Perhaps I’m a day or two late with this but since I just received a link to the David Brooks article from a friend and wrote up a rebuttal in reply I thought I’d post it here as well. In response to David Brooks I say:
- On voting present: This is something that is an option in IL but not
most other states. It is a common practice to vote present on a bill
that you think is ultimately unconstitutional or in general is OK but
has specific provisions that you don’t agree with. For example if the
main point is something you agree with but the writing of the bill
pushes in some added provision that is objectionable then the strategy
is to vote present because you don’t agree with it on a whole but don’t
want to vote against it since the major aspect of it is a position you
agree with. In 8 years he voted present 128 times, out of thousands of
votes. It’s a criticism that is always waged against an IL politician
because they always have present votes on their record since its the
way they do it there.
- On throwing Rev. Wright under the bus: Ridiculous. He went on the
national stage during the height of the Rev. Wright continuous coverage
and explicitly did not throw him under the bus even though it was very
risky to do that. It was only until later, when Rev. Wright came out
and in a display of extreme narcissism held a press conference where he
totally embarrassed himself and Obama. It was an act that appeared
intended to hurt Obama and was arranged by a devout Clinton
supporter. I’d have done the same thing – he was dissed big time after
going out on a limb.
- Could have been a workhorse senator: Why stay in the senate if you
have a serious shot at the presidency? His time is now and because of that he won the
nomination. He will get more done in the Whitehouse than he can as one
member of the senate.
- On townhall meetings: Obama has expressed an interest in doing them
and may well do some open debates like that with McCain. He won’t do
it on McCain’s timetable and shouldn’t. He shouldn’t let McCain
dictate the way Obama’s campaign will go. McCain wanted to do 10 of
them in 10 weeks – Obama shouldn’t just jump on and say OK dude,
whatever you say.
- On public financing: Obama’s campaign is financed in large part by
ordinary citizens contributing small amounts, he is financed by the
public in that sense. Also how much support does public financing
enjoy amongst the American people? Only about 1% check that little box
on their tax return to contribute to presidential races. Obama does
have a fundraising advantage and doesn’t want to give that up. I am
100% certain that McCain would do the same. McCain has flip-flopped on
this issue in the past. Personally I enjoy the
opportunity to contribute to the Obama campaign and feel like my small
contribution actually means something.
Another point on the financing is that currently Obama is at a
disadvantage with media coverage. The media is very hard on Obama yet
we hardly hear about these sorts of things:
-McCain’s long list of flip-flops (torture, abortion rights, offshore drilling, ethanol, gay marriage, 100 years in Iraq)
-His direct misrepresentations with regard to how things are in Iraq
(e.g. the “flack jacket” lie – on video and worse that Hillary’s Tuzla
yet unexamined).
-Nobody asks McCain why he won’t release his military record.
-Nobody asks why they won’t release Cindy’s tax returns even though it
is the vast majority of their income, could there be conflicts of
interest?,
-Why did he intervene and support the Pentagon’s awarding the air
tanker contract to a foreign firm as opposed to Boeing which will send
many jobs oversees and outsource the building of our military
equipment? BTW the man who lobbied for Northrop Grumman, the firm that
won the contract was the director of McCain’s campaign finance committee
until that was exposed and he had to get rid of him.
Obama needs to use his funds just to compete with the unbalanced media coverage.
Cross posted here
