Earth to Republicans: It's 2008, Not 1978

The Democratic candidate's coffers are far richer than the Republicans, so why is McCain's lie about Obama's taxes to the middle class sticking? Through the Olympics and even during the Democratic convention itself McCain has been running ads linking Obama with new taxes. It's the oldest play in the Republican playbook and actually would have some merit if they were running against McGovern or Mondale.

Obama's plan, however, LOWERS taxes on everyone making less than $250,000 a year. McCain favors continuing the Bush administration's tax breaks to the highest income brackets. Obama has explained this repeatedly in his speeches but he hasn't yet flooded the media with surrogates pounding home this message and he certainly hasn't gotten irate with the McCain campaign and flat out called them liars.

This YouTube video is nice but I guarantee you that only Obama supporters have seen it. Why aren't they getting this message out to the nation as a whole?

"Earth to Republicans: It's 2008 not 1978"

Obama needs to start spending a lot of all that money he's sitting on on ads ridiculing Republican attempts to trick the working electorate into once again voting to have their pockets picked. He needs to paint these efforts as hopelessly old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

This tax issue reminds me of how Bush-Cheney so successfully linked 9/11 with Iraq that 80% of Republican voters STILL believed that there was a link by they time they voted for him the second time around.

Obama has the resources to push back against the conservative echo chamber, but his campaign needs to start pushing hard as of yesterday.

PART TWO:

The other prong of a successful Obama attack needs to crush this notion that McCain is a "straight talker." YouTube and the The Daily Show sport dozens of videos of McCain contradicting himself. A humorous series of "McCain Vs. McCain" ads (praising Rumsfeld, cheerleading for the Iraq war, voting against the Bush tax cuts twice and now supporting them, etc.) should be running often and everywhere.

Obama's ridiculing McCain as offering only "ten-percent change" since he's voted with Bush 90% of the time is a great, related thread that also needs to be pounded into the MSM until every undecided in the nation can recite it.

These two memes need to be stuck in the craw of the independent electorate well before they enter the voting booth:

Obama will lower my taxes and McCain isn't who he says he is.

Comments

[TuesdayMorning]

02:42 PM on 09/09/2008

I think Obama is doing fine in general but he needs help from his party and even independents that see the farce of the republicans. It's one thing to watch what's going on with the candidate and expect him to start curtailing some issues and refocusing the country and another thing to help. My concern is that even though overall Biden is a good choice. I don't see him effectively challenging McCain or Palin. It's odd really. I see Obama doing it all. I wouldn't give up on Obama yet, he seems to recover well. Republicans still fear what Obama has to offer on the grounds that , he has a massive on the ground campaign, people have been paying attention to him for over 18months and Palin is so new -still getting vetted and has a lot of baggage. Voters don't like baggage. Repubs hope that people will ignore the real issues and focus on gender and race. Bargaining that gender beats race. Or that conservatism is doctrine.
I say work to get Obama/Biden elected. Change we can believe.

[toochie50]

02:15 PM on 09/09/2008

demyellowdog:
me too! I was so depressed last night when i went home - this is really getting to me - when we know we are on the brink of having one of our best presidential teams in history and stupid things like the liars on the repub side, along with 1/2 of the people in this country being morons (half my family even!!)
I just donated again today but if they do not come up with some good ads what good is it?

I hope O's meeting with Bill on Thursday will help him realize what he needs to do to toughen up.

[toochie50]

02:14 PM on 09/09/2008

demyellowdog:
me too! I was so depressed last night when i went home - this is really getting to me - when we know we are on the brink of having one of our best presidential teams in history and stupid things like the liars on the repub side, along with 1/2 of the people in this country being morons (half my family even!!)
I just donated again today but if they do not come up with some good ads what good is it?

I hope O's meeting with Bill on Thursday will help him realize what he needs to do to toughen up.

good news folks - the electoral vote is still the most important:
fivethirtyeight.com
9/9/98:
OBAMA: 292.8
Mcsame: 245.2

Electoral-vote.com
Obama: 281
Mcsame - 230

Realclearpolitics.com
Obama: 273
Mcsame: 265

[TuesdayMorning]

02:45 PM on 09/09/2008

I donated too. That's a part of how we can help to make the difference as the republicans use smear. Sometimes fighting the good fight isn't enough. Obama/Biden 08

[justobserve]

08:36 PM on 09/08/2008

I can't understand why Obama don't call LIARS by name: LIARS. Does he wait until after Nov 4? Democrats has all the right policies but they let the Repubs define them in bad way. Why wait then have to go against the wind?
Vote for issues, not beauty nor lies: AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE, WOMEN'S CHOICE, VETS BENEFITS, EQUAL PAY.

[valleygent]

07:51 PM on 09/08/2008

Why is the DNC so silent? If Howard Dean cannot muster a victory plan and media blitz for Obama, why is he in charge of the DNC?

[jannike]

06:13 PM on 09/08/2008

New Ad: McCain - Palin are lying.

[AmHope]

04:33 PM on 09/09/2008

Yep; simple and to the point.

[dctackett]

04:29 PM on 09/08/2008

Obama and Biden need to start FIGHTING back... no more "we respect his service" and "she's smart smart smart and tough tough tough"... they need to start making those short, to the point attacks... and keep hammering them into people's heads... otherwise, they will lose and so will America.

[Forsetti]

03:55 PM on 09/08/2008

To answer your initial question, because the Republicans have been nefariously masterful at defining the Democrats as the party of big government and taxes, making this definition stick while they, themselves, made the defeicit and governemnt larger.

People are generally lazy when it comes to studying the issues and facts. They seem more than willing to allow someone else to decide for them.

[DiscoStu]

04:00 AM on 09/09/2008

yeah! We need another NEW DEAL to make government smaller and taxes lower.

[martinspringfield]

03:30 PM on 09/08/2008

"Obama will lower my taxes and McCain isn't who he says he is."

You nailed it. Oh and Sarah Palin is just George W. Bush with lipstick. Now THAT'S a disturbing image (there's a morph of it on the home page here today) - so why not run with that?

[dadw5boys]

03:26 PM on 09/08/2008

THE MEDIA CONTROLS THE INFORMATION !!!!!!!

GOT TO BYPASS THEM !!!!!!!

[IndependentAllways]

03:13 PM on 09/08/2008

How about: John McCain would give his life for his country but would not give a cent of his precious money to help his country from drowning in debt!

[LCRover001]

02:57 PM on 09/08/2008

When I hear McCain talk about Obama is going to raise taxes I ask my self whose taxes are you talking about?

The middleclass or those like you Mr. McCain? Because if I'm not mistaken it is you who is going to raise the middle classes taxes while keeping the tax breaks for the rich.

What Obama need to do more of is point this out. Obama is going to give those who make under 250k a break and McCain has said he is going to start taxing Health insurance benefits. Currently taxes are taken out after those benefits are paid, and if your company pays 100% of those benefits you pay nothing for them. What McCain wants is for taxes to be taken out before insurance is paid and for employees to be taxed for what the company pays. I do not pay 100% of my Health insurance cost as do most we pay a percentage of that cost, some employers pay 100% of those cost. What McCain is going to do is add on those costs as income and increase what we pay in income taxes.

Same old Right wing tax crap tax the middle and not the top, currently those who make 10% of the money pay 32% of taxes while those who make 90% of the money pay 68% or taxes. After McCain is done it will increase the middles taxes while lowering the tops.

[TexasDem0]

02:54 PM on 09/08/2008

The Republicans lie because they know it will work with their non-thinking loyalists who vote for the GOP no matter how much it is in conflict with their own interests. These are the so called “low information voters” who look for an excuse, not to be confused with a reason, to vote for the GOP. This is why they are also one-issue voters, because they only need that one excuse to justify their surrender of logic. They don’t want to be bogged down with complex problems and the difficulty of working through them. They throw their vote away for a slogan.

The other reason they lie is because they get away with it. The media has been consolidated under the watchful gaze of its corporate overlords, who are not about to allow any criticism of their right wing political hacks. Just ask Dan Rather.

[BigLib]

02:46 PM on 09/08/2008

What Barry fails to mention is that many people who make 250 K and higher are usually small business owners who pay payroll. If they are taxed, they either have to raise the price of their product and lose customers or lay off employees.

So while the below 250 K are "getting a tax cut" they may not have a job.

Look how raising the minimum wage has effected the loss of jobs.

Economics 101.

[Buffkat00]

04:34 PM on 09/08/2008

What are you even talking about? Raising the minimum wage hasn't caused job loss- giving tax breaks to big corporations for sending jobs overseas HAS! You are just the type of person the McCain needs to win- someone who doesn't think for themselves.

[TexasDem0]

05:36 PM on 09/08/2008

Obviously Biggy, you get your “facts” from the noise machine.
Increasing minimum wage has had created no loss of jobs.
Equally obvious is your disdain for minimum wage laws.
How much did your tax liability decrease from the tax breaks for the ultra-rich?
Do you mind paying $4.00/gal for gasoline while oil companies make record profits?
Does that imply that maybe prices could be lower and they could still be profitable?
Does that mean that maybe they should not receive BILLIONS in grants?

Common Sense 101 – Don't vote against your own self interest.

[Angelus2007]

02:30 PM on 09/08/2008

I can't answer why Obama isn't putting out these ads. It makes no sense to me. I saw a video supporting a republican congessional candidate running somewhere in Kansas or Nebraska against a democratic incumbent. He basically broke down all the problems facing us today, gas prices, jobless rates, housing market ect. It said that everything bad that has happened to you is in the last 2 years. It showed gas prices on Jan 1 2007 and today ($2.35 to $3.85), the unemplotment rate in January 2007 (something like 4.7% to 5.7% today), and forclosures in 2006 compared to 2008 (increased alot) and house prices in 2006 to 2008 (dropped alot). In the end, he said it wasn't Bush, it was the democratic congress who caused these problems. It basically suggested that the reason everything got worse was not Bush, but congress. So elect a republican to replace the democrats and things will get better again.

While it doesn't explain that these things don't happen over night, and that the republcians block everything congress does. It hits home the point that the democrats are the problem not the republicans. This is an individual congressional race I know nothing about, so the democrat may have said someting that opened up this kind of attack. But I would be worried if the GOP used this logic nationwide, it could help McCain, and every congressional and senatorial GOP candidate could benefit at the same time.