Monday, May 19, 2008
Obama plays the fear card
The Imperfect Vessel took an interesting approach with the old folks yesterday:
Hours before being greeted by the biggest crowd of his campaign, Democrat Barack Obama quietly told a small group of seniors Sunday that Republican John McCain would threaten the Social Security they depend on because he supports privatizing the program....
"We have to protect Social Security for future generations without pushing the burden onto seniors who have earned the right to retire in dignity," he said.
Apart from the substance of Obama's point -- Obama wants to push the burden on current taxpayers who do not believe that they will ever "retire in dignity" -- I have a question: When did the "politics of fear" suddenly become A-OK with the Obama campaign? Well, when there is a chance to drive a wedge between the senior citizen candidate and senior citizens, that's when.
10 Comments:
By 
JPMcT, at
Mon May 19, 07:21:00 AM:
Somebody must have delivered the tattered, dog-eared ("earmarked")Democratic Playbook to Obama. They've been playing this card for years, even though the only president to actually raise taxes on SS reciepients was Bill Clinton. The problem is that nobody "does the math". Annual rate of return on investment in the current "social security" never get better than 2%, whereas the private market averages at least twice, if not three times that figure. Dems cant have the average retiree looking at a nest egg of over $650,000 and independence from the government teat...they would all become Republicans!!!
By Dan Kauffman, at
Mon May 19, 09:46:00 AM:
Isn't it odd that the Left thinks Sweden's program of Socialized medicine is so great, but not their Privatized National Pension Plan?
By 
, at
Mon May 19, 11:15:00 AM:
They made a movie about liberal demacrooks like BARACK OBAMA and his cabnet its caled DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
By mike volpe, at
Mon May 19, 11:54:00 AM:
There is frankly nothing worse than when layman have to do the job the President is unwilling to do.
I agree with everyone that this is the same fear mongering that Barack Obama claims he is against. Yet, why is he allowed to fear monger on private accounts? I will tell you why, because the President did an awful job of explaining the matter to the public. The reason that seniors are instilled with fear on this subject is because the President never explained the simple matter of private social security accounts.
There is no difference between private social security accounts and 401k plans. Does anyone think that 401k threatens retirement? Now, so why are Dems allowed to fear monger private social security accounts? That's because they are allowed to do so by a WH that can't get its message out.
By randian, at
Mon May 19, 01:37:00 PM:
Why shouldn't we "push the burden onto seniors"? Don't you have an obligation to take care of yourself?
By , at
Mon May 19, 05:16:00 PM:
Your error is that it is only "politics of fear" when the NYT says it is. Hussein can make ANY charge he wishes and it is appropriate. Any charge that a non-traitor makes AGAINST Hussein is a personal attack, racist and not worthy of a response.
The only fun is watching Hussein respond to Hillary. She still has several tricks left and Hussein had better prepare for them
By Escort81, at
Mon May 19, 06:01:00 PM:
Oh, my. Obama didn't actually say this, did he?
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.
"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.
Now, I understand he was in Oregon when he said this and perhaps might have been pandering to the base, but, come on. Americans have to clear their diet with the U.N.? He has to be a smarter politician than this, and realize that statements such as this will not play well outside of his base -- and he should be in a general election mode by now.
I've never owned an SUV, although I do have a 9 year-old Audi AWD sedan that only gets about 20 mpg, but I do keep it tuned and don't drive it much. We used to keep the house at about 64 degrees at night and 68 degrees during the day, but because of a medical condition my father was recently diagnosed with, we had to crank up the thermostat to 75 degrees this winter (I can just barely rationalize this hoggish behavior, but I justify it based on my father's active duty status in the U.S. Navy between 1940 and 1945, and hope the junior Senator from Illinois will give us a dispensation accordingly).
I'm going to go downstairs and have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Is that OK? Anyone (especially if you live outside the U.S.)?
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon May 19, 07:02:00 PM:
I think McCain is going to eat him alive in the general... it seems like he says something stupid each and every week now.
I wonder how far back this goes? How long before we started to hear these things?
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue May 20, 09:36:00 PM:
This comment has been removed by the author.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue May 20, 09:59:00 PM:
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times..."
Sounds like Jimmy Carter, doesn't it? Turn down the thermostat. Wear sweaters.
I had dinner with Carter and some Hollywood types in L.A. before his first campaign for President. (It was late 1972, if I remember correctly). I told one of Carter's helpers--Jody Powell, I think; it was some guy with a girl's name--that Carter "could be President if he were a litte taller." (Actually Carter wasn't short; he just seemed that way to me.)
Well, Carter won. But I was right. He wasn't tall enough for the job. Even worse, he shrank over time.
