Obama 'Pocket' Ad Puts Campaign On The Offense (VIDEO)

Barack Obama goes on the attack with a new ad tying John McCain to big oil:

The ad is timed to coincide with the announcement of his New Energy for America Plan, which would give middle class families a $1,000 rebate funded by a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

Transcript:

Anncr VO: 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.

Barack Obama... A windfall profits tax on big oil to give families a thousand dollar rebate.

A president who'll stand up for you.

Barack VO: I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.

Comments

[booker52]

Love it, I hope it airs from now until election day!!!!

[Insha]

I agree that giving the oil companies a tax break of any sort is downright wrong. But I also disagree with Windfall Profits tax. Its a short term form of pandering that I wish Obama would just turn away from and tell Americans the truth: expensive oil is here to stay until we can get off it.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Oil companies make over $500,000/employ on net income after taxes. Around 2000 they made $20,000-$3­0,000/empl­oyee on net income after taxes. This is the poster child of a windfall profits. Because they did not put anything back into their business but got huge profits that are not deserved. Oil companies spend less than 1% on R&D and are a very old industry that does not increase the technical benefits of society. I worked over 20 years as a scientific researcher and no company should be rewarded for milking the same cash cow for this long.

[All57States]

Let's get the drug company profits as well. Have you purchased milk lately? Can we go after the farmers as well?

[Robespierre]

It's not the farmers 57. The small American farmer is quickly becoming an icon of the past. Corporate farms are a problem but not the small farmers. Most of the small farmers have two jobs in addition to tending the fields and herd. It's a tough life that doesn't really pay back.

[Daniboy]

Gee, I farm in Iowa-most the farmers I know only farm-no second or third jobs. Come on out and check us out.

[Coinyer101]

besides ,it was 57 contests.

[bigtony90]

No we don't want to go after the famers they only doing what they have to do to stay alive, so no not the famersa JUAT the repubs the real criminals.­.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

LOL that shows how ignorant you are. Drug companies spend 20% of their income on R&D save lives and add technological developments for the society as a whole. Oil companies spend 1% and offer a commodity product to the market. Commodity companies like corn like you said make much lower profit. For example drug companies make about $50,000 NI/employee they do this by working for it to maintaining a competitive advantage. Oil companies on the other hand make $500,000 NI/employee for a technology that is over 100 years old. They just don't earn their profits that's what windfall profits is all about, making obscene profits by milking the same cash cow.

So you tell me why oil companies deserve to make 10 times what drug companies make? For reference oil companies used to make about $20K-$30K NI/employee in 2000 which was in line with what commodity chemical companies make, but even they spend more on research.

[Opinionater]

Exposing McCain the right way. This ad does not take cheap shots and it exposes the powerful oil lobbyists. Plus it lumps in McCain with Bush (rightfully so). This ad makes McCain look like the pompous, rich, angry, corporate stooge he really is. Plus it penalizes the oil companies for their out and out piracy of the poor and middle class. Big oil does not want competition. They will never empower an industry that does not use their product. Only a president can take the lead to set course for a more secure future, and give us jobs and fuel at the same time. No more blood for oil!

[MichelleB]

Effective ad, great job. No naked women, no Brittney, just tacking issues, refreshing.

[VOTER]

But where is the HUMOR? : - /

[xmw]

when have our laugh in November when he defeats McCan't

[Ignorancedestroys]

Humor would put breakfast on your table i guess.
Next time when you are hungry, just laugh and you'll get full.

[eden4barack08]

Bush killed it.

[the964kid]

Thats more like it - a quality counter punch to the crap from last week.

[mydogshakespeare]

Wow. And the ad doesn't resort to "race", "age/senility", "notorious celebrity mis-association", or "religious eschatology" to score overt or subliminal points. Just the facts, man. Just the facts.

[Heavy]

Pesky facts. Re pugs might try to use some, if there were actually any that coincided with their positions.

[debwarot]

I know - isn' it great? You CAN bve both proactive and honest - great change for politics!

[TuFu]

Great ad, but political suicide. We are in August which is Democratic suicide month, and the numbers are starting to bear out the basic nature of Repugs strategy of 40 years.
Obama & the campaigns response are Dukakis and Kerry and Gore all over again. He is going to be known as the "Tire Inflation Kid." Caricature works, mockery works.
Where's the gun, where's the shock and awe of the initial Democratic response to Bush's Appeasement speech in Israel.
If this keeps up, no wonder the Democrats will lose and they will watch themselves lose. Lame, lame, lame as Democratic Senate leadership.

[teron678]

I've been saying this over & over .. Obama needs to stay on the offensive .. by showing the American People what George Bush has done to the country for the past 8 years .. & tell the electorate than Mc Cain wants to continue the fail policies .. that is going to force Mc Cain to start talking about the issues ... to prove Obama Right .......

[rollingdivision]

Oil companies do not pay taxes, their customers pay every penny of oil company taxes so every single penny of excess profits sic tax will be paid by US consumers. How will increasing taxes on oil companies increase supplies or lower prices. And why is an 8 percent margin on oil excessive when 48 percent margins on software aren't? And won't the $1000 rebate just cause drivers to buy more gasoline further increasing usage and increasing prices.

[westcoastsc]

Have you not scene the obscene profits they made? Do you really think that you compare? A tax on them will barely be noticed by them. The windfall by them is showing how much they are really shafting this country. It is a shame that the CEO has gotten a bigger bonus than the whole R&D budget which could have been used for alternative fuels or drilling in all the other places in this country that they are already leased to do. Regulate the corporations before we all go down the excrement hole.

[belikejeanvaljean]

Good grief, they aren't charities! ExxonMobil is a huge company with huge risks, huge expenses and huge profits. The dollar amount in profits was large because they are large, but their profit margin was lower than many companies. They also paid a huge tax rate of 49% last quarter. If forking over half of their profits to the federal government isn't enough for you, how much more should they be taxed?

[Heavy]

Republican way, privatize profits and socialize losses. Sorry but companies making record profits is called gouging. No people will not use their rebates to drive more genius. They will try to pay their bills, morgtages, etc.

[Scarllatti]

What is wrong in using some of the huge profits the oil companies make in alleviating the myriad of problems that afflict the citizens? Who said they do not pay taxes? That information is wrong. They do pay taxes but the ridiculous tax incentives approved for the Big Oil by the GOP is what enables them to keep so much of the profits they make out of you and I as you stated correctly.
Why would you refuse to receive a $1000.00 rebate from the government if it is taken off the profit of Big Oil? Are you telling me you use all the tax deductions you receive from your mortgage as tax returns on securing more mortgage? You can use that money for a number of pressing needs, not necessarily on gas.
While the WH and Congress are figuring out what to do with a comprehensive Energy Policy, I will accept ant rebate given to me by these rascals any time any day.

[MaryanneAZ]

The key here is understanding the difference between "windfall" and "huge" or "excess" profits. A windfall is "an unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage" typically gained by manipulation. If oil companies, for example, hold barrels of oil in storage and then hike prices due to an "alleged" shortage of crude, then the profits they reap by the increase in gas prices is a windfall. The difficulty would be calculating what is "windfall" profit from what is earned profits. The best measure, in my thinking, is to end all subsidies and tax breaks, which will ultimately bring down their profits without a lot of gyrations and legislation involved. In any event, there is a level of obscenity when oil companies claim record profits while American citizens literally go without food, medicine or housing to afford gasoline. There is a moral imperative here that trumps all talk of profits and rebates. I support Senator Obama's plan because it makes the most sense for consumers today and in the future. Obama '08

[frvale007]

or maybe we will buy our kids new shoes and clothes or catch up on the bills or buy some food for the table mr rollingdivision. and what this public use industry really needs is to be regulated, remember deregulation and how free market competition was going to keep prices in check. hows it working amigo. no one estimated just how greedy the bastards would get or how lame our leaders would be

[theMightyT]

Actually oil companies DO pay taxes. Why else would the administration be so eager to give them tax breaks?

A very simple question - how does ANY company make money? Where do they get their profits? From consumers.

So obviously ALL customers pay for every company's taxes. How else is it supposed to work? Plant a tax-money tree and pay your taxes with that?

Taxes on profits are meant to give rebates to consumers and develop alternative fuels. It has less to do with the supply and demand issue than getting off oil as much as possible via the alternative fuels route.

As to the pricing / gouging issue, see below.

[belikejeanvaljean]

A windfall profits tax would only discourage domestic exploration and production and be passed on to the consumer eventually. Check out these figures:

ExxonMobil's effective income tax rate for this past quarter was 49%. Not low by any means.

http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/news_release_supp2q08.pdf
see page 3

I am an Obama supporter, but I wonder how much more he wants them to pay if half of Exxon's income already goes to the federal government in taxes.

By way of contrast, Apple's effective tax rate is 29%,

See page 29 of Apple's financial report for this: http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/10/107/107357/items/301504/AAPL_10Q_Q3FY08.pdf

Exxon's profit margin was 10.85%, Apple's was almost 15%. Exxon had huge profits in terms of actual dollars because they are such a huge company, but their profit margin was lower than many companies, including Apple for example. And their tax rate much higher.

Once again, I support Obama, and hate high fuel prices as much as the next person, but will taxing a company like Exxon even more than the nearly 50% they are paying already will lower fuel prices in the long run? The easiest way to make up for an additional expense is to pass it on to the consumer and we don't need more of that.

The best approach is to think long term about alternative energy sources, better fuel efficiency. Short term pain but long term gain.

[UCFJayBird]

cue Mitt Romney, who says it's "dishonest". Uh...what'­s dishonest about it? Did he really expect Obama to sit back and take the hits when the polls show the videos are working? Did he really think he'd let McCain walk all over him like Kerry let Bush back in 2004? C'mon Mitt, get real. And get off your high horse acting like your candidate is playing a clean game. McCain is running an awful campaign built on lies and manipulation.

[cassidynj]

It's Oil and" Country First" for John McCain -- it's about time the focus was placed on this.

[swift goat pet for truth]

I hope Corporate Media plays this ad as a contrast.
I hope they play it as many times as they played the Paris/Britney ads.

But I really doubt it.

[rhondadavis28]

Happy Birthday Obama!