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Obama poses a ‘very simple question’ to Floridians

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John Ellis, George W. Bush’s first cousin, said after the 2000 election that he never understood why Al Gore didn’t say, “What is it, Gov. Bush, that you don’t like about peace and prosperity?”

I think about that from time to time, especially in the context of the current presidential election. Somehow, Bush’s name and record have been swept aside, replaced with, well, whatever it is that passes for the current state of our political discourse. Apparently, it has something to do with Britney Spears and bringing gas to the pump in 2017.

But I’m inclined to turn to McCain supporters and ask, “What is it that you like about wars and recessions?”

With that in mind, I think Barack Obama was right to add a new line to his stump speech this morning.

“So the first thing I want to do, Florida, is just ask you a very simple question,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg. “Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago? And if you don’t think you’re better off, do you think you can afford another four years of the same failed economic policies that we’ve had under George W. Bush?”

So far, the media seems far more interested in the fact that a couple of protestors interrupted Obama’s remarks this morning, but it seems this line — which I haven’t heard Obama use before — is the more significant development.

The Republican goal is to make the election a referendum on Obama. The Democratic goal, obviously, should be to push the campaign in the opposite direction.

For all the talk about this being a “change” election, there’s surprisingly little talk about what it is, exactly, we need to change from. George W. Bush has been an embarrassment to himself and his office. John McCain wants to keep doing exactly what Bush has been doing. The campaign has veered off into bizarre and incoherent directions, but fundamentally, when push comes to shove, we return to “change vs. more of the same.”

The reason Obama has generally been considered the favorite this year is the painfully obvious fact that the vast majority of Americans believe the nation is on the badly off track. So maybe now would be a good time to bring this back to a debate about “Bush’s third term”?

Shouldn’t “Are you better off now…” be the staple of the Dems’ message?

Shouldn’t this McCain quote be the most common refrain in the Dems’ rhetorical quiver: “[O]n the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush…. I will also submit that my support for President Bush has been active and very impassioned on issues that are important to the American people.”

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems in recent weeks that the drive to connect McCain to Bush has been less of a priority. Maybe Obama’s remarks in Florida today mark a return to basics?

Comments

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    absolutely. campaigning by the K.I.S.S. principle. and he needs to back it up with paid media along the same lines.

  • TNmary

    says:

    This was great!! and….about time. Sadly, it also is something that the 24/7 ‘entertainment’ media will shy away and sweep under the carpet. Sure hope Olbermann picks up on this….he’s the only one, other than Rachel Maddow, that will give us this kind of news.

  • Ohioan

    says:

    McCain (Urban League speech, 8/1):

    “Obama supports proposals to raise tax rates on those with taxable incomes of more than 32,000 dollars.”

    Huh? They’re still pushing this blatant lie, to hell with factcheck.org…?

  • NonyNony

    says:

    “Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago” should be tattooed on the inside of Obama’s eyelids.

    John Kerry lost in ’04 because he wouldn’t come right out and ask “are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?” If he had, everything else aside, he might very well be running for his second term right now.

    Al Gore lost in ’00 because he wouldn’t emphasize that folks were better off than they were 8 years before and that he represented a continuation of that. He was too busing running away from Bill’s sexual escapades to embrace the administration’s successes.

    I don’t understand how Democrats can fail to get this. They lost in 1980 because of this very string of words. They won in ’92 on a permutation of them. This isn’t rocket science – yet Democratic consultants seem to earn a giant FAIL time and time again.

  • Eeyore

    says:

    I had exactly that thought driving in to work today. We need more of this:

    Are you better off then four years or eight years ago?
    Is your job more secure than four years or eight years ago?
    Is the country safer than four years or eight years ago?
    Is America more respected and admired than four years or eight years ago?
    And isn’t this more important to America than worrying about celebrities?

  • beep52

    says:

    Are you better off…

    That depends. Will I be able to fly on commercial airlines if I tell the truth? And if so, will I be allowed back into the country?

  • gttim

    says:

    If Obama goes with that line all the time, he is going to lose the vote of foreclosure auctioneers, repo men and the oil company executives! Just be aware of that!

  • MW

    says:

    This is great, but the Obama campaign cannot rely on the media to report what he says at campaign rallies. They have got to start getting their own commercials out there. Yes, we all know the MSM will not give the Obama ads all the free air time they give McCain ads. But, please get in the game!!!

    By all accounts, McCain has been scoring points with his phony speil about off-shore drilling. How about a pushback add pointing out that when the Dems in Congress tried last week to pass legislation pushing the oil companies to explore on the off-shore leases they have already been granted and where they can do so at any time, the Republicans in the Senate filibustered it? How about asking why McCain wasn’t there to vote for requiring the oil companies to actually do some of this off-shore work that he says would help and that they already have authority for?

  • Mark

    says:

    No, the right question is:

    “Will I be better off four years from now under Barack Obama than John McCain?”

    Answer: No. They’ll both spend too much money and make sure the government tries to tell us how to live our lives. But, I think Obama is more prone to this than McCain.

  • Jeff Phillips

    says:

    You dummies who keep voting for both of these parties are the problem and it will never be fixed. If McCain is a continuation of Bush, then Obama is a continuation of Jimmy Carter. I have lived through both administrations and neither one was worth a crap. Nancy Pelosi wants to “save the planet”, yet she insists on flying a 757 by herself. 3 cross country round trips burns enough fuel for the average person to drive for 20 years and more crap into the atmoshpere than your car can burn in 20 years. We are being strangled by both parties. You Obama people need to get off your high horse. He is offering rhetoric not hope, and McCain is nothing but the Republican version.

  • NonyNony

    says:

    Answer: No. They’ll both spend too much money and make sure the government tries to tell us how to live our lives. But, I think Obama is more prone to this than McCain.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

    Let me catch my breath. Okay.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHA!

    Thanks man, I needed a laugh today. Considering how well Bush has done with the whole “spending too much money” and how happy McCain is to continue with his failed policies .. that’s just too funny. You should take your act on the road.

  • R. TOOL

    says:

    The great grand father McCain is too “OLD” to the president of the United States. He (McCain) is grumpy old man. He does not make and sense when he speak, he has no agenda. What is he … a high school drop out?. If McCain is elected he will be a lame duck from day one, since he want to serve one term as president. No one will list to him and he will never accomplish anything. I voted for Bush and I am not making that mistake again by voting for old man McCain.

    Republican for Obama

  • Dave G.

    says:

    I’m of the opinion that the Obama campaign better continue to attack and start attacking more — what does anybody think of this? Anyone? I’m just curious.

  • R.T.Thaddeus

    says:

    Yes and how about Obama saying: “I am the standard bearer of the Democratic Party of FDR that gave us Social Security and Banking Regulation, the party of Lyndon Johnson that gave us Medicare and of Bill Clinton that gave us prosperity and a balanced budget. John McCain is the standard bearer of the Republicans who gave us Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression and George Bush’s economic disaster.”

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    Mark @ 11,

    I’m curious on what you base that conclusion? You seem to prefer that government do a better job of spending within its means and that it let you exercise your own adult judgment (criteria I agree with for the most part).

    The last Democratic administration left a nearly $200 billion budget surplus (what Clinton gave Bush in the budget for transition fiscal year 2000); Bush will leave a budget defecit around $500 billion (his father also left a defecit for Clinton). Anti-deficit economists and businessmen who succeed and fail by this stuff, like Warren Buffet and Paul Voelker, back Obama on economics.

    On government intrusion, just this week the Bush Admin reclassified most birth control as “abortion” to further restrict access to it by adults. Bush has a stealth draft in place through stop-loss orders and extended/repeat tours outside of what recruits were assured (particularly in the guard and reserves). Where are the Democrats in individual freedoms? Obama has expressed that he is ok with gun rights. I suppose some environmental issues, but those are much less intrusive and personal and have much more upside than the issues the Republicans get their noses in, like sex, medical marijuana, what you read/watch/listen to etc.

    Given your two criteria, this just really seems like a no brainer if one assumes that only Obama and McCain are realistically viable. On what basis do you equate Obama with McCain on those two criteria?

  • SaintZak

    says:

    “I’m of the opinion that the Obama campaign better continue to attack and start attacking more — what does anybody think of this? Anyone? I’m just curious”

    The minute McCain released that first slimey negative ad the obama campaign should have begun kicking his ass around nonstop. Everytime he releases a dishonest ad, makes a dishonest statement , talks out of both sides of his mouth…call him a LIAR. LIAR and John McCain should be fused as one word. Back it up with the facts. They should be relentlessly and mercilessly attacking his honesty and character 24 hours a day. I don’t want the Obama camp to play by the sleazy Republican smear tactics, but they should attack John McCain, not the ads or his statement, the candidate himself, as a liar with nothing to offer. At the same time hammer away with the “Are you better” line of attack…and answer the question for everyone with facts and real life examples.

    Asking people if they’re “better off now” at a nice civil town hall meeting doesn’t accomplish anything. They need to come down on McCain like the wrath of God. You know, this really is about Commander in Chief qualities. The republicans have raised the question about Obama and now they’ve unleashed a relentless and ugly attack. He’s allowing himself to be their punching bag. Tthe result in people’s minds is not a picture of a strong commander in chief.

    If John McCain, or any Republican, had completed a foreign trip as spectacularly successful as Obama’s you better believe he would have arrived home a hero with full scale multi media blitz in support. Obama comes back and has all but appologized for it because the McCain camp and the Republicans successfully turned it into a liablity. The Democrats should have been ready with a greatest hits media package complete with shots of a bumbling John McCain mconfusing Shiites and Sunnis as Leiberman whispered in his ear for contrast. They KNEW the Republicans would do this and once again we see the Democrats show their throat. Unbelievable.

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    “What is it that you like about wars and recessions?”

    How dare anyone question the wisdom of our wars and recessions!!! Anyone who would question that it’s not worth a recession and 5,000 American lives to rid the world of Saddaam Hussein is just downright unpatriotic!!! I said we’d have an easy victory and look, we did!!! It’s not our fault the Iraqis won’t cooperate with our victory is it?

    This flashback to the brash stature of Republicans in 2004 is for your entertainment pleasure and free of charge. The unpleasant reality of the state of the GOP is not the fault of your set, their candidate really is that lame.

  • Kevin Hayden

    says:

    It can be said even simpler, Steve: “How’s your wallet doin’?”

    That same message can’t be applied in every election. Only when the economic pain starts getting intense enough that it hits the middle class head-on. As in: 1976, 1980, 1992 and 2008.

    When it only hits the bottom 30% to 40% of the economic classes, it’s not quite enough.

    Now that 60% are feeling real pain, it will work.

    I don’t believe Obama’s been remiss about this as he does have ads in some swing states. But for the fall campaign, when most of the undecided start paying attention, you can bet your bippy this message will be repeated ad nauseum.

  • joe

    says:

    Obama is right to push this message. Now he need to call into question McCain’s temperment. McCain is still mad we lost Vietnam and can’t be trusted to get us back on track with the rest of the world.
    Obama wants all of us to change (sacrifice) to save this nation. McCain supporters wnat others to sacrifice so they con’t need to. Talk about patriotic!!

  • libra

    says:

    “Do you think that you are better off now than you were four years ago or eight years ago? — Obama

    What I’m curious about… Why “four years ago”? Nothing changed then, we’ve stayed the course on which Bush had started us 8 yrs ago. Yeah, we’ve accelerated the past few months but 8yrs is the real marker, not 4 *or* 8. For most of us, there’s been an *unbroken continuum* of descent for the past 7+ yrs, while BullShit’s buddies were getting fatter and fatter.

  • Bruno

    says:

    I agree with libra

    There is no need to mention 4 years ago. Especially since 4 years ago, the bubble hadn’t burst yet, and the real estate market was still in full swing.

    Stick with the 8 years ago, and contrast what Bush started with (record surplus) and what he’s leaving behind (record deficit)

  • bubba the troll you all love to hate

    says:

    Its pretty simple Stevie.. He can ask that question……but however they answer he can’t come up with a plan to cure any of todays problems.. sure he says a change is needed but what is that change.. go ask France for their opinion?, bring in his reverend and have a group prayer meeting?… lets put some air in our tires and everything will be honkydorie?….. your boy has absolutely nothing planned or suggested other than he has mesmerized some leftist poly sci majors who are still counting chads down in Florida to support him.,…. I know this truth hurts you to hear it: but it is the truth……and the American people are starting to see it for what it is… a game of smoke and mirrors…nothin but a shell game…the ole three card monty………Just watch the poles.. everyweek we get closer to election you will see the career dissapation light in his eyes flicker brighter and brighter… mark my words Stevie…..♥ya
    Bubba said that…

  • Bruno

    says:

    bubba the troll you all love to hate said

    I know this truth hurts you to hear it: but it is the truth…and the American people are starting to see it for what it is… a game of smoke and mirrors…nothin but a shell game…the ole three card monty

    I agree with him completely: McCain is starting to tank. Only smoke and mirrors, with a laughable campaign. How embarrassing.

    The truth really does hurt for Republicans. I’d be ashamed as well.

    Thanks bubba for clarifying that for us.