Obama Ad Calls Out McCain For Employing Lobbyists

In an ad that hasn't officially been released to reporters, the Obama campaign goes hard after John McCain for employing big-time lobbyists in high ranking positions.

The spot, entitled "Special Interest," leaked out on Friday despite what Democratic officials say was Obama's design of waiting until the weekend. The ad is indicative of the continued battle between the two candidates over who can best carry the mantle of reform.

"John McCain's chief adviser lobbies for oil companies, even from Russia and China. His campaign manager lobbies for corporations outsourcing American jobs. The campaign chairman he picked last year -- a bank lobbyist. If seven of McCain's top advisers are lobbyists, who do you think will run his White House? John McCain. We just can't afford more of the same."

The McCain campaign was out with a response immediately, claiming Obama was the one ineffectual when it came to taking on special interests.

"Suffering at the hands of his own underperforming, deeply partisan, do-nothing record, Barack Obama has hastily resorted to blatant hypocrisy or simple ignorance to his own lobby-driven campaign," said spokesman Tucker Bounds, spokesman. "The truth is Barack Obama's campaign is saddled with former lobbyists, and John McCain is the only candidate who has led the fight to root out the influence of corporate money in politics..."

So who is right? The fact that the question is still debated is, in itself, remarkable. David Donnelly, head of Campaign Money Watch, a national campaign finance watchdog group, offered the following statement regarding the back and forth.

"Under President Bush, Americans have witnessed Washington and the economy work well for the oil companies, the health insurance industry, and the big money players who can afford to hire one of John McCain's many lobbyists. During these difficult times, Americans want their government to listen to them, not to those who continue the pay-to-play system. Sadly, John McCain's campaign, as this ad describes, is captive to big money lobbyists, and he has refused in this campaign to support comprehensive policies that will clean up Washington."

Comments

[pjean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WL_MvRu6SE

[NicoleAnon]

Does anyone know if there are contracts people sign when they work for a candidate where they say even if they work for another candidate they will never disclose any information from the campaign they're working on?

I know it's common for people working in politics to work with many difference candidates but it doesn't seem like a really good idea.

Also what do all the people working for the candidates do if their candidate loses the election? Do they still have jobs?

[NicoleAnon]

That is very interesting - they erased this. I don't get it. The candidates make PUBLIC statement in front of journalists and we simply repeat them here and they're instantly deleted. But why? I'm honestly curious - what are they so scared of?

Here are his EXACT words again.

"Make no mistake about this, HC is as qualified or MORE QUALIFIED to be President and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me."

Are you so scared about losing the election that you actually think erasing remarks from here is going to help you?

[KiwisCanFly]

NicoleAnon

YUP the RNC has clipped the exact quote and parsing it off as exact. Of course u didn't fact check the quote??

In context, an open-mind observes it is a self-deprecating remark said an honest, humble man, Sen Biden, Democrat VP Nominee.

"Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend; she is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America and,'' Biden said, then pausing, as if choosing his words carefully here: "Quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me."

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/hillary_clinton_biden_calls_he.html

[sillymongoose23]

oh that was really really good... i really like the ending...

[MB1East]

Great ad! Glad to see they are stepping it up! Obama needs an ad called "Liar" in which he lists out all of the McCain ads/statements that have been disproved by non-partisan groups. List them out over and over. Show each to be a lie. Statement. Lie. Statement. Lie. And then wrap it up with "if he is lying to get into the White House, how can you trust him when he gets there?" followed up with the "more of the same" tag line that they have been using. But Obama needs to do it with non-partisan sources so that McCain can't cry media bias. Even though he will. But I think that would really rattle McCane. I mean, uh McCain. Obama/Biden!!

[Donnat]

With all the lies the GOP is putting out there, it would have to be an infomercial, not a commercial.

[DoTheMath]

maybe a mini-series

[grata2ude]

Should play the old Three Dog Night Song......­....Liar..­.........a­nd then show all the lies by both McCain and Palin

[Vote For America]

Obama 278, McCain 260
http://voteforamerica.net/electoral.aspx

Sept 12 Polling Update
http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=51&ArticleName=Daily+Poll+Update+(9%2f12)

The Red November: An analysis on campaign marketing:
http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=50&ArticleName=The+Red+November

[JillQ]

Everybody was upset that Obama wasn't fighting back. But, think about it: He waited until after the 9/11 anniversary to do so in deference to those who died on that horrible day. Now he's fighting for them, their families, our country and our honor.

[JillQ]

Everybody was upset that Obama wasn't fighting back. But, think about it: He wanted to wait until the 9/11 anniversary to do it. He waited in deference to those who died on that horrible day. Now he's fighting for them, their families, our country and our honor.

[RinusDeGier]

They forgot to mention Phil Gramm wrote the Enron loophole. That's energy expertise you can believe in.

[SarahPinTennessee]

HA !!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!! This one makes my day! Thank YOU!
The Enron loophole is EXACTLY the kind of thing, second only to invading other countries, that we should be worrying about more often. It's got to stop.
ENOUGH!

[KiwisCanFly]

There is more!!!

Sen Phil Gramm:

McCain's Chief Economic Adviser and Co-chair to his presidential campaign.

Set out to completely gut the Glass-Steagall Act, and did so successfully.
Replacing most of its components with the new Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Allowing commercial banks, investment banks, and insurers to merge (which would have violated anti-trust laws under Glass-Steagall).

This deregulation helped cause the subprime mess.

http://losangeles.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/the-subprime-mess-and-phil-gramm-an-experiment-in-deregulation.aspx?googleid=242468

What Gramm's efforts acheived:

To roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages

Gramm, called us "a nation of whiners" and SAID that this is a "mental recession".

McCain has Gramm, write his economic policy plans??!!

[KiwisCanFly]

Further

RinusDeGier

A year after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the old regulations, Swiss Bank UBS gobbled up brokerage house Paine Weber.

Two years later, Gramm settled in as a vice chairman of UBS’s new investment banking arm.

Sen Obama said

“But by the time [it] was repealed in 1999, the $300 million lobbying effort that drove deregulation was more about facilitating mergers than creating an efficient regulatory framework.­”

Obama is absolutely right!

Who do we want leading our country. Obama who recognizes what went wrong and tells it as it is?
Or
McCain who gets Gramm to write his economic policy plans?

[MrGill]

Some people have been saying Obama has a lobbyist on his staff: it's true. David Axelrod WAS a lobbyist in the years 2002-2005. He had ONE client, Commonwealth of the N Mariana Islands.

Here's the links:

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist.php?year=2003&lname=Axelrod%2C+David
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands

I couldn't figure out what he was lobbying for them though.

By comparison, look at McCain's lobbyists and who they CURRENTLY represent. The volume of money is unreal. http://mccainslobbyists.com/

[LouisianaLiberal]

No, he wasn't a lobbyist. He worked for Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity (CORE). He did NOT lobby. You need a license for that. He negotiated on behalf of CORE.

Axelrod did have corporate clients. Also, Obama has taken money from lobbyists in the past. But the point I think must understand is what is wrong with lobbyists. It’s the lobbying done by big business who will expect “favors” when the candidate wins.

Obama has taken money from employees of companies and the amounts are far less than those McCain has received. Follow the money. If McCain is elected he will owe big oil and big business a whole lot of favors (check out the dollar amounts) and we will NOT extricate ourselves from our addiction to oil because of this lobbying.

[MrGill]

Just trying to share what I found...ag­ain, not a lot of detail. I like Axelrod and think he's a good hire.

[NicoleAnon]

I agree that lobbyists have more influence with JM than with Him but the problem with his ad is that he can't really claim that he doesn't have any association with former lobbyists which is what he seems to be implying there.

If I worked for his campaign, and based on what I've seen maybe I would do better than his current team, I would tell him to keep it simple from now on:

1) Don't mention SP ever again - forget about her. Pretend she doesn't exist. Don't attack her. Don't try to say she isn't qualfied. Keep people focused on JM and not her. Offer a humble apologize that some people misinterpreted your words and thought you were insulting her - then never mention it again. Do NOT joke about it with late night talk show hosts.

2) Keep reminding everyone about the economy - you can't win with the war issue, just keep talking about the economy.

3) Do NOT have a dinner with Hollywood celebrities that cost $28,500 for a ticket - it might be a fundraiser but you don't need the money bad enough that it's worth the negative message it sends people.

4) Don't let Biden out in public - he might tell everyone he thinks HC was more qualified than him to be VP again. Keep him hidden away until after the election.

[Born Again Atheist]

they all have lobbyist but the important thing to point out is that McCains lobbyist are all GWB buddies thats whats good about this ad it ties McCain to Bush!!

[McChimp]

good, go see Axelrod and Plouffe and see if they will let you have their jobs.

[UpstateNY]

Good ad - simple, to the point, true. All Obama ads HAVE to be true. You cannot accuse another candidate of lying unless you are squeaky clean.

[NicoleAnon]

What do you think about Biden saying HC was more qualified to be VP than he is?

I noticed they haven't covered that here for some strange reason.

[Chillinout]

tr0lls keep saying that, though they have not provided a link to this supposed comment by Biden.

You got a link?

[McChimp]

Biden was being humble, he said Hillary would have been a better candidate.­. way to twist things out of context and L I E.

[MissT]

They should end each of these ads with the simple statement from the convention speech...E­NOUGH!

[tbrdn]

GREAT AD! Yes I want to scream it! Finally calling it what it is more of the same old crap. Vote Obama/Biden

[justobserve]

"David Donnelly, head of Campaign Money Watch, a national campaign finance watchdog group said "Sadly, John McCain's campaign, as this ad describes, is captive to big money lobbyists, and he has refused in this campaign to support comprehensive policies that will clean up Washington­."
McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds said "The truth is ...". When this liar opened the sentence with that we can see how blatant and disrespectful they are of us, voters. The Republicans really think we are stupid! Days after days they spewed forth the lie about the Bridge to Nowhere when everyone from the media checked it out and said she was for it before she oppose it. Palin only stopped saying in her homwtown where people knew the truth so she couldn't lie. McCain really lost his integrity.
"HAVE YOU HEARD McCAIN-PALIN LIE LATELY? Vote DEMOCRAT for AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE, WOMEN'S CHOICE, VETS BENEFITS, EQUAL PAY".

[McFlipFlop]

Tucker Bounds will burn in hell for his lies, blatant lies.

Obama should stick with the tax commercial, and other direct economic message commercials. These voters that are switching to McCain/Palin in recent days (mostly from "Undecided") do not understand what a lobbyist is. These are the under-informed, under-educated, etc.

[pbcrunch]

Greatest thing about the ad: referring to Senate records. There can be no cries about "media bias," etc. from Mac's campaign.

[LouisianaLiberal]

You wouldn't think so, but just wait. Tomorrow we will hear a whole lot about poor John McCain and the media bias. Uh huh. They just seem to carve out a world of make believe. I'm actually afraid that when he loses the election, he'll just declare himself the winner anyway and stride right up to the White House with his poor abused wife and his war chest of weapons, medals and memorabilia all ready to attack Russia.

[mongus]

Now, that one is going to leave a mark.