McCain Jumps On Archival Obama Interview

The McCain campaign has seized on a 2001 interview The Drudge Report picked up of then-State Sen. Barack Obama talking with Chicago Public Radio about the judicial legacy of the Civil Rights movement. From McCain's prepared remarks in Dayton, OH:

In a radio interview revealed today, he said that one of the quote -- "tragedies" of the civil rights movement is that it didn't bring about a redistribution of wealth in our society. He said, and I quote, "One of the tragedies of the Civil Rights movement was because the Civil Rights movement became so court-focused I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change."

That is what change means for Barack the Redistributor: It means taking your money and giving it to someone else. He believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that grow our economy and create jobs. He is more interested in controlling wealth than in creating it, in redistributing money instead of spreading opportunity. I am going to create wealth for all Americans, by creating opportunity for all Americans.

Here's a (rather hastily-compiled, it seems) transcript of that interview, and here's the full audio, so you can judge for yourself.

My understanding of Obama's comments is that he thinks the "tragedy" is that the Movement grew to rely on court decisions for progress rather than grassroots efforts to bring about legislative change. Obama goes on to say that the court's ability to enact change is limited by the Constitution -- a position that conservatives who rail against "activist judges" would tend to agree with.

But forget about what is or isn't a tragedy, or this academic conversation about separation of powers. All that matters is that Obama used the word "redistributive". The context of the conversation appears to be social safety net programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, etc. -- and the ability of lower-income kids to get equal public education. In other words: redistribution through using tax dollars to fund safety-net programs and improve public schools in low-income areas. Obama does not seem to be talking in this interview about some kind of Robin Hood scheme (although, would that make John McCain Prince John? Is Doug Holtz-Eakin Sir Hiss in this scenario? Should I really admit that when I think of Robin Hood it's not Errol Flynn I picture, but a cartoon fox?)

Anyway, here's Obama spokesman Bill Burton's response:

In this seven year old interview, Senator Obama did not say that the courts should get into the business of redistributing wealth at all. Americans know that the real choice in this election is between four more years of Bush-McCain policies that redistribute billions to billionaires and big corporations and Barack Obama's plan to help the middle class by giving tax relief to 95% of workers and companies that create new jobs here in America.

-- Evie Stone

2:08 PM ET | 10-27-2008 | permalink

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Hey Senator, What's Your Sign?

The Obama campaign's statement about the Planetarium money:

The non-profit Adler Planetarium is one of the leading astrological institutions in the Midwest that offers programs for students, scientists, and the public. Senator Obama is firmly committed to enhancing our nation's science education programming, and he joined a bipartisan coalition of Illinois Member of Congress including Senator Durbin and Congressmen Kirk, Jackson Jr., Davis, and Emanuel in requesting funding to enhance and restore the Planetarium. In a voluntary act of disclosure, Senator Obama disclosed all of the earmarks he requested in the U.S. Senate, he passed a law with Senator Coburn that creates a one-stop online database where taxpayers can see how their money is being spent, and he has since stopped requesting earmarks and cosponsored legislation that places a moratorium on earmark requests until proper oversight can be achieved.

The legitimacy of the request aside, we are pretty sure they should have said ASTRONOMICAL -- not ASTROLOGICAL. (For what it's worth, Obama is a Leo and McCain is a Virgo.) Somewhere, my Matter In The Universe professor's head is exploding...

-- Evie Stone

h/t Ron Elving

10:43 PM ET | 10- 7-2008 | permalink

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Scandal-Free Debate...So Far

We're an hour into the debate, and this may be the longest interval all day with no mention of Bill Ayers or the Keating 5. Which, despite this civilized discussion, would be an hour in which the McCain campaign is off-message.

-- Peter Overby

9:57 PM ET | 10- 7-2008 | permalink

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Palin, Biden As Visual Poets

The audio of the debate isn't music. But, here is a bit of visual poetry based on the candidates' utterances during the debate via Wordle. Click on either box below to see Palin or Biden's words to scale -- based on how often they repeated a given word.

A visual representation of the the words Gov. Sarah Palin used in the 10/2/08 VP debate.

 

A visual representation of the the words Sen. Joe Biden used in the 10/2/08 VP debate.

 

-- Michael Olson

12:55 AM ET | 10- 3-2008 | permalink

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Veep Debate Word Count

Palin:
Winked: 3
Maverick: 5
Team of Mavericks: 2
Hockey: 1
Heck: 2
Joe Six-Pack: 1
Darn Right: 2
East Coast Politicians: 1
Senator Obiden: 1
"Say it ain't so, Joe": 1
References to Joe's wife: 1
Gladys Wood Elementary School: 1
Shining City on a Hill: 1
"I quasi-caved in.": 1
Reagan: 2
McClellan: 2

Biden:
Wall Street Run Wild: 2
Middle class: 12
Bridge to Nowhere: 1
Scranton: 2
Joe Biden: 3
Dead Wrong: 2
I haven't heard: 5
JoeBiden.com: 1
Aisle: 5
Amtrak: 0
"Maverick he is not.": 1
controversious: 1
"This is the most important election you've ever voted in in your entire life.": 2
Bosniaks: 1
Dick Lugar: 3

--Laurel Wamsley

12:48 AM ET | 10- 3-2008 | permalink

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Were In Ur Facebook Page, Reading Ur Status

Bridging a new frontier in flack-reporter relations, the White House, wringing its hands about the bailout rescue plan vote in the Senate tonight, took issue with a reporter's Facebook status language yesterday. AFP correspondent Olivier Knox writes up his online exchange with WH deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel.

[A]t 10 am today, after doing research for a piece on the embattled economic rescue package, I posted: "Olivier just counted, and President Bush has pushed the bailout in 12 of the past 13 days."

Stanzel, one of the most technology-savvy spokespeople I have ever worked with, noticed my count, decided to double-check it, and left the following comment on my personal page objecting to the term "bailout," which the White House intensely dislikes: "Rescue plan, Mr. Knox. Your count is accurate. The only time the word 'bailout' appears, however, in any if those transcripts/statements is when a reporter used it in the Uribe avail."

No, Scott doesn't call me "Mr Knox" in real life. And his point was very light-hearted, something that can be easily missed in electronic communication. And he was right that the president had not used the world bailout. And it was his first time interacting with a reporter this way on Facebook, which means we may have made a little Washington media history.

At 10:30 am, tongue firmly planted in cheek, I updated my status to: "Olivier (UPDATES; CHANGES LANGUAGE) Just counted, and President Bush has pushed the economic rescue package in 12 of the past 13 days."

The all-caps message is something like what AFP puts in its invisible "trash line" that can be read by clients when we make changes to stories.

You'll note I didn't say "corrects language." And the B-word is still in my copy on the wire.

I'm sure Scott isn't giving up either. In fact, I'll be on the lookout for a blog comment signed "WHSPOXGUY."

-- Evie Stone

(h/t Shenanigans)

11:10 AM ET | 10- 1-2008 | permalink

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Candidates Stump for Bailout

Both major party presidential candidates increased the urgency of their language on the bailout package today, as Congress regroups during Rosh Hashanah break and the House leadership drums up a plan B. Assigning blame for the failure seems to be yesterday's pastime, with both McCain and Obama focusing today on explaining to voters why the plan is so crucial.

Here's Barack Obama at a rally in Reno, Nevada:

Because of the housing crisis, we are now in a very dangerous situation where financial institutions across this country are afraid to lend money. If all that meant was the failure of a few big banks on Wall Street, it would be one thing.

But that's not what it means. What it means is that if we do not act, it will be harder for you to get a mortgage for your home or the loans you need to buy a car or send your children to college. What it means is that businesses won't be able to get the loans they need to open new factories, or hire more workers, or make payroll for the workers they have. What it means is that thousands of businesses could close. Millions of jobs could be lost. A long and painful recession could follow.

McCain had strong words on the bailout as well, at a roundtable in Des Moines:

We are in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. Congressional inaction has put every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk. Yesterday the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed.

I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem. Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you're trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option.

Businesses all over the country cannot borrow to finance their own operations and pay their bills. If we do nothing, many may fail.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted after the bill failed yesterday shows a high level of public concern about yesterday's vote. Nine out of 10 people surveyed fear that the bill's failure "could lead to a more severe economic decline." But clearly there is more PR work to do, as nearly half of those polled said they opposed the package anyway. This morning on CNN, McCain suggested that we start referring to the plan as a "rescue effort" instead of a "bailout" to help convince regular Americans that the plan will help them along with the Wall Street firms currently struggling under the weight of too much leverage.

-- Evie Stone

1:58 PM ET | 09-30-2008 | permalink

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Off-the-Cuff but On The Record

Sunday, on ABC's "This Week," John McCain was asked about an unscripted (but videotaped) comment Sarah Palin made while shaking hands with supporters. He said the comment, in which Palin seemed to support Barack Obama's position towards bombing terrorist targets in Pakistan, shouldn't be taken too seriously:

All this business of, in all due respect, people going around, sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and all of a sudden, that's a person's position, it's a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that's a definitive policy statement.

Of course, that hasn't stopped the McCain campaign of making political hay over a similar, unscripted rope line comment from Joe Biden. The Democratic vice presidential hopeful told an environmentalist in Maumee, Ohio earlier this month that he wasn't supporting "clean coal," even though the Obama campaign is on record in favor of clean coal.

Here's the latest attack ad from McCain -- this one is tailored to run in Colorado, but there are also versions of the ad running in other coal-rich battleground states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

As we noted last week, the Obama campaign does support investment in clean coal technology, as part of its ten-year, $150 billion dollar initiative to develop clean energy of all kinds. (McCain proposes $2 billion per year in federal subsidies for clean coal, plus more limited funding for "basic research" on wind, tide, and solar energy.) "The Obama-Biden Department of Energy is committed to developing five 'first-of-a-kind' commercial scale coal-fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration here in the United States," says Biden spokesman David Wade.

Coal generates a lot of political heat because it supplies more than half the nation's electricity and is a significant contributor of greenhouse gases -- and because five of the leading coal-producing states (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Ohio) are battlegrounds in the November election.

-- Scott Horsley

2:18 PM ET | 09-29-2008 | permalink

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McCain's Rhetorical Strategy

McCain is frequently starting his rebuttals to Obama with some variation of "Senator Obama doesn't understand...."

Coincidence? We think not. McCain's dismissive tone about Obama's policy positions is a reminder of McCain's longer experience, and seems intended to make Obama look naive.

-- Evie Stone

10:04 PM ET | 09-26-2008 | permalink

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Campaign Suspension Tick-Tock

NPR's David Greene outlines McCain's campaign suspension (though as Dem strategist Jonathan Prince pointed out to Ben Smith today, that might not have been the most accurate choice of words) with a helpful timeline of how the decision was reached and what McCain has been up to instead. One interesting nugget from today:

1:00 p.m.: The McCain campaign plans to suspend all advertising and fundraising, in addition to campaign activities. NPR's Peter Overby points out that McCain does not need to do any fundraising, since he took $84 million in public financing. The McCain campaign is also receiving money from the Republican National Committee, but the RNC has not yet said if it will also stop raising money.

-- Evie Stone

3:32 PM ET | 09-25-2008 | permalink

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Biden Backtracks on Ad Criticism

When Joe Biden was announced as Barack Obama's VP pick, the press made a lot of noise about his tendency towards sticking his foot in his mouth. The RNC even launched a "Biden Gaffe Clock". Expectations for Biden's ability to hold his tongue were, shall we say, low.

But in fact, Biden has done a relatively good job of staying on-message. There have been a few minor errors...such as when he called on a wheelchair-bound official to stand up and be greeted by the crowd. Or when he told ABC's Kate Snow that it's the patriotic duty of the wealthy to pay higher taxes. But so far Biden's mouth hasn't really gotten him in trouble...to the point where the RNC seems to have given up on the political payoff of the gaffe clock. As of this morning, it hasn't been updated since September 4th -- nearly three weeks ago.

One notable exception: this recent interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, in which Biden said a recent Obama ad that made fun of McCain's computer illiteracy was "terrible". He added, "I didn't know we did it and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it."

As the quote started making the blog rounds (aided by emails from the McCain campaign), Obama spokesman Bill Burton quickly circulated the following deflection effort, in a message titled "Statement of Senator Joe Biden."

"I was asked about an ad I'd never seen, reacting merely to press reports. As I said right then, I knew there was nothing intentionally personal in the criticism of Senator McCain's views which look backwards not forwards and are out of touch with the new economic challenges we face today. Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain's ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize, especially when they continue to distort Barack's votes on an issue as personal as keeping kids safe from sexual predators," said Joe Biden.

-- Evie Stone

10:36 AM ET | 09-23-2008 | permalink

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Obama to Letterman: Palin Would Be the Lipstick

Barack Obama, on Letterman last night, attempted to explain the whole lipstick/pig thing.

OBAMA: Keep in mind that technically had I meant it this way she would be the lipstick. You see.

LETTERMAN: Now we're...I don't know...you're way ahead of me.

OBAMA: The failed policies of John McCain would be the pig...just following the logic of this illogical situation.

Obama also told Dave that he's never actually tried to put lipstick on a pig, but said it seems like it might be fun. Apparently the All Things Considered staff thought so too -- they enlisted a Virginia pig farmer to give it a whirl on yesterday's show. Listen and learn.

-- Evie Stone

9:13 AM ET | 09-11-2008 | permalink

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Meyer: What Culture War?

Here is a dangerous and wrong-headed headline I have seen around the Web in the few hours since Gov. Palin shot and scored on the St. Paul ice: "Palin reignites the culture war."

The idea of a culture war is 90 percent myth. The 10 percent that is true applies only to the target of Palin's oratory -- the political elite. Americans who are extremely politically engaged are polarized and may feel they are in a culture war. People who attend political conventions are such people. And since the Republican convention of 1992 when Pat Buchanan first declared the culture war, the press has loved the story and routinely assumes it there is a culture war.

But the vast majority of voters are not polarized, do not have partisan views and do not take extreme positions. Elections have been close not because the country is at war with itself, but because voters dislike and distrust both parties so intensely. With no good choices, voters sort into two roughly equal camps. I get into this at greater length here if you're interested.

Continue reading "Meyer: What Culture War?" »

5:47 PM ET | 09- 4-2008 | permalink

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Turning Japanese?

NPR's Steve Drummond notes an unexpected rhetorical convergence...

In a Politico story today, Mike Allen and John F. Harris cite this analogy:

One senior Obama supporter said the Clinton associates negotiating on her behalf act like "Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over."

Meanwhile, Frank Rich in yesterday's NYT:

As Gen. David Petraeus returns home, McCain increasingly resembles those mad Japanese soldiers who remained at war on remote Pacific islands years after Hiroshima.

Maybe that explains the 27 percent?

-- Evie Stone

4:19 PM ET | 08-25-2008 | permalink

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Unfortunate Headline of the Day

Call us juvenile, but...yikes! Where were the copy editors?

The Denver Post: Not Masters of the Double Entendre

David Gura/NPR

 

(h/t Chris Nelson)

-- Evie Stone

5:17 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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Oops!

Obama, introducing Biden:

Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice-President! -- of the United States.

-- Evie Stone

UPDATE: The McCain campaign was all over this, immediately issuing the following statement:

Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president. The reality is that nothing has changed since Joe Biden first made his assessment that Barack Obama is not ready to lead. He wasn't ready then and he isn't ready now.

3:14 PM ET | 08-23-2008 | permalink

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That Which We Call A Republican, By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

NPR's Martin Kaste is in Washington State, taking a look at the new primary system there.

A quick primer: the so called "top-two" system, which Washington voters overwhelmingly approved in 2004, allows voters to select any candidate on the ballot for each race. The top two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. The local Democratic and Republican parties mounted a legal challenge on the basis of "free association," and the district court sided with them. But the US Supreme Court saw "no basis" for overturning the initiative. The top-two system will be used for the first time in the state's August 19th primary.

One kooky aspect of the new primary system that the party affiliation of the candidates is, as Martin Kaste puts it, "completely free-form" -- i.e. fill-in-the-blank rather than multiple choice. That freedom has exposed an interesting trend among members of the Republican Party...or, should we say, the GOP.

Continue reading "That Which We Call A Republican, By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet" »

3:18 PM ET | 08-13-2008 | permalink

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