Obama's own voice may haunt him

Politico ^ | July 6, 2008 | David Mark & Kenneth P. Vogel

[Eurale]

Barack Obama has proven a difficult target to hit—just ask Hillary Clinton. Opposition researchers, though, hope that they’ve found a weapon to wound Obama in his own voice as recorded for the Grammy Award-winning audio version of his 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father.” While candidates often have their own words turned against them in attack ads, it’s one thing to see past statements in bloc text and something else entirely to hear the same words in the office-seeker’s own voice.

[CalvaryJohn]

I like the one clip about him seeking out Marxist professors.

[newfreep]

This is news to me - please elaborate. Thanks!

[freeangel]

Ya just got to love the narcissist in some people when it can come back to bite them in the a$$.

[Mark was here]

Seems like a prerequisite for being President is getting high, the war on drugs be damed.

[Bobalu]

http://www.newzleech.com/?mode=usenet&retention=&q=Dreams%20from%20My%20Father

[SE Mom]

It’s true- reading his book is one thing- but hearing his voice gives a clarity that no amount of “calibration” can change..

[Russ]

It doesn’t matter. McCain wants to “play nice” so I doubt that we will see these statements being used in ads. The GOP doesn’t have the spine to run this campaign the way it needs to be run.

[SomeCallMeTim]

“I kept playing basketball, attended classes sparingly, drank beer heavily, and tried drugs enthusiastically… If the high didn’t solve whatever it was that was getting you down,” Obama intones, “it could at least help you laugh at the world’s ongoing folly.”

This one's rich, too... I'm actually forcing myself to read the awful book. Better to know the enemy. It is truly, awful.

[Bobalu]

Yes, you hear some statements in that audio book that just beg to be used in a negative campaign ad.

[TomGuy]

Frank Luntz is on F&F doing a review of campaign ads.

[LOL. First up is Obama’s. BHO pulls the ‘white’ grandparents out from other the bus, again. Amazing how he finds the ‘white’ side of his heritage, when in need.]

O’s ad is O talking about his heritage, yada yada yada.

McCain’s ad uses a voice-over announcer.

Luntz concludes that O’s is more effective, because it uses O’s voice. McCain’s loses effectiveness because it is the announcer, not McCain, who is presenting the text.

[Luntz, IIRC, even in the primaries, was sort of like Chris Matthews. Luntz seems to have a similar tingling down his leg every time he presented anything regarding Obama.]

[TomGuy]

McCain wants to “play nice” so I doubt that we will see these statements being used in ads.

IIRC, Dole took the high road in 96, and we know how 'nice' that was.

[randita]

Obama’s books have been in the marketplace for years. I read “Dreams” a couple of years ago before he catapulted to the national stage. He can deflect criticism by claiming “old news” and he has always been candid about the fact that he is not perfect and had a troubled youth because he was bi-racial, and so on. People will not hold this against him, IMO.

Rather than waste time with this, I think it’s more effective to nail him on his flip-flopping and on his far left stances on issues. There is more than enough there to do a whole cycle of campaign ads.

[Arrowhead1952]

The things he has said during the past few months are enough to make anyone NOT vote for him. The one that really bothered me was:

“We live in the greatest nation in the world. Vote for me and help me change it.”

That should have made every voter ask a question. Just WHAT do you want to change the US into? Another third world country?

[Ditter]

It was nObama’s comment about not being allowed to keep our thermostat at 72 that bothers me. How dare he!!!!

[trisham]

A chocolate country, imho.

[Crimson Elephant]

IMO the right tack at this point is to use anything in the book ( I have not read it) that relates to his far leftist leanings, which include Wright...paint it as a return to the leftist 70s. When Obama responds by pointing out his shifts to the center, hit him with the “same old politician charge” and attack his “change” message.

If it works it could eventually get the Obama campaign in a pin ball situation between the far left, his past ideology and his current position changes. The hypocrisy angle. He also is actually weak on the economy, but the GOP has been terrible at explaining the economy for years. Obama might get away with blaming Bush tax cuts for the “recession” because no one on the right can explain it in soundbyte form.

Obama is vulnerable in debates, but McCain isn’t great either.

That might be the key for McCain, to pick a VP that can sell the right vs left economic approach. He has the military covered.

[Migraine]

“We live in the greatest nation in the world. Vote for me and help me change it.”

That's a very telling quote. Here's another, and he said it in almost every stump speech: "I believe in capitalism, BUT..."

[aruanan]

“We live in the greatest nation in the world. Vote for me and help me change it.”

Obama didn't say this.

[Migraine]

Just WHAT do you want to change the US into? Another third world country?

More likely, Europe. Socialist, atheist, pacifist, easy-pickins for commies, benefits-industry-types, multiculturists, islamists and assorted cookie-cutter losers.

[SW6906]

I agree - no real need to go back into his past when we have him giving contradicting statements - on video - mere weeks or months apart.

[Arrowhead1952]

“We live in the greatest nation in the world. Vote for me and help me change it.”

Obama didn't say this.

That may not be the exact quote, but it was something very similar.

[Migraine]

Obama didn't say this.

I think it is more of a distillation and a logical extension of broader comments. No one but John Kerry would utter the contradiction in a single sentence. What is your take on it, BTW?

[aruanan]

That may not be the exact quote, but it was something very similar.

It was written by a Canadian who sent it to Mark Steyn as part of an all-purpose stump speech for the 2008 cycle. It's been sent all over the place in emails attributing it to Obama.

[aruanan]

I think it is more of a distillation and a logical extension of broader comments. No one but John Kerry would utter the contradiction in a single sentence. What is your take on it, BTW?

If Obama admits the U.S. is a great place, then why does he find it necessary to change it? If there are particular aspects about it that need to be changed, then he needs to identify them. The problem is that none of them is liberal/socialist and identifying traditional U.S. values as bad would be bad for him politically. Because of this he uses empty bucket words like hope and change and expects people to put into them whatever meaning they want and then believe he, Obama, is referring to that. He's a con artist, though not a particularly good one. Virtually all of his success has been because of people like Emil Jones doing things for him in the hopes of cashing in later. As Jones told an acquaintance, "I'm going to make a U.S. Senator,"referring to Obama. To give Obama some kind of legislative history, Jones took bills away from those who did all the work and gave them to Obama to sponsor.

[Chode]

and the RATS, take another one in the..................HA ha!!!

[Salvation]

[OKIEDOC]

I'm with you on this all the way.

Abortion is liberally sanctioned murder.