The ever-resourceful Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic reports that Barack Obama's new ad falsely makes it appear as though the senator passed a gutsy welfare reform bill and slashed welfare rolls.
But Ambinder reports that Obama was only one of the co-sponsors of the bill in the Illinois state Senate, that the Illinois action only put the state in line with the federal welfare reform, and that Obama actually opposed the federal legislation.
The ad, being aired in 18 battleground states starting today, features an announcer saying:
"He worked his way through college and Harvard Law. Turned down big money offers, and helped lift neighborhoods stung by job loss. Fought for workers’ rights. He passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by eighty percent. Passed tax cuts for workers; health care for kids. As president, he’ll end tax breaks for companies that export jobs, reward those that create jobs in America. And never forget the dignity that comes from work."
However, Ambinder writes, "Notice how the careful omission of a pronoun makes it sound like Obama himself "slashed" welfare -- a nice and defensible trick of the trade. Actually, the word "passed" here is a bit out of context. As other news organizations have noted, Obama co-sponsored the bill, which brought Illinois into compliance with the '96 federal law; legislators don't pass anything. And it passed overwhelmingly -- Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Senate supported it; there was only one no vote And Obama glosses over his opposition to the '96 federal welfare reform law."
This week begins the two-month campaign slow-down between the July 4th Holiday and the Democratic and Republican Conventions. The collective attention of the public will turn more to summer beach getaways and the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing than politics. As with almost every presidential election, a candidate can't win the race during this time, but one sizable slip-up can certainly lose it.
It's during this campaign lull when a candidate can be irreparably branded, so it's important to stay on the offensive and respond quickly to attacks. In 2004, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth emerged during the summer to undermine John Kerry's military record. In 1988, it was this summer calm that saw George H.W. Bush unleash Willie Horton on Michael Dukakis, forever branding him as soft on crime.
Going into this break, both candidates have very clear plans for where they'd like to be positioned entering the two weeks of conventions in late-August and early-September, and for the two-month sprint to Election Day that will follow.
From NBC's First Read:
McCain's goal for these next two months: to have this a low single-digit race by September 5. Obama's goal is more obvious: 1) to begin erasing character doubts about himself, 2) bankrupting McCain financially in the lean red states, and 3) building not only a national lead but double-digit leads in as many states as he can.
So, while campaign coverage may take something of a holiday from its highs of the past months, don't expect to see Barack Obama or John McCain relaxing on a beach between now and September. They'll both be busy jockeying for position and doing their best not to let the other's attack machine brand them as unelectable.
After weeks of not talking, and then the much analyzed one-sentence-statement-of-support last week from the former president, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama finally chatted today by phone and Clinton committed to campaigning between now and November for the man who defeated his wife for the Democratic nomination.
“Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton, adding that Obama"has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation’s great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come.”
The former president's spokesman Matt McKenna characterized the call as "very good" and said that Clinton "continues to be impressed by Sen. Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come." McKenna said Clinton believes that Obama "has been a great inspiration for millions of people around the country and he knows that he will bring the change America needs as our next President."
Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole said that retired Gen. Wesley Clark should have "stayed in bed" Sunday instead of telling a talk show that Sen. John McCain didn't have the experience to be president.
Clark, a former NATO commander, is a Barack Obama supporter. He said on CBS's Face the Nation that former Naval pilot McCain's nearly six years as a POW in North Vietnam after being shot down in 1967 was not "a qualification to become president."
Even Obama has disavowed the comment.
Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, said that Clark's statement was "beyond comprehension" and his "absurd remarks signal further erosion in our nation’s political discourse. He should have stayed in bed Sunday morning.
"It’s unfortunate that a former general who ran for the presidency on his own war record thinks it appropriate to attack a distinguished veteran and former prisoner-of-war in this way. Sen. McCain’s entire life has been devoted to public service. His achievement and experience constitute unparalleled qualification for America’s highest office."
Race relations in America will be an important issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential election between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, political experts tell America.gov. Obama is vying to be the nation’s first African-American president, while McCain would be at age 72 the oldest person ever inaugurated as U.S. president.
Obama's patriotism plea was clever stuff today. It was a neat example of how good he is at turning attacks on him by others to his advantage.
"How dare you impugn my patriotism?" he asks, an elegant smokescreen behind which he can continue to ignore questions about his past dalliances with extremists such as Jeremiah Wright.
But wrapping himself in the flag also offers Obama yet another chance to reassure American voters that he is slap-bang in the middle politically. In this sense, Obama has a huge advantage over John McCain. He can spend the general election campaign doing what all successful presidential candidates do - steadily sloughing off all the off-centre rubbish he spouted in the primaries or once espoused before he ran for office, whether it be on trade, gun control, Iraq. It's fun to watch how his triangulating is upsetting the folks at Huffington Post, and elsewhere. But they don't really get the point - the more they fulminate, the better Mr O looks to moderate voters.
McCain can't really do that. He still keeps having to reassure dubious Republicans that he is one of them. He's going to waste a lot of valuable time and effort demonstrating to conservatives that he is conservative. In the process he will alarm middle-of-the road voters, who might just be more inclined to swallow their doubts and go for Obama in November.
Barack Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton today disavowed comments critical of John McCain's military credentials from prominent Obama supporter Wesley Clark.
"As
he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's
service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark,"
Burton said in a statement.
Clark, the former commander of NATO, 2004 presidential candidate and 2008 possible for veep, said on Sunday that McCain's Vietnam war experience did not give him any special qualifications to be president.
"I
don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification
to be president," Clark said on CBS's Face the Nation program.
He saluted McCain's courage as a prisoner of war, but said that McCain "hasn't held executive responsibility...That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded wasn't a wartime
squadron."
He also said that McCain "hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to
fall."
The ongoing U.S. presidential race still grabs most of the headlines, but many congressional contests are heating up as well. Although Election Day is still months away, political experts already are predicting big gains for the Democrats. America.gov looks at some of the factors that will shape the next U.S. Congress.
[Ed.'s note: Jocelyn Sida covered the premiere of American Teen as a Rock the Trail Reporter. The stars of American Teen will be registering voters with Rock the Vote later this summer. You can read Jocelyn's full post at http://trailblog.rockthevote.com]
..."American Teen' is more than a documentary about high school; it is the high school experience."- PasteThey used to call him a friend. But Sunday, members of the Democratic Leadership Council applauded when a guest called Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut an "asshole."
Members of the centist, pro-business group once cheered Lieberman when he was their chairman in the mid 1990s urging a strong national defense, stressing pro-business policies and critcizing sex and violence in entertainment. They loved it when he was chosen as the party's vice presidential candidate in 2000.
So, even with a parting of ways in past years, it was striking when many members of the group applauded a reference to Lieberman with the profanity by liberal Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of the website dailykos.com.
Liberals angered by Lieberman's continuing support for the Iraq war suppprted a successful primary challenge to Lieberman in 2006. But Lieberman ran as an independent in the general election and won another term in the Senate.
Today, Lieberman's endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain has Democrats of all stripes angry at him.
One of the most respected independent analysts of U.S. Senate races told a group of Democrats Sunday that she's starting to think they may win enough seats this November to have a filibuster-proof majority.
Jennifer Duffy, the Senate analyst for the Cook Political Report, said that as of now, she expects Democrats to add between 4 and 8 seats to their 51-seat majority in the Senate. And perhaps even more.
"For the first time, I'm seriously contemplating the possibility of 60," she told a meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council in Chicago.
That would be a monumental achievement with profound consequences if Democrat Barack Obama also won the presidency.
It would allow the Democrats to get big proposals through the Senate over the objections of the Republican minority. The power of the filibuster, unique to the Senate, allows the minority to block anything they don't like as long as they have 41 or more votes.
If the Democrats had 60 votes, they'd have a far, far greater chance of enacting such Obama proposals as expanding health care to the uninsured, and raising taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year.
Duffy later added that the Democrats might not even need 60 votes, since they can likely attract support from moderate Republicans such as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine on some issues, perhaps more than enough to offset the loss of support issue-to-issue from some more conservative Democrats.
"They don't need 60," Duffy said. "To be effective, they don't necessarily need 60."
A prominent liberal strategist who also addressed the Democratic group, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the website dailykos.com, agreed that Democrats could reach a filibuster-proof majority with fewer than 60 Democratic seats.
"The majority number for Obama to have a filibuster-rpoof majority is 57, 58," he said.
"There are seven potential Republians we can peel off on an issue by issue basis to get to that 60 vote total," he said.
Barack Obama will travel to Israel, Jordan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom "to assess the situation in countries that are criticial to American national security," his campaign said this morning. On the agenda with leaders he meets with in those countries: terrorism, nuclear proliferation and global warming.
No details yet on dates for the trip. Obama also plans to travel to Iraq this summer or fall but that would be as part of a congressional delegation rather than a campaign trip and details about such delegations typically are not released in advance because of security reasons.
“Israel is a strong and close friend of the United States, and is confronting grave threats from Gaza to Tehran," Obama said in a statement released by the campaign. "Jordan has been a close partner in the peace process and a host of other issues of common concern. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are key anchors of the transatlantic alliance and have contributed to the mission in Afghanistan, and I look forward to discussing how we can strengthen our partnership in the years to come."