Bwak, Bwak Barack
15 February 2008 1:20 pm by Taylor Marsh
Bwak, Bwak Barack
Still afraid to debate Clinton in Wisconsin. Guess he’s fearful he could scuttle
his lead if he has to explain where he stands on the issues.
Clinton hits him hard in this ad, especially on health care. But people shouldn’t
forget Obama’s weakness on Social Security. Paul Krugman said it best back in
November:
The great Social Security debate of 2005 was a seminal moment for American
progressives. Conventional fiscal wisdom in the Beltway was that the aging
population is THE big problem — when the truth is that grim long-run
fiscal projections mainly reflect projected health care costs. And conventional
political wisdom was that the Bush administration’s fear-mongering on
the issue would work.
But a determined defense by progressives in the media, on the blogs, and in
Congress beat back one spurious argument after another, while the American
people made it clear that they really want a program that guarantees a basic
retirement income that doesn’t depend on the Dow. And Social Security
survived.All of which makes it just incredible that Barack Obama would make obeisance
to fashionable but misguided Social Security crisis-mongering a centerpiece
of his campaign. It’s a bad omen … .
Obama’s voted “present,” ducked votes, including ducking out on the
MoveOn.org debate in the Senate. Look what happened as a result: he got MoveOn’s
endorsement. No consequences, baby, so he has no intention of changing now.
Oh, and by the way, wingnut radio has started in on Obama. Hannity’s “Man
on the Street” did something very simple, following up on the Frank Luntz
focus group tactic. Hannity simply asks people being interviewed to name one
accomplishment of Barack Obama. Then he asks: Shouldn’t someone running to be
the President of the United States have more experience and at least some achievement
to his name? Most of the people interviewed were for Obama, and to a person
they all answered “yes.” This is just the lighter side of what we’ll
face, but it just might be the most effective tool they’ve got. McCain is a very weak campaigner, but his biography is simply unimpeachable. The negative ads against Obama will be a breeze and we haven’t even gotten into Obama’s record. They’ll cream him on guns alone. Obama’s record will do all the talking.
“Do you support state legislation to … ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?” asked one of the three dozen questions.
“Yes,” was Obama’s entire answer. … ..
