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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Retired general in Dayton area Thursday to stump for Obama
Retired Brigadier General James Smith is coming to the Dayton area on Thursday, Sept. 18 to rally veterans support for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Brig. Gen. Smith was deputy commander, Joint Warfighting Center, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center, Suffolk, Va. He was also responsible for managing the joint force exercise and training development program, and for reviewing, coordinating, developing, publishing and applying the joint doctrine program. In addition he assisted in planning and executing the joint task force commander and staff integration training, and contingency planning
The events on Thursday are: 12:15pm VFW Post 1031 1237 E. Main St. Springfield
2 pm Huber Heights Democratic Club Marion Meadows Plaza 6153 Brandt Plaza
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Big surprise: Ohio among top recipients of candidate ads
Sure Barack Obama and John McCain are running for president in all 50 states, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at where they’re buying their television ads.
Instead, a new report by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, a project being conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, finds most of the spending was concentrated in 10 swing states - Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In the week after both political conventions ended, Ohio saw $1.6 million worth of TV ads - that’s the fourth highest tally of any state. Only Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan saw more.
Between Sept. 6 and Sept. 13, McCain spent $812,000 in Ohio. Obama spent $801,000.
The study found that Obama is also trying to use advertising to his advantage in Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota and Virginia - all states George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004.
And it found that interest group advertising has been “minimal” so far. Four groups aired ads during the week following the convention, spending about $187,000. Three groups - Service Employees International Union, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Action Fund aired ads supporting Obama, with the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund spending $3,000 in Ohio and the SEIU spending $13,000 in Ohio. Vets for Freedom, meanwhile, aired ads for McCain, spending $35,000 for him in Ohio.
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Eye On Ohio: ‘His administration’ ad for Obama
By Jessica Wehrman
Dayton Daily News
THE AD: “His administration,” a 30-second television ad. PRODUCER: Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign WHERE TO SEE IT: National cable stations and below.
SCRIPT: Obama: “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
Announcer: “His campaign is run by lobbyists. Now we find out McCain’s White House will be lobbyist-run, too. He just picked a Washington super lobbyist to plan his administration. A “consummate insider” who lobbies for oil companies. The credit card industry. Corporate special interests rigging the system against hard-working Americans…pushing failed Bush economics. Does that sound like change to you? We just can’t afford more of the same.”
VIDEO: Video for this ad begins with a shot of Obama and vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden. It cuts to a shot of John McCain and then a series of headshots of lobbyists affiliated with his campaign. Then it cuts to a shot of the White House, interspersed with shots of Timmons smiling while talking on the phone, what appears to be lobbyists and lawmakers walking the halls of Congress, Timmons smiling at the camera, and an ordinary-looking family at a grocery store. It finishes with a shot of McCain and George W. Bush smiling and waving at the camera, with the phrase “We just can’t afford more of the same,” scrolled over the screen.
ANALYSIS: This is the second Obama ad hitting McCain for his lobbyist time and trying to squish the McCain image as a hard-charger who will stand up to corporate interests if elected. The ad references a Time story that ran Friday, Sept. 12, reporting that John McCain has picked a Washington lobbyist to help prepare McCain for his presidential transition should he win.
William E. Timmons, according to his lobbying firm’s Web site, has worked for Presidents Nixon and Ford and assisted inn the transition teams of both Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 2000. Timmons also served as an advisor to Vice President George Bush in 1988 and Sen. Bob Dole in his 1996 presidential bid.
According to his firm’s Web site, Timmons is the chairman emeritus of Timmons and Company, a lobbying firm he founded in 1975 after he left the White House. Timmons was president of the company until 1986. He has been registered to lobby for companies and trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute, Freddie Mac, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, the National Rifle Association, and the American Medical Association.
According to Time, “by tapping Timmons, McCain has turned to one of Washington’s steadiest and most senior inside players to guide him in the event of a victory - but also someone who represents the antithesis of the kind of outside-of-Washington change he has recently been promising.”
Here’s where Obama steps in. His campaign uses this ad to point out that McCain, who has recently used the “change” mantra for his own campaign, is doing so as he leans on Washington insiders for his own transition.
That said, the ad doesn’t point out that in the U.S. Senate, McCain was a driving force behind a corruption investigation involving fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff. McCain, according to Politifact.com, also introduced a bill in 1996 and again in 1997 that would ban lobbyists from being paid by political campaigns. Nor does it point out that Obama has had lobbyists work on his campaign, among them Jim Demers, a New Hampshire strategist who helped Obama particularly during the primary.
By the way, McCain isn’t being presumptuous by tapping a transition chief. Obama, too, has picked someone to head up the transition, according to Time - in this case, John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton.
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Eye On Ohio: ‘Foundation,’ ad for McCain
By Laura Bischoff
Dayton Daily News
The Ad: “Foundation,” 30-second TV commercial Producer: McCain campaign Where to see it: It’s scheduled to be televised nationally. It can also been seen DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio
The Script: JOHN MCCAIN: You, the American workers, are the best in the world. But your economic security has been put at risk by the greed of Wall Street. That’s unacceptable. My opponent’s only solutions are talk and taxes. I’ll reform Wall Street and fix Washington. I’ve taken on tougher guys than this before.
Female Anchor: Change is coming. John McCain.
JOHN MCCAIN: I’m John McCain and I approve this message.
Video: It opens with McCain speaking to the camera, slowly zooming in on his face and then interspersed with photos of Wall Street, the stock market trading floor and Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden. It closes with a photo of McCain talking on a rather large cell phone and then a photo of McCain in front of an American flag with the words “The Original Maverick.”
Analysis: The ad focuses on the slumping economy and workers’ fears about job and investment security. Stylistically, it’s a bit different - none of the typical scary music or grainy black-and-white unflattering photos of the opponent. Instead, McCain speaks directly to the camera and viewers. His only attack on Obama is that his “only solutions are talk and taxes” but the ad reveals no details of how McCain would help the economy.
“I’ll reform Wall Street and fix Washington. I’ve taken on tougher guys than this before,” McCain says with a bit of a grin. McCain, who has been in Washington for 26 years, uses two taglines in the ad: “Change is coming” and “The Original Maverick.” (The Original Maverick sounds like a new barbeque sauce, doesn’t it?)
Behind the scenes, the McCain camp points to the Arizona senator’s push for shareholder approval of corporate chief executives’ pay and severance packages and his pledge to reform laws and regulations governing the oil futures market to curb speculators driving up gas prices, and his efforts to require corporations to list employee stock options as an expense on their financial statements. The Obama campaign this week also released a two-minute video focused on economic security that promises a laundry-list of vague solutions, including tax reform, real regulations for Wall Street and fast-tracking energy independence.
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Eye On Ohio: ‘Still’ ad for Obama
By Jessica Wehrman
Dayton Daily News
The ad: “Still,” 30 seconds. Producer: Obama campaign
Where to see it: It’s airing in battleground states, including Ohio. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: Announcer: “1982. John McCain goes to Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years. But McCain hasn’t. He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an e-mail. Still doesn’t understand the economy. And favors two hundred billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class. After one president who was out of touch … we just can’t afford more of the same.
Barack Obama: I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message.
Video: To zippy, retro music, we get a flashback to 1982, featuring shots of a disco ball, McCain in thick-lensed glasses, a woman on a phone, a record player, a man working on an old-fashioned computer. Then it zips forward to shots of McCain today, a man on a laptop, a family in a grocery store, McCain and the elder George Bush in a golf cart, and two champagne glasses being toasted. When the announcer says “we just can’t afford more of the same,” it cuts to a shot of McCain and President George W. Bush. It then cuts to a shot of Obama and vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Analysis: This Obama ad underscores themes the Obama campaign has been making virtually since Obama became the nominee: McCain, 72, is old (check out those glasses!); he’s been in Washington for decades and is part of the entrenched Washington culture; he’s out of touch with Americans (no e-mail?); and voting for him would be a vote for a third Bush term. All of this is part of the narrative they hope to create: Obama representing change, McCain representing old-school Washington.
Two facts in this ad are worthy of closer examination. Obama’s assertion that McCain “doesn’t understand the economy” is a fairly subjective assertion, though McCain was quoted during the primary as saying that “the issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.”
More of interest is the assertion that McCain favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class.
According to Roberton Williams, a research associate at the Tax Policy Center, McCain’s tax plan would raise taxes for corporations in some areas but cut them in others. The net effect would be cuts of $275 billion over a 10-year period.
Here’s what his center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, had to say about Obama and McCain’s tax plans:
“Sen. McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their after-tax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. … In marked contrast, Sen. Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers.”
Jessica Wehrman is a reporter for the Dayton Daily News. E-mail: jwehrman@coxnews.com.
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Eye On Ohio: “Disrespectful” ad for McCain
By Jonathan Riskind
The Columbus Dispatch
Producer: McCain campaign.
Where to see it: It’s airing in battleground states, including Ohio. View it at DaytonDailyNews.com/eyeonohio.
Script: Narrator: He was the world’s biggest celebrity, but his star’s fading. So they lashed out at Sarah Palin. Dismissed her as “good-looking.” That backfired, so they said she was doing, “what she was told.” Then desperately called Sarah Palin a liar. How disrespectful. And how Governor Sarah Palin proves them wrong, every day. McCain: I’m John McCain, and I approved this message.
Video: The spot begins with black-and-white shots of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, including in front of a podium with flashbulbs going off behind him, a not-so-flattering photo of Obama and running mate Joe Biden and shots of Obama with words such as “disrespectful” also on the screen. It ends with color footage of GOP nominee John McCain standing behind running mate Palin at a rally. The narrator is a woman.
Analysis: This is partly an attempt by the McCain campaign to keep the fires burning among the GOP’s conservative base, whose enthusiasm was stoked by the naming of Palin, the governor from Alaska, as McCain’s running mate. The ad also appears to be an effort to attract independent and conservative Democratic female voters by charging that Obama and Biden are being “disrespectful” of Palin and sparking the anger of female voters.
The allegation about dismissing Palin as “good-looking” is a reference to a comment Biden, not Obama, made in jest while poking fun at himself, not Palin. The nonpartisan Factcheck.org concluded: “Our ears don’t hear Biden’s ‘good-looking’ comment as dismissive. To the contrary, it’s clearly a self-deprecating remark made in joking about himself and his looks. And by the way, the ad shows a picture of Obama next to the ‘good-looking’ quote, but it was Biden, not Obama, who said that.”
The part about doing “what she was told?” Likewise, the true context was not uttered in a condescending manner. It involved a comment by Obama adviser David Axelrod responding to Palin’s speech at the Republican National Committee and charging that Palin’s criticism of some of Obama’s policies were off base.
As quoted by Politico, and recounted by Factcheck.org, Axelrod said it this way: “She tried to attack Obama by saying he had no significant legislative accomplishments — maybe that’s what she was told — but she should talk to Sen. Lugar, talk to Sen. Coburn, talk to people across the aisle in Illinois, where he passed dozens of major laws to expand health care, reform welfare, reduce taxes on working families.”
You could take that as a bit of an insult to be sure, suggesting that Palin should have done her own research, but its meaning and intent was not as suggested in this ad.
The charge that Obama called Palin a liar refers to an Obama campaign ad charging that Palin initially supported the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark when she had taken credit for being against it and being responsible for killing it. The evidence supports the contention that Palin was for the earmark initially, and that it was effectively dead by the time Palin moved to formally kill it off.
Jonathan Riskind writes for The Columbus Dispatch. E-mail: jriskind@dispatch.com.
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Strickland endorses Neuhardt; EMILY’s List gives her props as well
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland Wednesday, Sept. 17 endorsed fellow Democrat Sharen Neuhardt for the race for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, saying she’s the “right voice for Ohio’s 7th District.”
The endorsement comes the same week that Neuhardt got the backing of EMILY’S List, a political action committee devoted to helping women running for elected office, announced its endorsement of Neuhardt, a Miami Twp. Democrat.
Since its founding in 1985, EMILY’s List has raised over $240 million to elect 71 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 13 to the U.S. Senate, and eight governors.
We’ll update with comment from state Sen. Steve Austria, the Beavercreek Republican who is running against Neuhardt. But Austria, too, has gotten some endorsements: he’s been backed by U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, who he hopes to replace in the fall, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Ohio Right to Life, among others.
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Obama “Heartland RV” heads for Greenville, Troy
Democrat Barack Obama’s Ohio presidential campaign is going rural for four days, heading for Republican country to try to make some political converts.
Obama’s “Heartland RV” begins a four-day swing through Ohio today, Sept. 17. Campaign staffers, volunteers and local elected officials will discuss Obama’s plans for the economy and rural development. For more information, click here.
Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and state Treasurer Richard Cordray, who’s running for attorney general, are expected to join the tour on the weekend. On Thursday, the tour will stop at the Farm Science Review in London and the Little Brown Jug race in Delaware.
Today’s stops include:
Celina
4:30 p.m.
102 N. Main St.
Greenville
5:45 p.m.
1491 Wagner St.
Troy
7 p.m.
14 N. Walnut St.
