Obama outlines plans for race against McCain

Obama outlines plans for race against McCain
By CHARLES BABINGTON and SARA KUGLER Associated Press Writer


snip//

Speaking with reporters in Bend, Ore., Obama brushed aside suggestions that the fall campaign may be largely about his race, liberalism or patriotism.

"In a contest between myself and John McCain," he said, "there is going to be a very clear choice on policy that I don't think is going to have to do with ideology and who theoretically is more liberal or who's more conservative. I think it is going to have to do with who has a plan to provide relief to people when it comes to their gas prices, who has a real plan to make sure that everybody has health insurance, who's got a real plan to deal with college affordability."

"So rather than an abstract set of questions about, 'Is he too liberal, is he too conservative, how do voters handle an African American, et cetera,' I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future," he said.

Obama said he realizes he must continue introducing himself to millions of Americans who do not know him well, and acknowledged that some question his patriotism because he no longer wears a lapel flag pin.

He said the test of patriotism "is whether we are true to the ideals and values upon which this country was founded," and willing to fight for them "even when it's politically inconvenient."

Obama said McCain has received "a free pass" while he and Clinton have battled for months.

McCain, he said, "has a straight-talker image, but it's not clear that lately he's been following through on that image. I mean, this gas tax holiday was a pander. He didn't even have a way of paying for it."

The McCain campaign noted that Obama, as an Illinois state senator, once voted for a temporary gas tax suspension. Obama now says he made a mistake.

Obama was asked Saturday if the fall campaign might touch on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, in which the Senate Ethics Committee said McCain used "poor judgment" for allegedly pressing regulators to go easy on the owner of a failed Arizona savings and loan who was also a campaign contributor.

Obama said there is no doubt the Keating Five case is "germane to the presidency."

"I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that," he said.

more...

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2008/05/10/D90J1U900_democrats/index.html

we are as lucky as we were with JFK and his Harvard advisers.

Already, Obama and McCain Map Fall Strategies http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11strategy.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Including

Debate previews, they can both sharpen their tactics up.

NGU.

when it comes to the issues, the rethugs will lose badly. They just can't win there.
So they'll use distractions. If his race against Clinton has shown him anything, he should be prepared for all of that, and far worse.

we have one candidate, they have no choice.

del

He has already declared the Keating Five as fair game. I'm looking forward to him battling McCain for real, instead of a Democratic opponent he has to hold back against.

The McCain camp will do all it can to ensure that peripheral "items" come up; they should be dealt w/swiftly and accurately as they arise. The R's have nothing to run on, so it will be attack 24/7, if Obama wants to show people that change is coming, he'll deflect the stupid stuff, stick to the issues and rip McCain apart, as well as many R's in Congress by association.

Alexander Hamilton was accused of being a womanizer and a bastard, serious charges at the time, he came right out and stated he was indeed a bastard, and he loved many women. Almost immediately, the "scandal" fell from the lips of the opposition, and he was to become the first Treasurer of the US. Point is, honesty and being forthright enamored him to those who would make him Treasurer, and the masses loved the openness.

Same thing applies here...the old saw, "one cannot choose their parents, but they can choose the path they take", should deal w/a lot of the trash that will come down the pike. After answering "charges", there should be no elaboration, just stick to the facts and keep plowing ahead on real issues. McCain can't handle anything concerning issues for a number of reasons, first being he's tied to bush at every facet of this travesty in the WH. Second...he has no plan, no ideas, nothing but the same old crap for another 4 years.

He's going to fall flat on his face the first time there is a face to face exchange, from there on in, it will be ours to lose. The attacks will be more numerous and hotter, but people will see, as time goes by, that it is pure desperation on the part of the R's and it will be all over in a matter of days after the first encounter.

We have to hammer home the ideas and future plans, so there is no "sit back and wait for the inevitiable"...this is going to take work, and it is quite possible we can stake the neo-con movement into it's coffin once and for all.