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DNC launches ‘Exxon-McCain ’08’

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As political theater goes, I think this sounds pretty good — and it’s a hell of a lot stronger than tire-gauges.

Stung by Republican taunts about tire gauges, Democrats are pumping up a stunt of their own.

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday is launching an “Exxon-McCain ’08” campaign, complete with a gas-pump logo and garish red buttons, bumper stickers and yard signs.

The party is opening a Web site where campaign “chum” will be available for download, and the goodies will be distributed to state parties and organizers nationwide.

I like this for a few reasons, not the least of which is the way in which this dovetails with recent Obama campaign advertising.

Look, if there’s going to be one simple narrative Dems can push against McCain on energy policy what would it be? That McCain’s drilling policy wouldn’t produce a drop of oil until 2017? That’s true, but we’re looking for something easier and more straightforward. That McCain’s voting record on energy policy is a disaster? That’s true, too, but it takes too long to explain.

When push comes to shove, the DNC/Obama message is the right one: McCain is in Big Oil’s back pocket. They’re calling the shots. “Exxon-McCain ’08.” All of the various angles — McCain’s proposals, the dubious contributions, etc. — are all a result of this.

Obama hit a similar note today in Indiana.

Here’s a transcript of the whole speech, and here’s the portion in which Obama really hammers McCain.

Now, yesterday, Senator McCain started running a TV ad saying that Washington is broken. No kidding. It only took Senator McCain those 26 years in Washington to figure that out. But here’s the thing, Elkhart. I’m having a little trouble squaring that statement with Senator McCain’s declaration a few months ago that we’ve made “great progress economically” over the past eight years. Or his boast that he’s voted with President Bush over 90% of the time. Or his assertion that overall, the American people are better off now than they were when George W. Bush came into office.

You know from your own lives that we’re not better off than we were eight years ago. Back then, you were paying about $1.50 for gas. Today, you’re paying around $4 a gallon. Back then, you were paying $875 a year on electric bills. Today, you’re paying more than $1,100. Back then, you were paying about $900 for heating oil to get you through the winter. This winter, you’re likely to pay nearly $2,500.

This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because for too long, we haven’t had a real energy plan in this country. We’ve had an oil company plan. We’ve had a gas company plan. But we haven’t had a plan that made sense for the American people.

So if Senator McCain wants to talk about why Washington is broken, that’s a debate I’m happy to have. Because Senator McCain’s energy plan reads like an early Christmas list for oil and gas lobbyists. And it’s no wonder – because many of his top advisors are former oil and gas lobbyists.

Instead of offering a plan with significant investments in alternative energy, he’s offering a gas tax gimmick that will pad oil company profits and save you – at most – a quarter and a nickel a day over the course of an entire summer. That’s why Washington is broken.

Instead of supporting my plan to use the windfall profits of oil companies to help you pay rising costs, he’s offering $4 billion more in tax breaks to oil companies like Exxon that just made the largest quarterly profit in the history of the United States of America. That’s why Washington is broken.

Instead of offering a comprehensive plan that will lower gas prices, the centerpiece of his entire energy plan is more drilling. It’s a proposal that won’t yield a drop of oil for at least seven years, but it’s produced a gusher for Senator McCain. Because after he announced his drilling proposal to a room full of oil executives, the industry ponied up nearly a million dollars in contributions. That’s the kind of special interest-driven politics that’s stopped us from solving our energy crisis. And that’s why Washington is broken.

So I know Senator McCain likes to call himself a maverick – and the fact is, there are times when he’s shown independence from his party in the past. But the price he paid for his party’s nomination was to reverse himself on position after position, and now he embraces the failed Bush policies and politics that helped break Washington in the first place – and that doesn’t exactly meet my definition of a maverick.

Comments

  • Angellight

    says:

    While American people are facing serious problems on a whole host of issues, John McCain’s current ads border on fantasies and cartoons and are not indicative of the Real World and possibly Schizophrenic! They act as if they are communicating with Children instead of Adults! And that’s an insult to many over the age of 18 who want real facts and solutions not cartoonish schizophrenic communication delivered to them as if they are mindless pups! Does the McCain Camp really think the American people are childish and gullible! That is so disrespectful to the advancement of the American people today in the great strides they have made in education and mind building which shows he is definitely out of touch as to where the American people are today — The American people are growing up.

    It is a sad landmark of where McCain Camp is that a man (McCain) who espouses to be the most powerful leader in the planet seeks to convince us of his fitness for office with images of Paris Hilton and Moses being used (by inference) to demean his opponent!

    CNN has begun to air Barack and McCain in their own words at various campaign speeches and town hall meetings, which is really educational and informing. MSNBC only seems to like to keep the controversy going or show dueling campaign ads — bones as compared to meat. We are tired of being used and treated like children. I turn off MSNBC and watch CNN who treats us like the adults that we are!

    As for Joe Scarborough and his morning show, it is becoming very biased again and unprofessional now that he is back from his hiatus with many comments that border on deceit, lies, racism and distortion. Barack Obama can do no right, he cannot even exercise for an hour and a half because Most Americans do not do that. Get a grip Joe, Americans are exercising and taking a lot better care of theirselves than you think! We, the American people deserve a lot better than the biased dribble coming out of Joe Scarborough’s slyly, deceitful mouth who cares nothing for the American people. For him, it is all about Republican goals and agenda, which have not done anything for the growth of the American way. Joe, can you for once put the American people’s concerns before your own selfish agendas for the Republican brand?

  • Walt

    says:

    Brilliant. Last week I was sick and slightly nauseous while Obama was pummeled with nonsense over and again without much of a counter-punch. I’m feeling much better now! This is just pithy enough to get coverage. It hits the right note at the right time.

  • slappy magoo

    says:

    Can’t wait for the GOP to start crying that this is below the belt and childish.

    Oh yeah, like they won’t.

  • Lance

    says:

    It would be scarier if it were McCain/Exxon 08. Republican’ts accept that the VP has all the real power 😉

    Like Walt, I’m glad to see the counter-punch.

    Jack Cafferty just asked how important is it that the next president understand computer technology. Is that a way to say that JSMcC*nt is out of touch?

  • ReallyFedUp

    says:

    Here’s a better idea: why not start a “Bush-McCain ’08” campaign. Four more years! Make it look real, and simply plaster that great picture of McCain and Bush hugging at the 2004 Convention everywhere. Forget Exxon…let’s go right to the heart of the problem.

  • Racer X

    says:

    Quick, someone ask McConman if he wants the guy from Exxon to check the tires on his bus.

    LOL.

  • Five Feet High n Rising

    says:

    It shouldn’t take too long before somebody comes out with the amount that Big Oil (through it’s employees, natch) has contributed to Obama’s campaign.

    “Look! Big Oil has contributed ALMOST $5,492 to Obama’s campaign! So he takes Big Oil donations too! He’s tainted!”

    John McCain: Same old, same old.

  • Doug Gavilanes (R)

    says:

    You mean “same old, wrinkly, white-haired, same old”. McCain should cage Ken Davis before Mr. Davis corrupts Senator McCain’s thinking process any further (“I’m proud of my campaign…”). Honestly, I’d rather think that it’s Ken Davis that is steering McCain wrong, rather than a yet undetected brain tumor or a fully loaded Depends that is making him cranky.

  • NObama08

    says:

    You people are all jaded. There are so many topics that I’d love to discuss here, but it would all come out like Wernike’s aphasia. BUt here’s one…answer this question: Why are you voting for B.O.? If your first thought/argument/reason is that you don’t like Bush or you don’t like McCain, then you’ve not answered the question. Your answer should be that I love BO’s foreign policy; or I like is plan to solve the energy and economic crisis because… or whatever else you might like about him. BUt I suspect the reason that you don’t say those things is that you don’t know his policy on anything bc it has changed since he’s gotten the nomination. RIDICULOUS.
    JM might have changed his POV on drilling, but I believe it covered a time span of 10 yrs, not 2 weeks. Times have changed, and so has his view on drilling. And BO thinks he’s going to save billions by keeping pressure in tires and have 1 million electric cars. BO’s solution to emptying a pool would be to use a measuring cup to bail it out; At least use a bucket man. Does everyone remember when they were in grammar school and classmates ran for student council offices? They made lavish promises of coke machines and better food in the cafeteria, no uniform days(for you Catholic schoolers,) and a slew of other wild hopes and dreams??? Remember how the popular guy with the most bizarre promises generally won? Did you ever get coke machines or better lunches. Probably not(for 99% of you.)
    Well to me, BO’s speeches have similar rings to them..But the difference is we’re not in grammar school everyone. You all need to wake up. Rhetoric and philospohical ideas only turn the wheels of time.

  • Doug Gavilanes (R)

    says:

    I must correct myself – some Ken must have pissed me off this week… I meant to write Rick Davis. Sorry to any offended Kens.

  • jeff

    says:

    The road to energy independence has been hampered because of the lack of leadership. Not through lack of personal leadership, our country has professional bull shitters out the yang yang. It is a lack of professional leadership. Why? Because of the exact tax Obama is proposing. The existing gasoline tax is the biggest reason why the federal state and local governments have no desire to change the direction of energy policy. If we raise taxes on the oil companies, it will make the government even MORE dependent upon oil than they all ready are.

    If the windfall taxes were passed, once collected, the money would probably be squandered away like the social security funds are each month. Government bureaucrats are in a fetal position trying to figure out how to fund the government once gasoline tax revenues start decreasing in big numbers. I wish I had a better diagnosis, but I don’t. Raising taxes on oil, on any energy related product or commodity, takes a bad idea, and makes it even worse.

    Let me ask you, if today, our country got off oil, coal, and nuclear energy, what tax revenue streams would replace them? This question is vexing the best and brightest in California, and in Washington. The government would be in a bankruptcy situation. We need to solve that question.

    Legislate mandatory use of HHO technology. HHO cars, which run on 80% water, and 20% fuel, work very well. It is not like they are a secret any longer. Make them mandatory for all new cars starting next year. Make older cars be retrofitted in a phased plan. Tie the retrofit to vehicle inspections, and legislate that car manufactures must uphold the original warranties on the affected vehicles. Possibly give tax rebates for the retrofit.

    Instead of 45 new nuclear plants, why not the same amount of money into wind turbines, or into the HHO retrofit tax rebates, or both? The cost of 45 nuclear plants is a giant pile of money that could be put to better use.

  • Chad

    says:

    There you go, tying big ‘evil’ oil companies to McCain. Heck, If I was in the oil business, which is a private enterprise, I’d give money to the right candidate for my industry too. This is akin to the same ads tying Obama to empty, vacuous (sic) celebrities. Maybe Obama should try to tax the windfall profits of the movie and entertainment industries too.

    A quick show of hands here: How many of you use oil in your everday lives? I can answer that for you, you all do. The very computers you’re using right now need oil to make. Why not let it be our own oil and not Hugo Chavez’s?

  • gorp

    says:

    To Chad @ 15: oil companies tend to be big, and they sure as shit are evil, both probably due to the amount of money at stake in that racket. They’re kind of like a supertanker version of the drug dealers we have out here in Oaktown CA, only our dealers are more up front about what they do – they really don’t give a shit about who they hurt, so you won’t see ads on superbowl sunday telling you otherwise. Also, our dealers are a whole lot more likeley to get busted and do major time than your nice little private industry oil company types. What puzzles me, and has always puzzled me, is why people like yourself come to their defence, since you are getting screwed by them as much as the rest of us.

  • libra

    says:

    You know from your own lives that we’re not better off than we were eight years ago. — Obama

    I’m glad he’s dropped the “or four years ago” from the meme; it didn’t add anything but a distraction. This is much cleaner.

    Lance, @6,

    I might have liked “McCain-Exxon” better myself except… I noticed that, in ’04, there were quite a few bumper stickers poking fun at W. The trouble with them was that you had to get *really close* to read the small print and see that they were spoofs. From a distance of a yard or two (while waiting for the lights to change, say) they looked almost the same as the legit stuff — pumping for W. It might have been the same, had McCain’s name been first. This way, it’s not the first thing we see. Also… It deftly suggests who the real boss is.

    I like it. I’d also like to see something — an ad, with puppets, maybe? — where McCain’s shown as a modern day Don Quixote. Riding a huge Humvee and tilting at windmills. “Alternative energy legislation? Hah! Take *that*, you vile bill!” Maybe to an appreciative crane-clanging from oil derricks…

  • james k. sayre

    says:

    McCain is going to have a real problem with picking a VP. If he selects a younger, good-looking, vibrant guy, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, it will make him look much older and sicklier by contrast. Ironically, by picking a woman as a VP, the contrast might be less obvious, especially if she wasn’t as they say, a spring chicken… (I really hate to be giving helpful advice to McCain, but I’m sure that his campaign staff is already mulling over this aged P/middle aged VP contrast problem).

  • Bruno

    says:

    Hurray, Nobody fed the trolls… Excellent… All they need is visit the Obama site to fact check their drivel

    🙂

  • joey

    says:

    Jeff says if big oil didn’t charge so much we wouldn’t get big taxes for government to waste
    Then here comes troll 2…Chad….with Obama should tax all profit making companies if he taxes oil cos ’cause who they gonna steal from if not from us.

    Jeff doesn’t get that the big tax revenue wouldn’t be necessary if not for the big oil companies…Because we are being forced to pay billions in profits every four months for the only energy around while they do everything they can to block alternative energy and keep us dependent on oil, foreign oil especially and the wars they cause and their buddies in the auto industries reaping huge profits also that WE PAY because they won’t get off gas vehicles, The billions we save from preventing the continuation of oil profiteering will drop our taxes, we have employment from switching to alternative energy, we save the environment, we get out of the wars in the ME and save lives…Simplicity is something even you can understand.

    And if it were drinking water instead of oil Chad, would the huge profiteering even compare to hollywood or telecom profits…NO. We have been driven into opil dependency and now are being held hostage to it while being extorted at the gas pump. Our environment and our very lives are dependent on it much more than Hollywood or telecoms so there really is no comparison for voluntarily buying into hollywood products for them getting their profits and being dependent on oil energy for warmth etc as they price gouge us and profiteer us into bankruptcy.

    You guys come out of the woodwork with stupidity and get embarrassed when it is pointed out to you but rather than learn you return to the woodwork trying to figure another way to attack Obama and progressive thinking. Trolls don’t last long here

  • Bruno

    says:

    joey @ 22

    Isn’t it amazing that there are so very few interesting conservative and/or republican voices.

    chad doesn’t even realize how dumb he really sounds when he starts spewing the Rush Limbaugh frame and Fox News talking points.

    Trolls like him can’t handle the truth, that’s why they don’t take to read all of Obama’s policy statements on his various websites.

    It’s too much reading for them, it might give them a headache.

    As a Republican, if it doesn’t fit on a ‘bumper sticker’, or doesn’t have the kick of a ‘6 second soundbite’ it’s not worth considering.

    So little time and so much more to do: educating “chad’s” is practically impossible. I wonder what it will take? As the saying goes: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”

  • DJ

    says:

    To our so called representatives: Stop playing politics – Get off your behinds and do something. We have enough oil to stop most, if not all imports. Yes it will take time, but it will happen IF you do something. Start investing in Wind and Solar immediately. First step – get us off of foreign oil. Second step – move us as much as possible to wind and solar. In between – work with auto companines and demand much higher fuel mileage. Bottom line – DO SOMETHING

  • Bose

    says:

    The fun thing is that Obama knows he’s got to hit hardest in the last 3 weeks before the election… so he’s probably saving some of McCain’s most obnoxious shit, and tuning his clips and responses.

  • GeorgiaGirl

    says:

    Even if Exxon drills enough oil from the gulf as we are importing, what makes anyone think they will sell it in the US market as opposed to the world market? They would still control where the new supply was delivered. What would be their incentive to drill more for a cheaper price? Why wouldn’t they just drill more for the same price.

  • NObama08

    says:

    You people are hopeless. The bottom line is that Obama is a Socialist. End of story. Sure McCain is a wrinkly old man and not the best choice, but he is the BETTER choice. Who knows, maybe a Third party candidate will take the election by storm?
    It’s so frustrating to hear the opinions of NYers and CAians thinking that they speak for the other 400 million Americans. It’s so funny, too, that Obama minions are quick to say that the conservative pundits don’t give BO a fair chance and are always criticizing him. Well, tough shit. That’s what you’re supposed to do to candidates for the “Most Important Job in the World.” If you can’t take it, get the eff outta here. If you feel insulted, grow a pair.
    The most recent public service announcement of BO solidified why my vote will go for JM: “inflate your tires.” It was a ridiculous statement when he first made it, and it was as ridiculous a “refined” statement when he had all the facts in his rebuttal(if you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen to the two sound-bytes and pay attn to the wording— he says it’ll take the place of all drilling in #1 and then says 3-4% in #2.)
    While all of you BO supporters have criticed any non-liberal POV, you have failed to point out the faults in your liberal counterparts. Go figure that. Above, I’m sure some of the authors are Rush listeners and regurgitate was he says. Those people are just as bad as Olberman supporters… yeah that’s right Libs, there are two sides to every coin. Some on here have interesting POVs… not mine, but as long as you have a reason why, most will listen. But generally speaking, most of the reasons will be “bc John McCain….” and that’s where I stop payng attention. It’s not a reason, but an excuse.
    But I will talk about the 1st poster, Angellight. You should learn what schizophrenia is first. Second, EVERY single one of your criticisms of JM can be applied to BO. In fact, I’ve come to think that BO has a few grandiose delusions. HE IS what “we’ve been waiting for.” “I am a symbol of what the world wants America to be” and the list goes on. You should look up what grandiose delusions are a sign of….
    And @22: Where do yo uthink the country will be at right now if it weren’t for the uses of OIL? It’s unimaginable, but my guess is to look around the unindustrialized world and we’d probably be somehwere around there…