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In a crafty, and somewhat foreseeable move several months ago during the debates, the Republican Party has released a web ad in which statements of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, and Bill Clinton are used against Obama in regard to his experience.
The entire GOP ad “Democrats vs. Obama”:
Can’t say I’m too shocked, some of these remarks were criticized at the time specifically because of fear they would be used to produce such an ad.
Note that it wasn’t so much pro-McCain as it was anti-Obama. Perhaps that will be the subtle GOP message as to not tick off more conservatives.
Imagine that though, an entire minute and a half clip criticizing Obama filled only with statements from Democrats. More than anything it clearly shows that the at the time the statements were made, they were mostly for political posturing as all of those in the ad will be supporting Obama’s candidacy, one of them may even be his VP choice.
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
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I don’t see this getting much mileage. It didn’t do much during the Democratic race, and it will probably be ineffective for those in “Obama” land now. The question is over “certain” and “uncertain” voters. I would argue the certain ones for Obama will be unaffected by this line, since it is an old one.
The uncertain ones might be influenced, but they will also receive the whiplash from those in the video who will attack the RNC and its “manipulation” of information. And those “uncertain” people are much fewer than in the past– with so many voting already from Independent circles, I wonder if this is more for Hillary supporters than anyone else. And the real decider on where the bulk of these people are going to go is her.
I don’t know if surveys have shown a significant number of Clinton supporters viewing “experience” as a deciding factor in the general election, but this does seem to raise the issue again. Experience hasn’t proven to be a winning platform thus far against Obama, but with the amount of time they spend using Hillary sound bites it appears they are targeting her constituency with this. I agree with Michael. It will be up to HRC to put this to bed though.
Well, let the games begin. To play devil’s advocate here, I don’t think anyone will be able to put this one to bed for these reasons:
1) It does, once again, raise the inexperience issue, and it’s a legitimate issue in this campaign, even with Democrats as evidenced here.
2) It isn’t soundbites out of context, and there are no misquotes.
3) The democrats in this video may not like being in it, but they said those things, they campaigned on that platform, and now their support for Obama will lose a little credibility when we are reminded how they claimed to feel a few months ago. Which was the truth? The first or the last? I think the DNC will also lose a little credibility in their “united front” image with this one, it will seem an act on their part to appear united, when in fact they may not be if you get the message this commerical is trying to convey.
I’m only a little surprised that they didn’t incorporate Obama’s own words in 2004 that he was not experienced enough to run for President in 2008, and wouldn’t. That is on video as well, I’ve seen it.
This was inevitable, I think. And I’m sure there will be more. I do agree that this is probably targeting undecideds and Hillary supporters, but it will be successful. The first sign of success will be the democratic outcry of “foul”.
Well honestly this may be the time we need someone with less Washington experience. The 2 experienced we had over the last 16 years did such a bang-up job. At this point I would ever prefer the 19yo. that just got elected Mayor of Muskogee, OK. He couldn’t do any worse than our current.
GW Bush has made me wish Reagan was back, or at least that Bush Sr. would knock some sense into him.
I voted for Bush Sr., and believe me Bush Jr. is ruining the family name for real.
I don’t really care that Obama is inexperienced in Washinton, it’s his total inexperience in foreign affairs that is down right scary.
Well, the voting poll at http://www.meetbarackobama.com/ (a site newly unveiled by the GOP) indicates his biggest weakness is his liberal policies by 65%.
The ad we see above is only the first, I see. I just sat through 5 or 6 more that run continuously on the site. All well done.
As I said before, let the games begin.
With Obama the U.S. will gain integrity internationally. The biggest reason being his pragmatism and judgement that he showed when opposing the Iraq War.
Our current adminstration has failed to maintain our security and standing with the rest of the world. The GOP will try to stir up FEAR within Americans once again to try and continue greedy personal, elitist agendas.
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“Any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
You make it sound as if there is only one person in an executive administration. No president is likely to be experienced in all areas of running a nation. There are literally hundreds of cabinet and other positions within the executive branch, and I think often times it’s as much picking the right people to fill those positions as it is anything else.
“The GOP will try to stir up FEAR within Americans once again to try and continue greedy personal, elitist agendas.”
I didn’t see any fear being stirred up in any of the commercials, Whobody, they were very factual as far as I could see. No misquotes to my knowledge, either. Most were concerning votes on various issues.
Josh, I agree with you 100%, I’ve always said, and continue to say, that a president is not the be all and end all for America. And he can only accomplish those goals that the Congress allows him to accomplish. Case in point - Jimmy Carter. That’s why it’s more important to me to choose the candidate that has the better record on holding good relations with both sides of the aisle, and the one that has the most experience doing that because that’s the one who has the better shot at real change.
I’m surprised (and sort of glad) that the DNC hasn’t struck first on this front - what with all the attack ads and aggressiveness of some of the candidates in the republican primaries. It wasn’t exactly like they were playing nice to each other on either side of the isle.
But IndiMinded, they did strike first. Remember this?
http://www.factcheck.org/.....ccain.html
I meant specifically taking clips of Republican-made attacks to aim back at McCain. I remember Thompson and Romney had some good attack ads, to say nothing of some of what was said in the debates. I recall the republican debates being anything but friendly and unified. I’m just saying that format of ad can work either way…
Fair point though, it’s not like the DNC has kept it above the belt
Whobody you have a nice viewpoint on what my party does, and you seem to forget your party does the same exact thing. What the GOP does here is pure genius, showing even a past president doesnt believe your nominee is ready.
O_S, Nate posted the commentary on pork barrel spending yesterday. Hope it meets your expectations.
Whobody,
I just have a few questions about the rationale of your statements.
“With Obama the U.S. will gain integrity internationally. The biggest reason being his pragmatism and judgement that he showed when opposing the Iraq War.”
Are you saying that he is pragmatic and shows good judgement mainly because he opposed the war in Iraq? Does that mean that anybody who did not oppose the Iraq War (including the majority of both liberals and conservatives) is not pragmatic or does not show good judgement? I would disagree. I think that the reason he opposed the war in Iraq, even when many democrats supported it, was not because of an unusual amount of pragmatism, but because he is an extreme liberal leftist. And how does opposing a war for freedom and national security show integrity?
It is ammusing to me that you believe Obama shows good judgement, and that his judgement fills him with integrity. Did he show good judgement when said that he would sit down unconditionally with leaders of terrorist nations? Did he show good judgement when he, for twenty years, participated in a church and listened and was mentored by its leader who preached hate and anit-American propoganda? Is he showing good judgement by wanting to give illegal immigrants drivers licenses, thus making it easier for both illegal immigrants to gain amnesty and for terrorists to receive legal documentation? The list goes on and on.
“Our current administration has failed to maintain our security and standing with the rest of the world.” How exactly has our administration failed to maintain our security? It was before 9/11 that our security was in severe need of help. Has there been even one terrorist attack in America since?
The quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 doesn’t quite fit in with your statement, either. It’s taken out of context; he was talking about censorship and suppression. “As it is an ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into existence, so it is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored into existence. And any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.”
He was stating that censorship and suppression to further the cause of freedom is a ‘doctrine that is alien to America.’ Certainly you’re not trying to suggest that the GOP is using censorship and suppression to create suspicion and fear among Americans in the name of furthering the cause of freedom?
And what do you mean that “The GOP will try to stir up FEAR within Americans once again to try and continue greedy personal, elitist agendas?” The irony in your statement lies in the fact that you do not specify or provide proof of any “greedy, personal, elitist agendas,” and by failing to do so, you are yourself attempting to stir up people against the GOP using nothing more than fallacy and prejudicial opinions. Such immature, prejuidical, and rash remarks certainly do not convince me that your rationale is at all accurate in any way, nor that I should adopt your views as my own.