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Everyone knows that no one is supposed to ask Barack Obama any tough questions. We’re supposed to be pacified by his empty rhetoric message of “hope” and “change”, and not look any deeper. Because, you know, if we do, we find a whole lot of things to be uneasy about, and he is the Obamamessiah and all.
Unfortunately, the RNC didn’t get that memo.
Just, you know, don’t expect to get any answers. That’d be asking too much.
Hat Tip: Stop the ACLU
Me says: You can ask, but Michelle will just counter by telling us that the question doesn’t help her kids.
Baz says: You can ask, but you’d look silly because the answers are mostly on his website or already in other speeches, and so don’t need asking.
As for the whole guns and religion thing, his point (as it is now widely understood) is that people have become bitter about their ability to create real change in Washington that influences their own lives and therefore cling to guns and religion policies as gauges of a political candidate rather than looking at economic policies that can improve their livelihood.
That 11% gap that Obama closed in the PA race? Mostly white voters in the central region who also understood this point.
His plan *way* more fleshed out than McCain’s, unless you consider McCain’s plan as “more of the same” which we already understand all too well.
Charles says: I’m familiar with Obama’s policies but it took a lot of research. In other words, he doesn’t make it easy. Perhaps it’s not his fault. Most of the media coverage is about the Democratic primary, but given the disproportionately large amount of media exposure Obama receives compared to Hillary and especially McCain, his policies should be getting more airtime and maybe they will after the general election campaigns start in earnest.
Are they on his website? Yes. In the debates? To some degree. Other speeches? Not so much. I don’t find his speeches outline policy as much as they define problems he intends to solve… but that’s just my take on it.
The whole force of this ad (which I’ve only seen here by the way) is that his policies are more liberal than most people perhaps realize, and seems to be targeted at moderates and soft conservatives who are unhappy with the direction in which Bush has taken the country.
In his speeches and on his website Obama has been running a campaign as a unifier and uniter who stands above partisan divisions. The Republican counter to that is that he has amassed the most liberal voting record in his short legislative career as opposed to McCain who is, compared to most conservatives, relatively liberal on almost every issue other than Iraq. I find it hard to name another Republican who has crossed the aisle in the name of bi-partisanship more than McCain has.
What ads like this do is challenge the uninformed to research the details of Obama’s plans and policies and compare them with McCain’s in an attempt to deflate his image of being “above partisanship.” That doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly disingenuous strategy. It’s what responsible citizens should be doing anyway. But I think we’ll see more of this strategy as the year progresses.
If you are a liberal and want a liberal president vote for Obama. About half of the country is and about half of the country will. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you are disillusioned with Bush and take Obama to be a moderate, bipartisan compromiser it’s simply encouraging you to look at his plans and decide for yourself if you agree with them.
Me says: I cling to my guns because I know that once Liberals gain full control of our government, a lot of good, patriotic Americans are going to wind up in re-education camps or up against a wall. We’ve seen it with Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, and every other place where that socialist mindset has dominated. Elect Obama or Hillary and give them control of Congress and a few more Bader-Ginsburg’s on the Supreme Court and watch it happen here.
But as long as I and others have our guns, they’ll have a tough time of it.
Baz says: Wow. That last comment was alarmingly paranoid. And a complete misunderstanding of Obama’s remarks.
Let me say that again: wow.
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