The only financial edge the Republicans currently enjoy is with the national parties — Obama may be raising more money than McCain, but the RNC has a flush bank account compared to the DNC.
And the Republican National Committee began spending some of its money on this ad:
“Record Gas Prices, A Climate in Crisis,” the narrator says. “John McCain says solve it now, with a balanced plan — alternative energy, conservation, suspending the gas tax, and more production here at home. He’s pushing his own party to face climate change.”
“But Barack Obama?” the ad continues, “For conservation, but he just says no to lower gas taxes. No to nuclear. No to more production. No new solutions. Barack Obama: Just the party line.”
The RNC ad, technically paid for by the newly-formed “independent expenditure” arm of the party, is on the air in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and may end up elsewhere.
If the specific charges in the ad sound kind of familiar, there’s a good reason. Two weeks ago, the McCain campaign unveiled a web video, calling Obama “Dr. No” for his opposition to coastal drilling, a “gas-tax holiday,” and nuclear energy, which, coincidentally, the RNC’s ad repeats.
Of course, the RNC’s ad doesn’t appear as foolish, stylistically, but it’s still wrong.
Let’s take these one at a time.
The RNC says McCain supports “alternative energy.” In reality, McCain opposed financial incentives to produce clean wind energy, said no to subsidies for alternative fuels, and voted against tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Funny, the RNC left these details out.
The RNC says McCain supports suspending the “gas-tax holiday,” while Obama would leave it in place. That’s true, but it neglects to note that even the McCain campaign concedes that it wouldn’t lower the price of gas for consumers.
The ad goes on to argue that Obama opposes coastal drilling. That’s true, too, but it neglects to mention that McCain agreed with Obama as recently as May, and that coastal drilling wouldn’t affect prices at the pump until 2017 at the earliest.
The RNC argues that Obama has said “no to nuclear,” but in our reality, Obama was actually the only candidate in the Democratic field to suggest that expansion of nuclear power should be on the table as part of a broader discussion on energy policy.
And as for the notion that Obama offers “no new solutions” on energy policy, that’s clearly not the case.
I’d add, though, that the Republican National Committee deserves at least some credit for lying about something substantive, instead of lying about something personal. Four years ago, the RNC sent out direct mail arguing, among other things, that liberals are trying to ban the Bible. In this sense, the RNC’s shameless and pathetic style of campaigning now includes a higher class of deception. It’s the soft bigotry of low expectations, but I found the RNC’s new message merely insulted our intelligence, instead of being morally repugnant.
For that matter, wouldn’t it be fun if the campaign actually included a real debate about energy policy? It’s unlikely, since Republicans know their ideas won’t work and can’t withstand even surface-level scrutiny, but it would be a delightful change of pace, wouldn’t it?