Now here’s an anti-Obama ad that could work better than trashing him as a person, playing to voters who like him and voted for him but worry he’s not up to the job. This bloc of voters — disaffected Obama supporters – could be decisive on Election Day.
Craig on Current TV Tonight “Viewpoint” 8PM ET
The Koch Brothers Super PAC running the ad in battleground states cleverly taps into this niche. Considering the steadiness of Obama’s personal popularity this spot’s velvet hammer approach seems far more effective.
While many of the President’s foes do not grasp that they will never persuade the rest of the country to hate him as much as they do, this bunch has figured out how to soft sell the hate.
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65 Responses to The Anti-Obama Soft Sell [Video]
Now on The Trail
Woot woot! (apologies to Insane Clown Posse).
I do believe this is a legitimate angle for the Kochs to soft-pedal to the masses.
Ronnie Bennington was interviewing the women who made the new docu , Detropia, about the status of modern Detroit and where it’s heading, and he mentioned that Obama could have really stood with “The People” had he made any mention of solidarity with the OWS movement, but of course Obama is , too, employed by Wall Street bosses, it turns out.
Then there is the Guantanamo prison EXPANSION instead of its closure! Also, the current “surge”, just now winding down in Afghanistan, has failed, truly pointing now (as if there was any doubt) that even extending the US troops’ Afghan mission to late 2014 will leave nothing short of a failed total mission, a state in which chaos will be the ruler, with an ever-changing cast of “presidents” of some sort.
However…what choice do we have? Romney has clearly spoke of attacking Iran if he thinks he smells a nuke weapon there…and we know how the Republicans handle these situations; who can forget the carnage of Shock and Awe and the years-long aftermath?
Just to finish off Haitian thread don’g forget Shelter Box, Urban Zen, and Sean Penn groups who are trying to work despite all the problems.
This “more in sorrow than in anger” will work on low information voters and could be dangerous. Anyone who knows the facts couldn’t vote for Romney because it is so obvious that however disappointed you might be as a Progressive, Romney is nothing but a horror by comparison.
good post, Jamie. In all of the anti-Obama ads…not a mention of Romney. Nothing touting Romney and his positions. It is all about voting against Obama. What a disappointment Obama has been.
No one ever mentions the GLOBAL recession…not even Obama. Too afraid he will get the blame for that, too.
The President delivers 2 messages at the same time. When the President talks about tax breaks for the wealthy(?) he always throws in the words, “millionaires and billionaires”. However, the truth is his tax plans starts with families making $250k, and individuals making $200k. Just on the face of things this doesn’t seem fair. Tax a family at the same rate as millionaires/billionaires, who may only have one working spouse which would be the equivalent of taxing them if both spouses each made $125k, and award 2 professionals for living together making under the $200k threshold, but their total income is more than $250k, and they could make up to $400k without being subjected to the same tax threshold of the family making $250k.
I voted for the President in 2008, his vision of “Hope and Change”, was a very inspiring vision. However, IMHO, “Hope and Change”, has turned into,
“Division, Deception, Deflection, Disillusion”. There are a lot of us, not so happy campers out here who genuinely feel we have been sold an empty bag of goods. Where does the buck stop?
MO
Get it right. There is no change in taxes UP TO $250,000 which is already more than 5 times the median family (not individual) income. If they make $250,001 then they pay the higher rate on $1.
News bulletin from our friends at Shelter Box who are already on the ground with new tents to get ready for Isaac.
MO
As I posted, only about 3.52% of small businesses (individuals) are impacted by the $250K tax increase. It is a ruse as most Americans make under $250K. AND as we have all pointed out forever, the first $250K is EXEMPT for everyone.
This is a bogus argument about the taxes.
And no matter the disappointment about Obama, I doubt if that would drive any one to vote for Romney. Romney has ‘sack cloth and ashes’ (thanks Patd) for the puny middle class.
Kumcho and I were really gouged on income taxes last year because of expenses related to Alice’s death. It’ll be the same thing this year because of Kumcho’s move to Sammaksa.
I realize the government wants to finally get the taxes that were never paid on our decades old IRA deposits, but, for extraordinary events such as this, I think old folks should be able to spread the taxable income over a five year period.
The goal is to have IRA nest eggs providing comfortable living over peoples’ final years, not to confiscate their savings by forcing essential, unexpected withdrawals into higher tax brackets.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our IRAs. They allowed us to conserve our wealth by being exceptionally conservative in our investments.
I heard on Faux News that Romney doesn’t even have 1% of the African American vote. Imagine the Koch bros pac found the few democratic African Americans who won’t vote for Obama. Along with a handful of African American republican voters…they do not even make 1%. Romney’s support was listed at 0% among African Americans.
With passing of so many friends and family of late, I was pondering the ‘sayings’ left behind by many. My brain reminds me daily of sage advice…
And my most favorite,
It took me a long time as a child to understand that saying. I believe that is what is happening to us now, most Americans cannot extract themselves from their demanding existence to see we are in a global transformational time and the too big to fail corporations are squashing us. And the too big to fail government is corrupt with their lobbyists. History will look back on this time very differently than the republicans would have us believe.
Jamie, that’s the US branch of the organization. For good reason at the time, CBob urged that we work with the UK home organization which we did.
In any case, the figures in the linked release seem more optimistic than any other that I recall having seen.
I don’t know if CBob wants to reenter this fray, but perhaps he does have the final figures from 2010 at hand.
A comment from one of the lefties DailyKos: “Naive liberals thought Obama was Mahatma Gandhi, but he turned out to be a 1970s moderate Republican.”
I agree, but as Dex-J points out in the first comment today, “What choice do we have?”
Whoever wrote that ad must think that “disappointed Obama supporters” are pretty damn stupid; you know, like the GOP base. How could anyone who voted for Obama think that Romney would be better? It defies reason.
Only in the surrealistic right-wing parallel universe does this ad make any sense.
These are not real voters, but actors playing a part. This ad seemed scary to me at first, but on second view it’s all about emotion — no facts, no truth, just whining. Booo hooo…we wanted Obama to do everything and he’s only done half so now we are sooo disappointed….sniffle, pout. More annoying than effective.
I’ve been phonebanking for Obama in targeted precincts in VA — I have been talking to a lot of people who say they voted for McCain last time, but are voting for Obama this time. (Several I have talked with were disenchanted Hillary PUMAs who are coming back.)
During a power failure this morning, my IPOD filled in for technology with a song that truly fills the empty space of lost friends:
Here is the Shelter Box UK link. If CBob pops in there might be an already established account number.
Alicia, I loved being a PUMA! Now, I’m just a pragmatist.
Received an email and phone call telling me to pick up my convention ticket tomorrow. I think I’ll let it pass because I don’t drive at night and Charlotte’s a long way from home.
For the record, I voted for Obama because the powers that be in the democratic party practiced Kill Hill. Obama did not thrill me at all and once HRC was out…I started wearing the Women for Obama button my friend gave me. She was an HRC supporter and urged me to vote for Obama inspite of the crappy way they dumped Hillary.
For me, the republican brand is dead. Worthless in my life. But, I always vote. I doubt if my vote is worth much with the redistricting anyway, but I vote.
I never expected Obama to do even a quarter of what he was campaigning on. I knew his “it’s time to change Washington” was nothing more than fantasy. I knew it would be very, very hard to extricate us from Afghanistan and Gitmo. I expect most politicians to be bought and sold by Wall St. I was a Hillary supporter and had no illusions about her either. None of this is cynical… to me it’s facts.
I knew Obama was naive when I voted for him… however, I was surprised by the depth of his naivete upon taking office. He’s a smart guy and has learned a few lessons.
Absolutely nothing could make me vote for Romney. And I have no intention of voting for any other Republican in this upcoming election. The party has gone way too far right for my tastes at this point. If Republicans go back to being reasonable and compromising as they were in the past… I’ll think about voting for one again.
Once upon a time several years ago, I would vote for a Republican. In the past 20 years the party has gone completely off its collective rocker. There is no longer anything there that any sane person could support. Even the fairly reasonable ones have to cater to the Koch addiction just to get through a primary, and I’m damned if I will support those creaky, calcified, corporate misogynists.
BW, your observations about a global transformation are dead on. Because the US has been the primary center of the world economy since at least the end of WWII, the country (mainly on the right) has ignored the rise of Japan, Germany, India and now China as transforming the world economy into a more global economy over which the US does not have the control it had before. And yes, large corporations do have an inordinate amount of control over the economy, and accordingly, over us. Gas jumped 20 cents yesterday -- there is no way that the supply or demand changed that dramatically in a day. Now your cantaloupes will cost more, as will everything that isn’t produced locally just to allow suppliers to recoup their transportation costs. See, oil prices falling, US fuel companies raising prices (read profiteering here).
Here’s an article on oil prices that is pretty interesting.
http://tinyurl.com/8jkshpk
And Romney thinks that Iran’s biggest threat is it getting nuclear weapons. He’s an idiot.
Craig, I know my opinion is to be respected, but in the last two comments, one by RR and the other by Jamie, one punch on my mouse earned RR two points and earned Jamie three. Someone else earned multiple points earlier today. Sorry, ladies.
Jamie,
You either missed my point, or maybe I may have misspoke, so let be perfectly clear. Anyone family under 250K, or any individual making under $200k would not have their taxes raised, although that is just federal tax, there are other taxes increases that will affect everyone. If you take a “family”, that would be adults plus children, if their combined family income exceeds the $250k they fall into the new higher tax rates. Now just on the face of it, it seems they are being unfairly treated when you compared them to 2 professionals living together. The 2 professionals living together can make up to $200k each before either of their tax rates change. I just don’t see the fairness in that? You would think the fairness issue would be more heavily weighted towards the family with children, but it is just the reverse and goes to the 2 individual lining together with no children. However, in either case once their income exceeds their respective threshold they will be treated tax wise as millionaires and billionaires. And the last time I looked $250k is a long ways off from $1 million, and $1 million is a light year awy from $1 billion.
On the point about Romney not mentioned in this ad: My take is that they are not trying to persuade these voters to back Romney, but instead trying to get them to stay home. More voter suppression!
Flatus, i tested a few clicks of the thumbs-up button, seems fine. Just a guess: If it had been a while since you refreshed page, other recent clicks wouldn’t show up until you clicked. Or maybe you have a magic mouse. As far as I’m concerned your evaluations are worthy enough to justify multiple votes. But let’s keep this to ourselves, or we risk invasion of the GOP voter fraud units.
Question. I’m sure one of you political junkies types will know the answer to this question.
Way back in 2008 when HRC and the now President were going toe to toe, how was it that Obama came out on top. Didn’t HRC have more votes. I do remember Harold Ickies was very outraged over the whole process. Was it the super delegates that turned against HRC? Or do I have this upside down and sideways.
In 2008, the good old boys; Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, etc.; could not handle a strong woman leading the way. Also, the press was in the bag for Obama.
Obama sailed through with the horrible caucus system which should be eliminated…
MO
It was a combination of the Super delegates and the way they allocated votes of states that had violated either early primary rules or not giving Hillary votes of states where other candidates had withdrawn voluntarily. They really and truly screwed her over. It is a measure of the lady’s character that she did what was best for the party even though she had been so royally shafted by the (mostly male) press and back room shenanigans. She would have been and still may be a great President.
BW, (cont’d.)
The problem as I see it is that the repugns believe that the US can return to its post WWII prominence in the world economy -- the idea of relative economic parity scares crap out of them. They seem to forget that oil drives the economic engine to a huge degree -- and that any increased production in the US would be short lived. US proven oil reserves are 21 billion barrels of oil, down from 40 billion in 1970. The reserves to production ratio in 2007 was just over 11 years. Iran is key to the continued supply of oil to the US long term by virtue of its effective control over the Straits of Hormuz. While beating drums about Iran and nucs may appeal to the red meat anti Islam anti Ayatollah base, the focus should be on keeping the oil flowing until we are no longer slaves to it.
The dream of supplying oil from shale and tar sands, while the same may eventually be technologically feasible from an economic standpoint if crude stays high and gets higher -- but it’s an awfully messy process that begins 15000 feet below the surface of North Dakota (where there is more oil than in the Persin Gulf) but has to be extracted by horizontal drilling and fracking -- which is more expensive by a long shot than conventional drilling. Thus the dilemma. Can we supply ourselves with oil? Yep. Can we afford to? Therein lies the rub.
I voted GOP in 1976 for Gerald Ford. I think he would be a Democrat now. Betty definitely would be a DEM. I left the GOP when the Reaganites took over. Never looked back.
One thing Obama has accomplished is transforming my once-solid red state to a political battleground. To me, this is a good thing. My family and I used to travel to other battleground states to help with GOTV. Last time was in 2004 when we went to West Virginia for Kerry. In 2008 for the primaries we went to several states for Hillary. I was so upset and angry that I wanted to just sit out the GOTV, so I didn’t make travel arrangements and stayed home. The closer we got to election day, amazing things started to happen in my little crimson red county. First there was an Obama for America headquarters opened and staffed with paid campaign staffers. Then there was a second OFA office opened only a couple of miles from my house. I had to drive by it every day and noticed that the parking lot was always full and the lights were always on. The rednecks tried to tear down the Obama signs, but right after those signs came down, more signs went up. I agreed to staff my home precinct on election day.
I worked inside the polling place writing down the names of our targeted voters as they came to vote. Anyone who was on our list and who didn’t show was given reminder calls or door knocking with offers of help to get to the polls. The GOPs tried to jam our lines to prevent us from uploading the voter info, so I had someone else cover for me and I drove around to all the polling places in the county to collect the lists by hand and drive them to the OFA office. At each polling place, there were lines of people waiting to vote. This was a first in my GOP county where turnouts were typically low.
When I got to OFA office, there were hundreds of people getting their canvassing assignments, phone banking, people bringing food to the volunteers and now suddenly — a makeshift data entry center. Dozens of people set up their laptops to hand key all the lists, and with flying fingers got it completed in short order. Obama won six county precincts with more than 70 percent. Eight more precincts were narrow losses by only a few percentage points. We were amazed.
Sorry Blonde just saw this.
I guess my first obsevation is it is not just the small business person who make more than $250k, and it is not individuals ($200K) the new tax rate under this President is targeted at families making over $250K. The first $250k is exempt? Exempt only from the higher tax rates. Not exempt from all the other new taxes that will come our way. Even Bill Clinton acknowledge that the middle class hasn’t escape and won’t be exempt from new higher taxes.
Jamie, MO,
One other factor in the O primary victory over Hillary was the strategic blunder to focus on Super Tuesday while letting not so super Tuesdays and Saturdays go largely uncontested. Thank you, Mark Penn (putz). Only one or two of those states if won by Hillary would have swung the nomination to her. Yes I was a Hillary backer and was pissed beyond all rational thought at Penn.
As a follow on to our discussion of lost jobs -- Thom Hartman on lost call center jobs.
Pogo is right — the HRC campaign thought it would all be decided by Super Tuesday and really didn’t invest much in states beyond that. I can’t say that Obama did the wrong thing. They were smart and studied the rules and came up with another path to win. HRC’s old school team (Penn and Co.)was painfully outmaneuvered. I am glad she decided to be Secretary of State. She’s done an amazing job and it’s only made her stock rise higher.
Mo
Unfortunately, municipal, county, and state governments have had to massively increase “fees” to make up for all the “taxes” cut on the Federal and State levels by Republicans fulfilling promises not to raise “Taxes”.
You are right that just allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on those over $250,000 will mean they are still impacted greater than they were before all the hidden tax maneuvers went in to effect, but that is true for everyone of all incomes who pay those “fees” for government services and are impacted even more than those upper income people.
Thanks pogo, thanks Jamie. I knew I get my answer. pogo your answer makes me ask yet another question. How could a so called expert like Penn make such a humongous mistake? How was that allowed to happen?
You can all read Five Things To Make Yourself Smarter. I’m going dancing.
Obama won the Democratic nomination in 2008… Hillary lost… Obama is now president…. he’s running for re-election. All the dredging up of the 2008 primary won’t change those facts.
Pogo… your comments are great today. Every time I hear a politician talk about the “American economy”, I laugh a little. It is a world wide economy… and all the wishful thinking ain’t gonna change that fact either.
RR
You are absolutely right. Courtesy of being one of the few economies left standing after WWII, the US pretty well owned the world. It is now almost 70 years years after the fact and we succeeded in helping to rebuild global economy and the undeveloped nations are starting to catch up.
GOP economic thinking is a totally jingoistic fantasy world dwelling in a past with many elements which never truly existed.
.
renee, me thinks it’s more a case of surpressing by way of dredging. i sense a troll on the trail.
patd….
yup…. someone’s playing others here like a fiddle… and it’s happened before. If you’re busy bashing Obama and his people for having been a meanie to Hillary, you’re no longer bashing Republicans. What a nifty way to change the subject.
But I’m lovin’ this thread despite it… some really excellent posts today, IMO.
MO, I wish I could answer the question about Penn, but it would be speculation… but my speculation is that it worked for Bill so he thought it would work for Hill. Somehow, in the 16 years between, Axelrod, et al figured out that by winning the primaries and caucuses between March and June they could win more electoral votes than Hillary could overcome on Super Tuesday.
I think the soft-sell only works if the alternative isn’t so unacceptable to so many
But I see the campaign is trying the soft-sell as well Mittens was out making birther jokes --here’s a free tip Mitt — it’s only a joke if you tell it once
The biggest issue I see looming for the Romney camp is that the Romney boys are trying to walk back statements they’ve made and positions they’ve espoused in the past year or two while running away from idiotic statements from their party members coming up on the convention. Should be fun watching the campaigns.
Talk about timing considering Akin issue: Girl held captive for three years in Missouri had rapists baby.
She was 16 when she knew him socially before being taken prisoner so you have to wonder if it counts as forcible or consensual … Maybe God told him to do it so she could have the joy of motherhood. Not sure about the daily beatings.
KGC…
Hope your having a great b’day. Happy Birthday, you go girl!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great evening.
Actually, the alternatives would be forcible or non-forcible (under which consensual would fall).
Interesting article about Armstrong, doping …
http://tinyurl.com/cj7unew
Thanks AP it’s Mr. Cracker’s birthday and he does get going he is 84 today
Well…happy birthday to Mr. Cracker!!!
In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I have never voted gop. On anything. Period.
Excepting Ike, I just don’t trust them.
Sturg, I trusted Mr Ford.
And, I trusted Gen Powell. But, I believe his being a Republican was probably out of loyalty to his father’s immigrant dream.
Craig, Good appearance on Spitzer. Next time around if it is a slow news Friday, you should put in a promo for this place and why it is different from the other political stops on the web.
I trusted Betty and Alma
Alma was a wonderfully warm woman. While us guys were in the kitchen, she and the girls would be in the living room. She was a natural. I think she probably hated that her husband got involved with ‘that’ bunch.
Rachel Maddow quote making the rounds:
The 1956 Republican platform does make interesting reading.
The 1956 Republican platform reflects the pride the party has in the post-war development of our country. It’s a most interesting historical document. Goodness, wouldn’t it be nice if Democrats would read it as part of their current campaign dialog? And, even better, if republicans listened to it and started protesting!
I just don’t get the feeling that there is a big organized opposition to the rnc and their platform … there is fight-back from O and the wh, and from pacs, but what is the dnc doing? What is holder doing? It’s hard to believe that there is NO organized effort to help people get id’s, but I haven’t heard any calls to action. What is going on?
CNN is starting to make me angry with its attempts to help poor mitty clear his name of the scurrilous accusation liberals make. Erin Burnett is so self-impressed and self-satisfied and is so shrill. John Avlon is simply so neo-con.
I have my tv set to cnn so when I turn it on I don’t get a partisan message, but I may have to leave it at the weather channel.
I usually leave ours on msnbc. I’m mostly able to tune it out as it drones on.
So far as I can tell, actions are progressing to stop the voter suppression efforts. The court actions have to take place sequentially which gives the appearance of nothing happening.
I hope after the election, that DoJ has been able to gather enough evidence to show conspiracy on the part of whomever on the republican side in denying folks their voter rights.
Frankly, Julian Assange creeps me out big time looks as if he crawled out from under a rock. But if he would hack into mitty’s tax returns, I could forgive a lot.
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