Posted on 02/22/2008 5:34:35 AM PST by Kaslin
Barack Obama laid out numerous liberal policies he would pursue if elected President and dodged a blow from Hillary Clinton in a critical Democratic presidential debate before the March 4th nominating contests in Ohio and Texas.
In the run-up to the CNN debate in Austin, Texas Thursday evening, the Clinton campaign accused Obama of plagiarizing speech lines from Democratic Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Obama brushed off the charges. He said, “The notion that I plagiarized from somebody who is one of my national co-chairs who gave me the line and suggested I use it, I think is silly. This is where we start getting to silly season in politics and people start getting discouraged by it.”
Clinton retorted, “If your candidacy is going to be about words then they should be your own words.” The crowd applauded mildly, but rebuked what she said next. “Lifting passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in, it’s change you can Xerox.”
After Clinton said this, the audience booed for the only time that evening.
When pressed for policy details on several issues like immigration, healthcare, the economy and international relations Obama supported liberal positions.
Obama chided what he described as hateful rhetoric surrounding debates on immigration. He said immigration rhetoric has had “an undertone that has been ugly” and “we’ve seen hate crime skyrocket in the wake of the immigration debate.”
Obama, who supports comprehensive immigration reform and drivers licenses for illegal aliens, said in the debate he also thought there should be lower immigration application fees because “it’s discriminatory” for immigrant families to “hire a lawyer” and “pay thousands in fees” to receive legal status. Obama added he thought Congress should immediately pass the DREAM Act to give in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
“I do not want two classes of citizens in this country,” he said.
On healthcare, Obama said his and Clinton’s plans for were “95 percent similar.”
“We are going to subsidize those who can’t afford it,” he said.
To improve the economy, Obama said “We have to end the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and provide tax breaks to middle-class Americans and working Americans who need them.”
“Senior citizens making less than $50,000, you shouldn’t have to pay income tax on your Social Security,” Obama said. “We [can] pay for this by closing tax loopholes and tax havens that are being manipulated.”
Obama and Clinton largely agreed on most issue positions, but sparred over whether or not to meet with the soon-to-be Cuban leader Raul Castro.
As President, Clinton said she would not meet with Castro “until there was evidence change was happening.”
The debate ended on a largely conciliatory tone from Clinton, who is considered to have lost her front-runner status after suffering ten straight primary state losses to Obama.
At one point, Obama offered a strong argument why he would be a better candidate to run against Republican front-runner John McCain, to which Clinton gave no rebuttal.
Obama said, “When we are having a debate with John McCain it is going to be much easier with a candidate who was opposed the concept of invading Iraq in the first place to have a debate about the wisdom of that decision instead of having to argue about the tactics subsequent to the decision.” This was a not-so-subtle criticism of Clinton, who voted for the war in 2002 while Obama was speaking out against it as an Illinois state senator.
After landing no solid, campaign changing blows on Obama, Clinton closed the event by saying she was “absolutely honored” to be with him.
“And you know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine,” she said. “You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people, and that's what this election should be about.”
In his world, there will be the ruling class and then every body else. Bye-bye middle class.
Ping.
Three generations of entitlement-minded sheeple make it all the more likely that these socialists will win the WH. The takers, in cahoots with the ‘better-than-the-little-people” Hollywood pinheads, have become a powerful force in swaying the undecided’s among us.
How did we get here? We forgot that we must remain on constant vigil against the creeping liberal slime that fails to recognize that government funds derive only from the governed. We were asleep at the wheel of the ship of state when FDR rearranged the deck chairs and successfully germinated a big-brother state. We’ve been paying that piper ever since.
It’s time to reclaim the country, IMO. Won’t be easy, and won’t be pretty. But, if we are to survive as a free nation, we simply must. And it starts with defeating the liberal dhimmirat mindset that seeks to push (drag?) us along the path to socialized medicine, social welfare programs, government mandated curricula in our schools, and all the other things that demean personal responsibility, penalize risk taking and economic success, and seek to legislate morality.
Not only is “president” Obama going to “change” the US economy but he said it was his job to help the mexican economy. Maybe we can just pass our Stimulus checks on to mexico.
Were any tough questions asked?... I didn't think so!
And then, as with all other liberal/socialist policies, we'll feign surprise when "those who can't afford it" skyrocket in numbers.
I’ll pick... Obama going into the convention with a sizeable delegate lead, and the Clintons stealing the nomination.
Let’s see, SS/payroll taxes are paid in, and the gov’t gets to use that money interest free instead of it being in the economy and being invested or spent,
and they want to tax it when they pay it back out?
The founders would have laughed any such suggestion out of Congress.
jWhat powers does he think the President has? Or is this a
royal “we”.
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