Obama cites FOX News and sez: If I mistake you for Bush it's because it's hard to tell the difference.
By John Amato Thursday Oct 16, 2008 8:45amMcCain obviously practiced his line about not being Bush and Obama should have run four years ago against him all week and still Obama easily brushed it aside.
McCain: Yes. Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country.
Weirdly enough, the media have focused on this line, ignoring the fact that Obama provided the perfect retort:
Obama: The notion that I voted for a tax increase for people making $42,000 a year has been disputed by everybody who has looked at this claim that Senator McCain keeps on making. Even Fox News disputes it, and that doesn't happen very often when it comes to accusations about me. So the fact of the matter is, is that if I occasionally have mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities, you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush.
Now, you have shown independence, commendable independence on some key issues like torture, for example, and I give you enormous credit for that. But when it comes to economic policies, essentially what you're proposing is eight more years of the same thing. And it hasn't worked. I think the American people understand it hasn't worked, we need to move in a new direction.
[DN, armchair quarterbacking: Obama might also have pointed out: "John, if you really wanted to reform George Bush's policies, as you now claim, perhaps you should have run against him four years ago."]
UPDATE: John Amato: All day on CNN I only heard McCain's I'm not Bush statement and no response from Obama. They sure are desperate for a sound byte. Obama's response neutralized McCain completely.
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You cite McCain as the quote...it is actually Obama...
BTW...First!
Thanks, fixed.
http://theprogressivepost.blogspot.com/2008/1...
Wait a minute! McCain initially went against Bush on torture, but he ended up voting FOR the bill that allowed torture. Once again, McCain caved when it mattered most.
Yep. McCain deserves no credit for that. He bent over and took it from Dubya. And then he said "Thank you, sir. May I have another."
...I was kind've thinking that Sen. Obama was opening the door to let McCain correct his record (maybe a "I was for torture after I was against it"). I saw it as a potential opportunity to let McCain dig himself in a deeper hole, though he was smart enough to not say he was actually pro torture on live TV. Regardless, it was a good move on Barack's part, and when the real parsers look at the debate, it'll be something that Obama was "wrong" about, but still to his benefit.
The Obama campaign, as well as the man himself are clever as all hell.
(GOBAMA)
where McBane's head was close to exploding. He must've been well medicated to withstand the pressure.
"[DN, armchair quarterbacking: Obama might also have pointed out: "John, if you really want to reform George Bush's policies, as you now claim, perhaps you should have run four years ago."]"
Not really the same thing. In the context of the debate, there was no opportunity for that particular retort. McCain was challenging the notion that he is another Bush (which is is). McCain has never said that 4 years ago he disagreed with Bush. Additionally, running against an incumbent would have been a waste of his, and the taxpayers' money.
Incumbents rarely run unopposed - why would it have been a waste of money for McCain to run four years ago? Perhaps you were referring to him running against a fellow Republican. Well, that shouldn't stop a "maverick" who is putting "country first", should it? If he was truly, sincerely opposed to Bush's policies, he should have run against him. Even if it meant abandoning his party alliance. Plus, he would get a chance to avenge the smears that he was a victim of in 2000. Seems that he had a lot of motivation to run four years ago, if he only had chosen to do so.
I won't speculate as to why he chose not to.
I did mean running against a republican president. I recognized that problem as soon as I posted. Sorry for not being clear.
My point, however, remains valid. At what point in the debate would that "retort" have been appropriate? Because republicans often answer question that has not been asked, changes topics, have no concern for context, should then Obama follow suit? I thought Obama was better than that. An I thought that the public, especially moderates who are sick of the politics of hate, appreciate that.
Obama could have simply turned the statement around. Why didn't John McCain run against Bush in 2004? Um...because he was too busy ENABLING Bush!
Really though, Obama did a good job of countering McCain's wild stab with an adult, dispassionate response.
Once again, the only mature adult in the debate was Barack Obama, not the guy aping goofy looks at the audience while Obama talked.
Grandpa,
If you vote with an unquestioned dumbfuck President 90% of the time, you thereby are a dumbfuck too....it's based on your past "association".
someone's having a little too much fun!!!
yet McCain can't seem to separate Obama from Bill Ayres.
I know this is a partisan site, but why do you never show McCain's rebuttal?
I'll save C&L the time. .... 'Ayers. socialist. he'll tax you to death. Unamerican preacher. Ayers. Ayers Ayersayersayersayers. Feel better now?
....we don't know him(he not one of us). Angry wife hates America. Terrorist. Resko....
ayersayersayers
"That one's black!"
...my friends!
I thought McCain's new one was "Joe Plummer".
Christopher's brother???
constitute a "rebuttal", probably...
The only people who watch Faux News are the old farts and stupid religious right zealots. Sooner or later the old folks are going to die off leaving only the racist nitwits who cling to the notion of a white bread communities. Man are they in for a suprise in a couple of decades when THEY are the minority.
"But on the other side, it didn't say nothin...
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/10/ar...
That side was made for you and me."
George Bush did not destroy his own campaign.
McCain doesn't deserve the credit Obama gives him on torture, immigration, etc. because he's bent over for the Bush White House on every one of those issues. If McCain wants to make the case that he's not Dubya he should have been on that months ago. I guess it took him that long to come up with that "clever" line but it's way to late in the election cycle for him to make that case. Not that there's really a case to make anyway. He is Bush III.
I think Obama deliberately stays away from all the possible tangents he could go into with McCain. It is a very good way to not get off topic which is simply that Obama would make a much better President.
I think this excerpt shows the most compelling moments of last night's debate. Check it out. Very well done.
Dang, the link didn't show. I'll try that again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63SRpGXBHE
That was great! Thank you!
mccain doesn't like BUSH after the 2000 election but he decided to stay with the Republican party. mccain
is paying the price as he should. mccain's campaign has been basically deception, half truths and partial
statements. mccain misrepresents OBAMA's healthcare plan,abortion and taxation. mccain is and has been lying.
There's something that troubled me in real time during the debate that I haven't seen addressed in the blogs I've seen so far: McCain, on at least four different occasions, wildly distorted the comment Obama had just made. But it was obvious to me that McCain was drastically twisting the words Obama had JUST SPOKEN. I don't understand why Obama allowed this to pass unremarked.
I can't find specific examples. Perhaps some of my more tech-savvy comrades could help me here.
Which makes it likely even more frustrating for a young, modern, and forward thinking contemporary candidate like Obama
Obama needs to come into office and say . . Okay look. The era of CEO's and Big Business telling the government what they are going to do and how they are going to do it has officially ended. Get used to it, or have your Corporate "citizenship" stripped.
Look at the list of Obama's corporate donors, and the amounts involved.
I cannot believe the delusional naivety of some of St. Barry's partisans...
He will NOT overthrow the rule of the CorpoRat Elites. He OWES 'em BEEEEEG TIME! And by the end of all this, he'll owe 'em even BEEEEEGER...
What he will do is keep McCain out of the White House. I will take what i can get.
Like on preserving the Constitution?
Check it out.
I am certainly well aware of his drawbacks, but given the choice between Obama and McCain i have no choice but to vote for the rational one.
And that ain't McCain.
than an Obama presidency with 58 or 59 Senators (including the unreliables like both Nelsons, Landrieu, Rockefeller, Baucus, and Loserman)...
I would rather have Kucinich, but he is not on the ballot. I am dealing with reality. A veto proof Congress would be nice unless of course they did not agree on important matters. We can not survive a McCain Presidency. We don't have enough soldiers for all the countries he would like to invade, enough trillions for all the rich people he wants to enrich nor enough credibility for all the nations he wants to piss off.
Any smart person can find compromise and balance and forward dynamic despite the whining and resistance of the the Old School Captains of Industry who will quite simply be "left behind" from here on out.
That's what all the whining about Clinton was. The continuous transfer of Wealth from those who don't deserve it back to the people. Instead of the CON reverse robin hood we've been witnessing since Enron set the "New Standard".
Give every white voter in the USofA at least one (guilt-absolved, plausibly deniable) "reason" NOT to vote for the Kneegrow...
That's it. The whole thing.
No it's not. It's about bullshitting people, making promises you can't keep so money and power continues to move upward and Republicans end up totally controlling economics regardless if they hold office or not.
McCain, Bush, and all their corrupt cronies have decided they don't even need this country. It's just another bank to raid. Anther hold up job.
One thing that really bugged me last night was the McShame got to have the last word on nearly every debate point. It didn't matter whether it was a question that Obama led off on or the other way around. Shieffer almost always let gramps have the last comment. Anyone else notice that?
In a corporate state, corporate media are state media.
CorpoRat intersts are safe as h ouses in the care of either one of them. If one were really a danger to the dominant order, they wouldn't be there. Simple as that...
I think Palin is a "one trick" pony.
Perhaps Democrats should print up a bunch of "President Sarah Palin" bumper stickers just to remind folks just what just might happen if they vote for McCain/Palin. That certainly scares me.
OT.......take a minute and place a vote regarding the debate on CNBC the market/business channel
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27201817
I totally disagree. That is not off topic.
Seems time to call his favorite plumber in to get him out of the overflowing feces of his own creation.
Here's some more on Joe, The Tax Evading Plumber!
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/16/...
Joe the Plumber said he was thinking of buying a company that makes more than $250,000. It doesn't sound like Joe is a wage earning Plumber who crawls under houses to fix the pipes. It sounds like Joe is a business owner who employs plumbers. That's not quite the same.
Why does it surprise anyone that the media would focus on McCain's line? The fat cats in the media are just beginning to cope with the idea that Obama might win. Joe the Plumber may not be close to making $250,000 a year, but a good many of the members of the media make a lot more than that. That's their wealth that they don't want to see being spread around. I suspect the media will be pushing hard for a McCain surge in the next couple of weeks. It's the ecomomy stupid, their economy.
If you look at McCain's face after he makes this remark, he looks so proud of himself. Like he just delivered a zinger. A pre-planned zinger written days before that was expected to be the soundbite it will/has become. I have no doubt (like most of his remarks) this was planned (duh). And the media were probably aware it was coming. The headlines were already written. The talking point for the pundits was already on paper.
http://news.google.com/news?q="I+am+not+president+bush"
National Review
Fox News
National Journal
And a good retort to Joe the Plummer is that O's tax cuts will inject money into his CUSTOMERS' pockets!
A good retort to Joe the Plumber would be "congratulations on making $250,000 a year, how much to you charge to clean a drain?"
I knew I should have became a plummer... I wasted four years of college.
As Obama often does with McCain in other areas, this time Obama erroneously conceded too much regarding McCain's "independence" on torture. McCain used to be against torture and used to speak out about it passionately. But more recently, he flip-flopped and adopted George Bush's policy on torture, voting against the bill that would have banned the CIA from using the drowning torture technique referred to as "waterboarding."
1. McCain wrote the Military Commissions Act of 2006; allowing Bush to Define Torture. Waterboarding or not Bush doesn't allow tortue?
2. McCain voted against a bill making Waterboarding illegal.
I can't disagree more with Obama's statement.
Obama's got nothing to worry about, now that he's secured the mutant vote:
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/election-08/ba...
Barack Obama has received the political endorsement of America’s favorite precocious mutant: Bat Boy.
“This boy is a shining example of the American dream,” Obama said at a small press conference held after the meeting.
“Coming from meager beginnings, cast out for who he is, he now enjoys the freedom and limitless possibility granted to every American.”
The Ant and the Grasshopper
This one is a little different...Two Different Versions! Two Different
Morals!
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays
the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
---------------------- ---------------------
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays
the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering
grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a
table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper
is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008
Oh, that nasty Obama.
He almost made John pop his cork.
Doesn't he know John is a POW?
Sheesh! Stop being so uppity,
and show some respect!!
What would you do if McNasty had a stroke right there?
Give him CPR?
Yeah, you probably would.
Look who would replace him.
Oh, that nasty Obama!
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