Obama wised up a bit. Have to go negative to win.
Candidates Call End to Truce With Attack Adsby FOXNews.com
Friday, September 12, 2008
Barack Obama’s campaign, declaring “today is the first day of the rest of the campaign,” unleashed a new ad mocking John McCain as computer illiterate Friday in a fresh attempt to shake his rival’s sudden lead in the polls.
The ad, coupled with one from the McCain campaign accusing Obama of being “disrespectful” toward his running mate, effectively ended the one-day truce on Sept. 11 and signaled the candidates would spend the next 53 days on the offensive.
The Obama ad blatantly mocks his 72-year-old rival as being confused by modern technology.
“Things have changed in the last 26 years. But McCain hasn’t. He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an e-mail,” the narrator says. “After one president who was out of touch, we just can’t afford more of the same.”
The ad includes unflattering footage of McCain at a hearing in the early ’80s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit, interspersed with shots of a disco ball, a clunky phone, an outdated computer and a Rubix Cube.
The Obama camp, occasionally criticized for being reluctant to respond to attacks, declared in a strategy memo Friday that those days are over. Campaign manager David Plouffe said the campaign will double down on its effort to portray McCain as “out of touch” and incapable of addressing modern challenges.
“In recent weeks, John McCain has shown that he is willing to go into the gutter to win this election. His campaign has become nothing but a series of smears, lies, and cynical attempts to distract from the issues that matter to the American people,” he said.
“Today is the first day of the rest of the campaign … We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain’s attacks and we will take the fight to him.”
Plouffe claimed the campaign would make the debate about “big issues,” but both camps are still trained on the name-calling of the last few days.
McCain released an ad accusing Obama of attacking his running mate Sarah Palin because “his star’s fading.”
The narrator says Obama “desperately called Sarah Palin a liar. How disrespectful.”
The ads were a change in tone from the forum at Columbia University Thursday night in which the candidates praised each other for their service to the nation and sounded a collective call for more volunteerism.
Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said the campaign was not making an issue of the 72-year-old McCain’s age in the ad, but the time he’s spent in Washington.
“Our economy wouldn’t survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.”
McCain has said he relies on his wife and staff to work the computer for him and that he doesn’t use e-mail.
The ad is being coupled with another spot that highlights Obama’s change message, arguing he will provide better health care and tax breaks and bring people together.
Obama has already been showing a newly aggressive tone on the campaign trail in the past week, fighting back against the notion that McCain and Palin will bring change to Washington. Some Democrats have privately groused that Obama is attacking Palin and arguing that job should fall to Joe Biden.
Plouffe made it clear in his memo that the vice presidential nominee will be at the center of the debate going forward. “Senator Biden will be integral to that effort, both in pushing back on the lies that we’ll continue to see from our opponents, and in keeping the debate focused on delivering for everyday Americans,” Plouffe wrote. He argued that the campaign welcomes a debate over who is best equipped to change the country.
Obama’s campaign says the escalation is not in response to the changing dynamics of the race, but part of a planned strategy timed to the final weeks of the campaign after mourning the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. They insist that although McCain may have gotten a bump in national polls since his pick of Palin, Obama still is best positioned in battleground states for an Electoral College win.
Still, Obama has been playing defense as McCain has tried to grab the change mantle, created new enthusiasm with his pick of Palin and accused Obama of maligning her when he said putting lipstick on a pig is still a pig. Obama rejected the criticism, saying his remark was not directed at Palin and calling the outcry “phony and foolish.”
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/12/ad-mccain-computer/
