Posted on 10/04/2008 8:36:34 PM PDT by Rokke
Branding his opponent as “erratic in a crisis,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is preempting plans by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to portray him as having sinister connections to controversial Chicagoans.
Obama officials call it political jujitsu – turning the attacks back on the attacker.
McCain officials had said early in the weekend that they plan to begin advertising after Tuesday’s debate that will tie Obama to convicted money launderer Tony Rezko and former Weathermen radical William Ayers.
But Obama isn’t waiting to respond. His campaign is going up Monday on national cable stations with a scathing ad saying: “Three quarters of a million jobs lost this year. Our financial system in turmoil. And John McCain? Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy. No wonder his campaign wants to change the subject.
“Turn the page on the financial crisis by launching dishonorable, dishonest ‘assaults’ against Barack Obama. Struggling families can't turn the page on this economy, and we can't afford another president who is this out of touch.”
Then Obama says: “I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message.”
McCain officials told Politico that the new offensive is likely to focus on Rezko and Ayers. The officials said the campaign will not bring up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former pastor, because McCain has forbade them from using that as a weapon. Without being specific, the officials said outside groups may focus on Wright.
When word of the planned attacks leaked Saturday, Obama officials said within hours that it was an attempt by McCain to distract voters from the economy.
“We think the McCain campaign made a huge error by telling the press that their strategy was to distract from the most important issue facing voters,” a senior Obama official said. “Every attack going forward will be easy to characterize for what it is – an attempt to distract from the Bush-McCain economic record."
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds hinted at the tough new line Saturday on “Fox & Friends.”
“There are associations that are important to who Barack Obama is as a candidate, who he’d be as president,” Bounds said.
Obama-Biden communications director Dan Pfeiffer said about the new ads: “If John McCain thinks he can ‘turn the page’ on the economic crisis facing American families, he is even more out of touch than we imagined. Now there may be no good answers for John McCain due to his erratic response to the financial crisis, but his desire to avoid discussing the economy is something we will remind voters of everyday for the next month.”
Go after him, McCain.
He knows he has “association” issues.
This is the best sign I can think of that McCain’s strategy shift has Obama worried. The Obama campaign is now responding to McCain. And totally losing the “we’re not going to jump into the mud” argument.
Either this "leak" is profound stupidity, or they have something else in mind. A campaign doesn't leak an attack. They keep it quiet until they actually attack.
Politico is so in the tank for Obama. They actually have not posted an honest positive headline on McCain or Palin this entire campaign. They like to use a lot of “back-handed” language. I go on there as much as I can to try to defend against the smears but the Obama camp has it pretty much covered and some of them are very good. Most of them are quite hateful (shocking, isn’t it)? They rarely write their own stuff, they very selectively pick and choose fragments of the work of others, spin it and then try to package it as the actual “crux” of the story. They are bunch of hack paraphrasers, IMHO. Yet, they get traffic and I don’t like the smears thrown at McCain/Palin to go unchallenged.
Hard to do that when you're already in the mud up to and including your eyebrows, Hussein Obama!
The whole “MCCAIN IS ERRATIC IN A CRISIS” thing is so not going to fly. Why is he erratic? Because he went to DC to try and work on the issue?
Whatever.
McCain has been around long enough, and people know he’s not a loose cannon or some erratic befuddled man. We might not like half of what he votes for, but he’s not erratic.
Mac has to blame the Rats for the economy: Raines, CRA, Gorlick, Johnson, Frank, Waters, ACORN. Over and over and over!
Are there any records in our favor for the fiscal stability of Republican states v instability of Rat run states?
This must be really scaring odumbo, he has an ad out for an attack that hasnt happened yet lol
Agreed. Something’s afoot at the Circle-K.
Steve Schmidt, who was Karl Rove’s understudy, is running McCain’s campaign.
then link BO to Barney Frank
I tend to think so too. They made a big stink of this and led with Ayers today. I think they knew Obama would be prepared for these issues in October. It is obvious they are going to come out. It will be interesting to see if McCain is going to zag when they expect a zig.
this election could get down right nasty.
I see the McCain camp now using the playbook Hillary devised (albeit too late) during the primaries.
They had to wait. People were always going to make up their minds late. If McCain hit too early with all this, it would have been considered “old news” by now.
Now is the time to act.
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