{"id":16468,"date":"2008-08-04T09:45:54","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T13:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16434.html"},"modified":"2008-08-04T09:45:54","modified_gmt":"2008-08-04T13:45:54","slug":"after-one-president-in-the-pocket-of-big-oil-we-cant-afford-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/after-one-president-in-the-pocket-of-big-oil-we-cant-afford-another\/","title":{"rendered":"‘After one president in the pocket of big oil, we can’t afford another’"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was considerable talk in Democratic circles last week about Barack Obama’s desire to maintain an entirely positive message — and whether that was wise given the relentlessly negative McCain campaign message. More than a few Dems thought it was time to maybe throw a punch or two.<\/p>\n

It looks like the Obama campaign agrees. This new ad, called “Pocket,” was unveiled this morning.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n

The voice over tells the viewer, “Every time you fill your tank, the oil companies fill their pockets. Now Big Oil’s filling John McCain’s campaign with 2 million dollars in contributions. Because instead of taxing their windfall profits to help drivers, McCain wants to give them another 4 billion in tax breaks. After one president in the pocket of big oil, we can’t afford another.”<\/p>\n

The ad continues, “Barack Obama — a windfall profits tax on big oil to give families a thousand dollar rebate. A president who’ll stand up for you.” The ad ends of course, with the obligatory, “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.”<\/p>\n

The McCain campaign, apparently hoping to become a parody of itself, responded<\/a>, “Barack Obama’s latest negative attack ad shows his celebrity is matched only by his hypocrisy.”<\/p>\n

We’ve effectively reached the point at which every sentence from the McCain campaign includes a noun, a verb, and “celebrity.”
\n
\nA few thoughts on the Obama ad. First, given the barrage of attacks from McCain, if Obama hadn’t started to return fire a bit, it would have been a mistake.<\/p>\n

Second, the ad on energy policy comes as part of a week-long effort<\/a> — Obama campaign staffers have labeled this “energy week” — to push the senator’s agenda. Obama will in Lansing, Mich., today, to unveil additional details on his energy proposal, labeled the “New Energy for America” plan. The speech will reportedly emphasize an energy rebate, an initiative to create 5 million “green” jobs and a drive to eliminate the need for Middle Eastern oil over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

Third, the pushback from the McCain campaign has focused this morning on the ad’s claim that McCain supports $4 billion in tax breaks for oil companies. The argument from the presumptive Republican nominee is relatively straightforward — McCain wants a massive cut in taxes for all<\/i> corporations. It’s not like McCain is singling out oil companies for special favors; they’ll just get the same tax break every other corporation will enjoy.<\/p>\n

That argument is, in fact, true. I’m not sure, though, why it’s supposed to make McCain’s proposal more palatable. McCain inadvertently<\/i> wants to give $4 billion in tax breaks to the five largest American oil companies<\/a>? That’s not exactly a compelling defense for a reckless and irresponsible giveaway to an industry that clearly doesn’t need any more tax breaks.<\/p>\n

And finally, I’d just add that there’s already an important distinction to be made about the qualitative differences between the competing campaigns’ “attacks.” This is the first “contrast” ad the Obama campaign has unveiled, and it’s entirely substantive — McCain’s wrong about energy policy. By way of comparison, what have we been hearing<\/a> from the McCain campaign about Obama? Race, celebrity, arrogance, presumptuousness, patriotism.<\/p>\n

Even when these two go negative, there’s a difference. One cares about substance, the other wants to make this personal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was considerable talk in Democratic circles last week about Barack Obama’s desire to maintain an entirely positive message — and whether that was wise given the relentlessly negative McCain campaign message. More than a few Dems thought it was time to maybe throw a punch or two. It looks like the Obama campaign agrees. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}