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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > September > 22 > Entry
Eye on Ohio: “Need Education” ad for Obama
THE AD: “Need Education,” a 30-second TV ad
PRODUCER: Barack Obama campaign
WHERE TO SEE IT: National cable and in key battleground states.
SCRIPT:
LILLY LEDBETTER: I worked at this plant for 20 years before I learned the truth. I’d been paid 40 percent less than men doing the same work. John McCain opposed a law to give women equal pay for equal work. And he dismissed the wage gap saying women just need education and training. I had the same skills as the men at my plant. My family needed that money. On the economy, it’s John McCain who needs an education.
BARACK OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.
VIDEO: Opens with archival shots of the Goodyear plant and Lilly Ledbetter. Cuts to shots of Lilly Ledbetter addressing the camera. Cuts then to a brown screen saying “John McCain opposed a law to give women equal pay for equal work, then saying “John McCain dismissed the wage gap…saying women just need ‘education and training.’” Cuts back to Lilly Ledbetter speaking to the camera, then ends on a shot of Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
ANALYSIS: Sen. Barack Obama has made the push for women voters even before he beat Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary earlier this year. This ad makes the argument that if elected, he’d be better than McCain for women, particularly on the issue of pay equality. Obama included a line in his speech accepting the Democratic nomination calling for equal pay between men and women. He’s also held private calls with women leaders and had women surrogates hold press conferences on his behalf.
This ad uses Lilly Ledbetter, an Alabama woman who fought at the Supreme Court level for pay equality, to make the case that he’d work for equal pay.
She cites an April 23, 2008 Associated Press story by Libby Quaid reporting that McCain opposed a Senate bill seeking equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits. McCain skipped a vote on the issue to campaign in New Orleans. Senate Republicans ultimately killed the measure, which both Clinton and Obama backed.
In that same story, however, McCain is quoted as saying, “I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what’s being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems … This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.”
That bill was named for Ledbetter.
According to the National Organization for Women, in 2005, women’s median annual earnings were only 77 cents for every $1 earned by men. The gap is even more stark for women of color.
But an analysis of Obama’s own U.S. Senate office by Scripps Howard News Service columnist Deroy Murdock finds the Illinois senator falls short: While Obama’s average male employee earns an average of $54,397, Murdock found, his average female employee earned $45,152 on average. Murdock surmises that this is in part because of the under-representation of women in Obama’s highest compensated ranks. Among Obama’s five best-paid staff, only one was a woman.
McCain, meanwhile, paid his male staffers an average of $53,936. His female staffers averaged $55,878. Of McCain’s top-five best paid staffers, three were women.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Eye on Ohio
Comments
By Alice
September 23, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this
Ben, Obama wouldn’t kill small business, increase unemployment, stifle growth or skyrocket energy. Bush and the Republican-controlled government have already done that. according to a vote analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly, McCain was the administration’s most reliable supporter in 2007. Apparently,you were too. Fortunately for us, most of the country doesn’t agree with you.By Ben
September 23, 2008 7:56 AM | Link to this
Now to the topic at hand, another classic case of Obama saying one thing and doing another. They also fail to mention that the law in question was filled with prok barrell add ons that hve nothing to do with the bill at hand that McCain vehemently opposes.By Ben
September 23, 2008 7:51 AM | Link to this
And yet you still don’t have any response as to how Obama’s prosposed fiscal policies would kill small businesses, lead to widespread layoffs (unemployment), stiffle economic growth, and skyrocket the price of energy. Remember, Obama and Pelosi are actually on the record saying that paying $5 for a gallon of gas is a good thing.By Just For Ben from Alice
September 22, 2008 10:02 PM | Link to this
Ben, posting the same thing in many posts doesn’t make it any less true. Your reference to socialism (not to mention the use of the term “Obamabot”) and equating it somehow to this race is an example of what you accuse me of. Every election cycle people like you resort to name-calling and an annoying inclination to label other Americans as elitist, socialist/communist/marxist (as if it was the same thing), liberal, uppity, european, blah blah blah… please, Ben, as a FREETHINKER, come up with something more original or get another candidate to support.