Obama: "You can't just make stuff up . . . The American people aren't stupid." [View All]

September 8, 2008




FLINT, Michigan (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama savaged his White House opponents John McCain and Sarah Palin Monday as hypocrites who were trying to hoodwink US voters with a late conversion to the mantra of change.

At a meeting with workers here in the heartland of Michigan's distressed auto industry, the Illinois senator said he himself had been running as the change candidate for 19 months.

"And I guess it must be working, because all of a sudden John McCain's saying 'I'm for change too'," Obama said as Palin's entry to the Republican ticket shakes up the hard-fought race for the November 4 election.

"And when John McCain with a straight face says 'I'm going to change things,' at the same time as he says he's agreed with (President) George Bush 90 percent of the time, you know it's pretty hard to believe."

Obama mocked the McCain-Palin platform in summary: "Except for economic policy, tax policy, healthcare policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove politics, we're really going to shake things up in Washington."

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“Let’s get the facts clear here,” Obama said, noting the McCain campaign’s new ad that showcases Palin’s opposition to the pilloried pork project. “When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks -- pork barrel spending.”

The Democratic nominee wondered aloud how George Bush’s would-be successor can champion change “with a straight face” and referred to the GOP ticket as the “No Change Express.”

Obama blamed the economic troubles by Americans like those in troubled Flint, Michigan -- where unemployment is nearly twice the national average -- on failed economic policies that were sponsored by the Bush administration and would be, Obama says, continued by McCain.

“You can’t be for change when it’s your party that for the last eight years has ignored the fact that wages and incomes for the middle class have gone flat since George Bush took office,” he told a cheering crowd of over 300 at Mott Community College in Flint.

read: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/08/1363839.aspx




“They had been running on experience. Now they’re trying to repackage themselves,” Mr. Obama said, wearing a can-you-believe-it look on his face. “We’ve been talking about the need to change this country for 19 months. I guess it must be working, because suddenly now John McCain is saying I’m for change too.”

After accompanying his two daughters to school in Chicago for their first day of fall classes, Mr. Obama arrived here in Michigan on Monday afternoon with a fresh air of urgency to his task of winning over voters in this battleground state. He drew sharp distinctions with Mr. McCain, referring to him by name more than in any recent day.

Mr. Obama warned voters to be skeptical in believing that Republicans would change Washington, considering the party has controlled the White House for nearly eight years. “It’s just kind of hard to believe,” he said, adding: “I’m going to change us from us?”

On his third visit to Michigan in nine days, Mr. Obama told voters that his rival’s infamous Straight Talk Express bus should be rebranded as “The No-change Express.” He also continued an argument that he started on Saturday in Indiana, questioning Gov. Sarah Palin’s evolving stance on the so-called Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.

read: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/deja-vu-on-change-argument/





Obama, for the second time in three days, questioned the Republican version of bringing "change" to Washington, and publicly questioned Sarah Palin's claim to the change mantle.

"She's you know, an up and comer from Alaska," Obama said. "They're starting to run an ad now saying she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Well now, let's get the facts clear here. When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks -- pork-barrel spending. All the things that John McCain says is bad, she lobbied to get! And got a whole lot of it. When it came to the bridge to nowhere, she was for it until everybody started raising a fuss about it and she started running for governor and then suddenly she was against it.

"You remember that? For it before you were against it?" Obama added. "I mean, you can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid.

read: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/politics/animal/main4427448.shtml