Obama opens new front on health care
HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Barack Obama today seized on what his campaign sees as a new opening to attack John McCain's health plan as risky and wrong-headed, but McCain's aides are accusing their Democratic rivals of spreading a lie.
At issue is an interview that McCain's senior economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, gave to CNN, in which he said that young, healthy Americans would be unlikely to leave their employer-based health care plans under a McCain administration, which would offer new tax credits to families to buy insurance on the private market.
"Why would they leave?" Holtz-Eakin was quoted as saying. "What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit."
Obama labeled this a "stunning" admission.
"This morning, we were offered a stunning bit of straight talk – an October surprise – from [McCain's] top economic advisor, who actually said that the health insurance people currently get from their employer is – and I quote – `way better' than the health care they would get if John McCain were president," Obama told more than 8,000 people inside an arena this afternoon at James Madison University.
"This is the point I've been making since Senator McCain unveiled his plan," he said. "It took until the last seven days of this election for his campaign to finally admit the truth. But, better late than never."
Holtz-Eakin fired back in a memo to reprters, saying Obama was using his fund-raising advantage to launch "a sustained campaign of half-truths, distortions, and outright lies about health care reform."
"Here's the truth," he wrote. "The question I answered was, 'Will the young and healthy leave their generous employer-sponsored coverage as the Obama campaign claims?' My response was that, obviously, if they had better coverage, they would not change. The Obama campaign deliberately took the quote out of context. This continues their disgraceful campaign."
Holtz-Eakin concluded, "When the truth is so ugly on your side, it takes a lot of money to mount an attack misleading enough to fool the American public."
Let's hope those invaluable independent fact-checkers give this one a thorough going-over.
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Oh Mr. Holtz-Eakin, I am so sorry. You sound pretty steamed-things are not going so well, are they? Those Obama "attacks and dirty tricks"-so disgraceful, with their policy analysis, and quoting, and discussing issues-how can one be expected to run a racist whisper campaign when one is continually held to their own words and broken policies?
Turnabout being fair play is sort of humorous!
I live in South Florida, and almost every day (for the past week) I have been receiving a direct mail postcard from the Republican National Committee. The card, with pictures on both sides, says NOTHING about the Republican ticket (McCain-Palin), but in a dark, somber, tone, using black brown and red colors, and 2 pictures of Barack Obama yelling "menacingly". The words question the integrity and patriotism of Mr. Obama. Mr. Holtz-Eakin and the McCain campaign, I suggest you try to find something positive to say about your campaign and how it is relevant to America. This mailing is the most pathetic form of character assassination, latent racism, and fear mongering I have ever seen...and it didn't work! I voted for Barack Obama one week ago!
I love it when the campaign that cherry picks soundbites gets cherry picked back and complains. Shows how much they are defending instead of on the offense.
Excuse me, Mr. Holtz-Eakin, guess you are so deep into McCain's campaign that you don't bother to look at the dispicable campaign John McCain and Palin have been running. And you say ther dems lie??? Is McCain hiding you, like he did Sarah Palin? YOU KNOW the TRUTH, Mr. Holtz-Eakin, and YOU KNOW WHO THE BIG LIARS are in the campaign, don't you? Come on, "my friend" admit it!! THE BIG LIARS ARE JOHN AND SARAH McCAIN/MCFAILIN'!! And YOU, Mr. Holtz-Eakin, are LYING ABOUT ABAMA LYING. SHAME ON YOU!! By now, I am convinced God has set aside a special corner in Hades for McCain and his gang!!
Boy, the other guys sure hate it when they get caught saying something they shouldn't have. Being quoted is such a bitch. You betcha!!!
Obama/Biden '08
Mr. Holtz-Eakin you should talk about a "disgraceful campaign" - you take the half turths to a new limit of double talk and lies with the help of FOX TV which is a total joke. It's not even a news channel any more, it's a propaganda channel.
This is what happens when politicos parse every single word everyone is saying instead of reading their written plans which are available online. Besides, promises on both sides are one thing; when whoever gets elected takes office, the campaign promises will give way to the corruption and greed in Washington which is limitless.
Yo, Mike, please quit the BSing. YOu know what this reminds me of? When Obama was complaining that they took Reverend Wright's quotes out of context. But whose side did the KoolAid drinkers jump to? OH, yes, it was OBama's. So unless this qualifies to you as "policy analysis, and quoting, and discussing issues" then Mr. Holtz-Eakin's claims of being misquoted can stand as far more justified.
I don't like double standards, thank you.
McLame has already lost.....
Ps
wow, i didn't notice how cooky you liberals are. Um, have you not noticed the kerzillions of Obama ads, 80% of which are attack ads on McCain?
PPs
Does voting for someone other than Obama qualify you as racist? In that case, all those voting against Hillary Clinton are sexist. See how stupid that is? Maybe you should be less insensitive, and people would take you slightly more seriously.
PPPs:
all this hating to the mccain campaign is more hateful than any negative ad i've ever seen... congrats on also becoming hypocrites!
GO SARAH PALIN!!!!
acorn and obama are using the same techniques that Hitler and Lenin and, to a certain extent Chavez, used to gain power.
They hire disenfranchised individuals to intimidate people at all levels of society in order to accede to the levers of power of local government first and of the Central government later.
once they gain power they reduce civil liberties to all political enemies, to the press and independent media.
i can see this happening here in the US if Obama wins as it appears to be likely
McCain's health care plan amounts to one simple idea: "deregulate the health insurance market." It is entirely contingent on removing the consumer protections provided by states to individual health insurance policies. If you think that a de-regulated financial industry screwed us, just wait to see what a de-regulated insurance industry does. It would be a disaster.
If you want an idea of what it is like to deal with insurance companies these days, just ask any of the thousands of Americans who have been affected by the myriad natural disasters to have befallen the U.S. in the last few years ( Hurricanes Katrina, Ivan Rita, Ike, Gustave, etc., flooding in the midwest and central U.S., forest fires in the west, tornadoes, etc ) You will hear horror story after horror story about unethical and underhanded insurance claims practices, and outright fraud on the public, by insurance adjusters trained to mislead, misrepresent, and strong-arm their own customers, instead of properly paying claims.
If you or a family member have been seriously ill and have had to deal with the nightmare of trying to get a straight answer out of your health insurer, or getting it to cover necessary but expensive treatment, or pay clearly covered expenses, you know how terrible it is already. Now, ask yourself, what would the insurance companies do if there was even LESS control on their ability to screw you? If you had even LESS consumer protection on your side?
McCain' s plan would be a disaster for the public - But Big Insurance would LOVE it!
Obama as the champion, that he is, for minorities, will do his very best to get them to take better and better jobs.
I wonder if one of those jobs they take, will be my very own. Who then will be my champion?
I like them getting rolled a bit in their own tactics. Clearly, McCain needs to clean up his act. Have a look at this article. "The Case Against McCain's Campaign Rhetoric" Posted by Richard Wagoner. I thought it was right on the money....
Out of context? McCain takes Obama out of context in every negative ad he runs. Obama was correct. You would not opt into McCain's health plan if you had another. It's not as stunning as Obama says its really more obvious.
I can see what Holtz-Eaken is so upset about: Can you imagine the trashing he got after that interview?
"You're not supposed to say employer-provided coverage 'is way better than what they could get with the tax credit.' Didn't you get the talking points? That tax credit is the best thing that ever happened in America. It will save lives, repair the fabric of democracy, create personal wealth and buy you a plumbing business."