{"id":16523,"date":"2008-08-08T12:44:44","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T16:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16489.html"},"modified":"2008-08-08T12:44:44","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T16:44:44","slug":"lets-talk-about-how-tough-times-are-for-the-rest-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/lets-talk-about-how-tough-times-are-for-the-rest-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s talk about how ‘tough’ times are ‘for the rest of us’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The McCain campaign is going for broke with the odd “celebrity” attack, launching its third<\/i> negative ad going after Barack Obama for being widely respected and admired.<\/p>\n

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For those of you who can’t watch clips online, the ad, which strikes an interesting balance between abject stupidity and breathtaking dishonesty, features a voice-over: “Life in the spotlight must be grand, but for the rest of us times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000. He promises more taxes on small business, seniors, your life savings, your family. Painful taxes, hard choices for your budget. Not ready to lead. That’s the real Obama.”<\/p>\n

There are multiple ways to look at this. First, the “celebrity” attack is already dreadfully tiresome, and only serves as a reminder that the only real Hollywood celebrity<\/a> in this race is John McCain.<\/p>\n

Second, on a substantive point, the campaign’s claims about Obama and taxes are flat-out, demonstrable lies. When the Obama campaign issued a statement<\/a> responding to the ad, I was encouraged to see spokesperson Hari Sevugan used the word “lie” — twice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the line that really stood out for me was: “[F]or the rest of us times are tough.” It’s the kind of pathetic pitch I’d like to see Obama’s campaign take a good swing at.
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\nFor John McCain<\/i> to run an ad talking about how “tough” times are “for the rest of us,” is more than ridiculous; it’s the kind of claim that can backfire.<\/p>\n

Because “times” aren’t “tough” for McCain at all. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) raised this point<\/a> the other day.<\/p>\n

“It’s John McCain who wears $500 shoes, has six houses, and comes from one of the richest families in his state,” Schumer said. “It’s Barack Obama who climbed up the hard way, and that’s why he wants middle-class tax cuts and better schools for our kids.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t much care that McCain became extremely wealthy thanks to his second wife’s family fortune. I don’t care about his Armani clothes, his multiple luxurious homes, his wife’s private jet, or his Black Centurion American Express card. I don’t even care that he pays for Italian leather loafers what a lot of Americans struggle to pay in rent.<\/p>\n

But I do care that he a) is running ads about how “tough” things are “for the rest of us,” as if he can relate to working-families’ pain; and b) is trying desperately to con Americans into thinking that regressive, Bush-like economic policies — the ones that created this mess — are the way to improve the national economy.<\/p>\n

“For the rest of us times are tough,” but John McCain has opposed raising the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

“For the rest of us times are tough,” but John McCain opposes universal healthcare.<\/p>\n

“For the rest of us times are tough,” but John McCain has embraced ExxonMobil’s energy policy.<\/p>\n

“For the rest of us times are tough,” but John McCain wants more tax cuts for millionaires, and hopes some of it trickles down to the rest of us.<\/p>\n

“For the rest of us times are tough,” but John McCain cares more about celebrities and tire gauges than anything even resembling a coherent economic policy.<\/p>\n

The idiocy radiating from the McCain campaign is, quite literally, disgraceful. If McCain is capable of shame, now would be a good time for it.<\/p>\n

Digg It!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The McCain campaign is going for broke with the odd “celebrity” attack, launching its third negative ad going after Barack Obama for being widely respected and admired. For those of you who can’t watch clips online, the ad, which strikes an interesting balance between abject stupidity and breathtaking dishonesty, features a voice-over: “Life in the […]<\/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-16523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16523","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=16523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}