Obama learns what a counter punch is
Aug 21, 2008 Political
Barack Hussein Obama woke up this morning and found himself five points behind John Sidney McCain. This after he suffered a serious blow at the Saddleback forum that saw all but the most seriously mentally ill calling it a big win for McCain. Obama attacked McCain after that forum and he came out swinging at the beginning of this week. I wrote earlier about Obama going on the attack, something I knew he would do as soon as he started to fade.
Obama put out an attack video which ties McCain to disgraced lobbyist (they call him a Republican lobbyist but he gave nearly as much money to Democrats) Jack Abramoff. The ad implies that John McCain made sure that one of the people involved, Ralph Reed, did not have problems and now that person is raising money for McCain. It appears that Reed did not receive special treatment and that the fund raising is, according to him, as a private citizen.
The Obama ad ignores the fact that Barack Obama received money from Abramoff and his associates. The Obama ad also ignores the fact that McCain was responsible for the investigation of the corruption and Abramoff’s demise. McCain exposed the issue but the ad does not let the viewer in on that little secret.
The ad tries to make McCain guilty by association, something Obama chided Hillary for in the primaries. Guilt by association was an issue that was hard for Republicans to bring up (even though Obama has a lot of associates that are shady) because they did not stick in the primaries and the first thing out of their mouths would be racism. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in today’s political climate Obama should be 15 points ahead instead of 5 behind. He has been shown as a weakling and he has decided to start getting mean. It appears though, that Obama made a tactical error. By trying to make McCain guilty by association he opened the door for John McCain to do the very same and there is not a thing the Obama-bots can do about it. Their guy opened the door and invited McCain in.
And in he walked. Big John carrying a big stick and he used it quite effectively:
“Barack Obama’s ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail.
“However, if Barack Obama wants to have a discussion about truly questionable associations, let’s start with his relationship with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, at whose home Obama’s political career was reportedly launched. Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, ‘I don’t regret setting bombs … I feel we didn’t do enough.’
“The question now is, will Barack Obama immediately call on the University of Illinois to release all of the records they are currently withholding to shed further light on Senator Obama’s relationship with this unrepentant terrorist?” —McCain spokesman Brian Rogers via STACLU
Game, set, match. The kid took a swing at John McCain while trying to act tough and the counter punch hit him square in his glass jaw. Now the McCain camp can air ads with pictures of all the things that Ayers blew up and sound bites of him saying they did not do enough. They can top that off with pictures of Barry and Ayers together. There is not a thing that Barry or any of his minions can do about this. You see, Barry could shrug it off in the primaries by claiming that he was a kid when Ayers bombed but Barry was an adult when he became an associate of Ayers. Ayers made his statements in the recent past so Obama is associated with a known terrorist. Obama had to know about Ayers’ past and his current feelings and yet he continued to associate with him. Obama, for such a smart man, led with his chin on this one.
It was good to see the McCain camp shoot back quickly and forcefully. This was not only a shot to the chin, it was also a shot across the bow. The McCain camp sent a warning that basically said; “If you want to play this game you go right ahead but we are good at it and we are not afraid to hit you very hard when we punch back. I bet this will give Obama a bit of a pause.
Might be too late. Now McCain is free to exploit the past associations of Obama and to use them without worry.
Barry played Carlton the doorman on this one.
Tags: abramoff, ayers, counter punch, glass jaw, McCain, Obama