Carabelli told the local paper in a telephone interview earlier this week.
State election rules allow parties to assign "election challengers" to polls to monitor the election. These volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they "have a good reason to believe" that the person is not eligible to vote."
The Michigan Republicans' planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being "true residents."
The scheme would, of course, disproportionately affect African-American families in the area, who are more likely to vote Democratic, and more likely to be in foreclosure as a result of sub-prime loans.
This is just part of a "comprehensive voter-challenge campaign" Michigan Republicans are launching this year, which will coordinate with the regional McCain campaign to train volunteers in challenging those who wish to vote on Election Day.
Asked about the GOP's efforts, Carabelli said, "I would rather not tell you all the things we are doing."
THEY DID THIS TO SOLDIERS SERVING IN IRAQ IN 2004.
There is nothing for Obama to "reclaim". He is smoothly sailing ahead. Go Obama!
it is true that obama has no record of being bipartisian, he votes lock step with the Dems (97% of the time).
I find it humourous that McCain can't use a computer.
GROW UP OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!
You're asking us to judge you as being fit or not for the presidency based on your presidential campaign experience since you have no other record of executive experience for us to go by.
Your childish behavior during this campaign is speaking volumes of your fitness for this lofty office.
Your temper tantrum reactions are giving us a glimpse as to how you will deal with those who disagree with your patent on ideas (e.g. change).
Your playground bullying behavior is showing us how you will react in times of stress and pressure.
As the polls drop against you, you are changing to your true colors. You are showing us you are NOT ready for prime time.
I am an Obama Mama!!
Barack Obama is the epitome of excelence an I know that PRESIDENT Obama will lead our country into greatness!
Obama-Biden '08
Since when did Obama have a patent on Change?
He throws a hissy fit when someone contests him over "mantle of change".
He's going down in the polls faster than Monica on Bill and he doesn't know what to do. Some leader he turned out to be.
The conversation continues, Obama and his surrogates taking shots at Palin
and McCain virtually untouched. If, as Obama recently claimed, a big qualification
for his candidacy, is running a big campaign, then he should look for another line of work. Incidentally his campaign budget is about 2% of the Alaska state budget, does that mean that Palin is fifty times more qualified than Obama is?
His campaign is way off track, he looked like a deer in headlights being interviewed by Oreilly, he's fine when able to project the 'cool' image, however whenever he's pressed, he stutters, makes long pauses and then usually says something quite banal.
Aren't we missing the point? On November 4, the election is neither about Palin nor Obama (nor McCain or Biden for that matter). The president works for me, my taxes pay his salary. Therefore, I'm not concerned about his/her experience, judgment, or looks, and I'm not voting for what he/she is capable of. Instead, I'm voting for the one who will carry out my wishes in office. I'm voting to preserve Social Security. I'm voting to reduce my health care costs. I'm voting to raise the minimum wage. I'm voting to stop corruption in Washington. Those are the issues I want to see in the news.
Obama's campaign managers are a joke.
When Palin was selected, they slammed her inexperience and made Obama look like tissue paper in the process.
NOW they release an ad intoning, 'John McCain was elected to the Senate in 1982...'
Joe Biden was elected in 1976!!!
Keep it up, guys!
McCain's inability to use a computer demonstrates that he lacks knowledge of technology, something the next president must be able to understand intricately, as it will be a major factor in solving the economy, energy independence, education reform, climate change.....
The Obama campaign's constant apoplectic propagandizing about generic "change" is starting to become boring. Change? What change? Well, let's see. A president with no relevant experience in foreign policy or military science. A president who spent his entire previous adult life in the company of left wing extremists, hate-mongering racist preachers, and Chicago machine politicians. Well, I guess that would indeed be change all right.
The Obama campaign's constant apoplectic propagandizing about generic "change" is starting to become boring. Change? What change? Well, let's see. A president with no relevant experience in foreign policy or military science. A president who spent his entire previous adult life in the company of left wing extremists, hate-mongering racist preachers, and Chicago machine politicians. Well, I guess that would indeed be change all right.
Obama/Biden must focus on the double talk and outright lies being spouted by McCain/ Palin. She lied about the eBay plane sale, about the Bridge to Nowhere, about her love for earmarks when mayor, about Troopergate; It is doubletalk to say McCain fought Republicans when he voted with Bush 93% of time on all major issues including war, taxes and healthcare. The Rove people are experts at using propaganda techniques like thr Big Lie, but Obama/Biden miust hammer home the truth: McCain is a Bush Republican: "You can't throw the bums out if you are one of the bums". Obama received the excellent advice that to win it is not whether you can take a punch that counts, it is whether or not you can give one. In the waning weeks ahead, Obama/Biden must follow three tracks: (1) Expose the McCain/Palin lies, (2)Get out the Obama/Biden policy message (3) Deliver hard direct blows at McCain/Palin as fake mavericks playing the American Idol game. In American politics, candidates to who don't fight back with iron fists lose to Swift Boaters and Willie Horton ads and Rove's specialty, The Big Lie.
The Obama campaign may be on the right track here in pointing out the rapid adjustment in a McCain campaign that is now co-opting the change message, but I think that the attack can be clearer. The attack should be about hypocrisy. The McCain campaign attacked Obama as being merely a symbol of a movement, charismatic but lacking substance. They said he was a person that has little or no relevant experience for the presidency. Then they made the tactical political decision to choose Palin...a symbol for a movement, a person that by any rational measure has less relevant experience for the presidency than many other prominent Republican women such as Christine Todd Whitman or Olympia Snowe or Kay Bailey Hutchinson etc. Now the Obama campaign should point out that the candidate that said he would rather lose an election than a war does not seem too worried about potentially ceding the leadership of a highly complex foreign policy challenge to a person who, whatever her intellectual merit, does not even have a comprehension of the myriad factors that could shape the resolution of this conflict, having through no fault of her own not been exposed to such in her career. Also, the Obama campaign could point out that McCain basically admitted last night, in his defense of Palin's mayoral experience, that he is disconnected from the challenges of ordinary people.
The Obama campaign may be on the right track here in pointing out the rapid adjustment in a McCain campaign that is now co-opting the change message but I think that the attack can be clearer. The attack should be about hypocrisy. The McCain campaign attacked Obama as being merely a symbol of a movement, charismatic but lacking substance. They said he was a person that has little or no relevant experience for the presidency. Then they made the tactical political decision to choose Palin: a symbol for a movement, a person that by any rational measure has less relevant experience for the presidency than many other prominent Republican women such as Christine Todd Whitman or Olympia Snowe or Kay Bailey Hutchinson etc. Now the Obama campaign should point out that the candidate that said he would rather lose an election than a war does not seem too worried about potentially ceding the leadership of a highly complex foreign policy challenge to a person who, whatever her intellectual merit, does not even have a comprehension of the myriad factors that could shape the resolution of this conflict, having, through no fault of her own, not been exposed to such in her career. Also, the Obama campaign could point out that McCain basically admitted, in his defense of Palin's mayoral experience, that he is disconnected from challenges of ordinary people.
To the person wondering where Michelle Obama was at Ground Zero. Um, she has kids, remember! Oh, I forgot, being a good mother and taking care of your kids doesn't matter anymore.
To the person wondering where Michelle Obama was at Ground Zero. Did you forget she has small kids? Just because Palin has no regard for the upbringing of her own kids doesn't mean Michelle Obama doesn't.
All this tit-for-tat is nauseating, but great article, Scott Helman. I met you in Des Moines, downtown. What a ride we've had in this race since then!
What we need is a real leader that is different from the current administration. How can a Republican claim that he is "different", that he'll bring real change? The Republican who is doing that is Bob Barr, not John McSame.
The "No Change Express" is not going to lead us to change. No, what they are going to do is lead us to war with Iran, Pakistan, Russia and keep us addicted to foreign oil, and the tax cut and spend lunacy of their fiscal irresponsibility.
If you want to see the leadership team with the best foreign policy, and domestic policy skills, look no further than Obama and Biden.
341-197+; that will be the margin of victory for Obama-Biden over McCain-Palin.
The undecideds are pondering their pick between what they perceive to be the lesser of two evils. The vast majority will look over the last eight years and judge whether they are better or worse off. Maybe they'll study the economy a bit (my IRA is in the tank, how about yours?); they'll consider the current value of housing, the national debt, the unemployment rate, the Republican scandals (on second thought, maybe they won't have that much time!)
I personally know four people who moved out of the country -- all American born and raised -- to seek jobs overseas. They are no longer counted among the unemployed, yet those jobs are now overseas.
People who think McCain offers anything other than more of the same are voting for beer and a new truck or they're just died in the wool Republicans.
Stop the drama, vote Obama-Biden.
Why worry about Michelle Obama being at Ground Zero when you should be worrying about why Sarah Palin's husband is in the Alaskan Independence Party? The party that wants Alaska to secede from the Union. How un-American is that?
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Send your comments to masspolitics@globe.com
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com