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Name That Accomplishment!
Captain's Quarters ^ | Feb. 20, 2008 | by Ed Morrissey

Posted on 02/20/2008 6:47:09 AM PST by jdm

This exchange will race through the conservative blogosphere, and probably on the pro-Hillary sites as well. Last night, Chris Matthews interviewed Texas state senator and Barack Obama supporter Kirk Watson as Obama sailed to a crushing victory in Wisconsin. Matthews asked Watson to name any significant legislative accomplishment by Obama, and the campaign surrogate got stumped:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "You are a big Barack supporter, right, Senator?"

State Sen. Watson: "I am. Yes, I am."

Matthews: "Well, name some of his legislative accomplishments. No, Senator, I want you to name some of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments tonight if you can."

State Sen. Watson: "Well, you know, what I will talk about is more about what he is offering the American people right now."

Matthews: "No. No. What has he accomplished, sir? You say you support him. Sir, you have to give me his accomplishments. You've supported him for president. You are on national television. Name his legislative accomplishments, Barack Obama, sir."

State Sen. Watson: "Well, I'm not going to be able to name you specific items of legislative accomplishments."

Matthews: "Can you name any? Can you name anything he's accomplished as a Congressman?"

State Sen. Watson: "No, I'm not going to be able to do that tonight."

Matthews: "Well, that is a problem isn't it?"

It will be in November. Hope and change sound great ... for a while. At some point, the spell breaks, and people wonder how all this hope and change will morph into actual policy, and whether the candidate can actually deliver it. That usually means looking at the record to see how the candidate did so in the past, when they had the opportunity to do so.

Obama simply doesn't have any record to show. He has been in the Senate a grand total of three years, one of which he's spent running for President. He has no record of even attempting to bring any of the themes on which he's running now to the Senate for consideration as actual legislative product. Why didn't he act when he had the chance?

That will be John McCain's argument. He has a long record of taking risks in the Senate and pushing bipartisan solutions to problems. He hasn't just sat around talking about change; he's actually accomplished it, sometimes in directions that angered Republicans then and now. McCain can cast himself as the real agent of change and bipartisanship, while Obama just poses as such for an election without once taking any real risks.

Plus, McCain would probably have smarter surrogates appearing on MS-NBC.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; accomplishments; barackhusseinobama; barackobama; democratparty; elections; emperorhasnoclothes; emptysuit; kirkwatson; nobama; obama; obamatruthfile
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To: Bringbackthedraft

you are older, though.

obama v mccain - huge generation gap.
clinton v mccain - huge gender gap.

mccain will need some new ideas and future-looking eloquence to match obama.


41 posted on 02/20/2008 8:46:48 AM PST by WOSG (The 4-fold path to save America - Think right, act right, speak right, vote right!)
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To: jdm
Chris Matthews pressed this question?!!
Chris Matthews?!!
42 posted on 02/20/2008 8:52:55 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: FlipWilson
The Obama spell won’t break until just after his inauguration.

I disagree. The "spell" is already showing signs of a hangover. Yesterday on Medved's radio show he had a Democrat reporter on (Jonathan somebody?) and this reporter said that he's talked to some nervous Democrats who believe that the Obama camp is getting too full of itself and pushing the magical mystery tour too far.

43 posted on 02/20/2008 8:57:22 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard

Here’s the video. Must see TV:

http://eyeblast.tv/public/Checker.aspx?rsrcID=1493


44 posted on 02/20/2008 10:41:36 AM PST by jdm (The traffic lights turn blue tomorrow.)
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To: jdm

Thanks for the link, but when I clicked on it, it said I have to “update my flash player”, whatever that means. So I clicked where it said “Click Here” but all that did was take me to what looked like a sales page for Adobe products or something. I dunno... I’m old and confused, so that’s where I quit....

Is it on YouTube?


45 posted on 02/20/2008 10:48:32 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard

Hillary has not accomplished much either... mostly naming post offices, and parks.. but for her 8 years in the senate, Obama is about equal to her record....


46 posted on 02/20/2008 12:50:23 PM PST by JoanneSD (illegals represented without taxation.. Americans taxed without representation)
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To: jdm

And Hillary has accomplished what?


47 posted on 02/20/2008 2:28:16 PM PST by fortheDeclaration ("Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people".-John Adams)
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To: fortheDeclaration
A good reply here, A wasted life.
48 posted on 02/20/2008 2:34:53 PM PST by JoanVarga ("¿Por qué no te calles?")
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To: JoanVarga
Yes, and I am sure the Obama people are going to be ready next time that question comes up with the reply, what has Hillary actually accomplished?

This will expose her for the fraud that she is.

49 posted on 02/20/2008 2:40:24 PM PST by fortheDeclaration ("Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people".-John Adams)
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To: HD1200
I can’t stand Matthews but I wish he would have said: well, sir, I’ll give you a day or two to bone up on Obama’s accomplishments and then you come back on my show and list them for us. Ten bucks says we will never see that guy again on Chris’s show.

Note: when I push spell check, Obama comes up and under correct spelling it comes up Osama! LOL try it.

50 posted on 02/20/2008 2:48:34 PM PST by fish hawk (The religion of Darwinism = Monkey Intellect)
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To: HappyinAZ

I will stay home.......Duncan Hunter was my choice....


51 posted on 02/20/2008 3:06:10 PM PST by yield 2 the right
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