It's amazing to me how the candidate of "hope" -- the one who wants to "change politics as usual" is engaging in the SAME politics as George W. Bush! Am I the only one bothered by this?
The Obama campaign is back with the 2008 version of "Harry and Louise" -- a tactic straight out of the Rove play book. Which is, when you have little to offer voters, slam your opponent with lies and distortions! Hey, it worked for Bush/RoveCo.!Obama must still be stinging from the excellent closing remarks by Sen. Clinton in the debate. Why else would he be dragging up this garbage? And why else would he sit on a stage and call charges of plagiarism "silly politics" and then ENGAGE IN IT HIMSELF within minutes of the debates ending?
You can't have it both ways "Mr. Hope" ... it's either "silly" or you are a hypocrite!
If you are going to run as someone who is going to change the way we do politics in this country, then buddy you need to be leading by example -- and right now you're not!
Senator Clinton has every right to call you out on your lies.
On February 3 Irwin Redlener, M.D., posted a response to Obama's campaign tactic.Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that a pair of mailings sent to voters by rival Barack Obama's campaign criticizing her health care plan and trade views are false, misleading and a betrayal of his pledge to practice a new style of politics.
"Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public — that's what I expect from you," Clinton said angrily, waving the mailings in the air.
"Meet me in Ohio, and let's have a debate about your tactics," she added. [...]
Obama Hires 'Harry and Louise' to Attack Hillary's Plan for Health Care: Republicans Thrilled!Haven't we had a "Liar-in-Chief" long enough? Can we afford to elect another? I think not!
Here's a top contender for the most egregious political strategy of the current campaign season: the Obama Campaign is now circulating a mailer that resuscitates the images of "Harry and Louise," the notorious stars of a political ad that was part of a $300 million campaign by the health insurance industry and others to bring down the Clinton administration's health reform proposal in 1993. The photograph of a middle-aged couple looking troubled as they pour over a pile of papers on their kitchen table adorns the first page of the Obama mailer -- but it looks like it could have been a screen shot taken from the original Harry and Louise piece.
But there's more. The accompanying copy in the mailer is nothing more than a list of untrue assertions and seemingly deliberate misrepresentations of Senator Clinton's positions on health care. It is simply false that Senator Clinton's plan would "force everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it." In fact, Senator Clinton's plan not only includes nearly twice the resources for health care tax credits as the Obama campaign but would cap premiums at a low share of a family's income, to ensure that everyone could afford to be in the system. And according to the Commonwealth Fund, the best way to maximize cost reductions in health care is to make it truly universal, with an individual requirement as part of the shared responsibility needed to make the whole system work.
Yet if Hillary becomes the Democratic nominee, the Obama campaign has just packaged an ad that could be used, essentially unedited, by the Republicans next fall. To make matters worse, Barack Obama's resuscitation of Harry and Louise ad also helps bolster the cause of those who, at all costs, oppose meaningful health reform. [...]
While we can only speculate on Senator Obama's personal motivations, what is perfectly clear is that he ended up proposing a plan that would not require individual citizens to do anything and, according to many independent experts, would leave at least 15 million Americans out of the system. That means 15 million people out of the insurance pool, jacking up costs for the rest of us. It also means millions of people still crowding up the emergency rooms, getting care that, to them, is "free" but actually gets paid for by the rest of us through tax-based support to the hospitals and doctors who actually provide care to the uninsured.
Senator Obama is a very smart guy, and I would like to think that he wouldn't mind a re-do on this issue. But, of course, that is a no-no in American presidential politics. So, Obama is left in the extraordinary position of now having to defend a position that most progressives would never embrace -- in essence leaving large numbers of people without health care. And to top it off, he's now attacking universal health care and making a reincarnated Harry and Louise to do the dirty work. I suspect that many Democrats will simply see this as a desperate "go Republican" strategy that could have the unintended consequence of setting back the cause of universal health care.
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