BF2S Forums Obama buys 30-minute block of air time

MGS3_GrayFox wrote:

Why do people say McCain is experienced? I still can't understand that shit.  A mediocre pilot that crashed a plane and went on working as "senator" (which by record looks more like an intern).

I really don't understand it.

....

usmarine wrote:

MGS3_GrayFox wrote:

Why do people say McCain is experienced? I still can't understand that shit.  A mediocre pilot that crashed a plane and went on working as "senator" (which by record looks more like an intern).

I really don't understand it.

versus what exactly?

I know... I really don't understand it.

MGS3_GrayFox wrote:

Why do people say McCain is experienced? I still can't understand that shit.  A mediocre pilot that crashed a plane and went on working as "senator" (which by record looks more like an intern).

I really don't understand it.

Oh, the fact that you don't understand is perfectly clear. On a number of topics.

SGT_Dicklewicz wrote:

his campaign fund could bail out America!

Keeping the money stashed in a mattress does more harm to the economy than putting it into rotation, which is actually good for it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081030/ap_ … k_obama_ad

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn't tell them:

THE SPIN: "That's why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year."

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it's not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

___

THE SPIN: "I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care."

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: "I want to start doing something about it." He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

___

THE SPIN: "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost."

THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama's policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years — and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: "Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years." The analysis goes on to say: "Neither candidate's plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified."

___

THE SPIN: "Here's what I'll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we'll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. "

THE FACTS: His proposals — the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more — cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged — although not in his commercial — that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."

Someone else already beat me to it on the rebuttle for that AP hack job...
The AP just gave up any sense of journalistic integrity by letting that editorial hit piece out as front page news.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/ … 446/646384

Obama's prime-time ad skips over budget realities

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama's assertion that "I've offered spending cuts above and beyond" the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by "eliminating programs that don't work" masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are — beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

What follows is a detailed hit-piece on multiple fronts that reads as if it were taken straight from the RNC.  The whole thing would be hilarious in is disingenuity, were it not such a sad piece of hackery, and were the stakes not so incredibly high.

First, on Obama's statement that his programs would be offset by cuts in other costs:

His proposals — the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more — cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged — although not in his commercial — that: "The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals."

Yes, AP.  Because 8 years and more of absolutely reckless fiscal mismanagement by Republicans and their allies has bankrupted the American treasury and the global economy, some of Obama's promises to help the middle class may have to be delayed or scaled back in part in order not to balloon the federal deficit.  I'm glad the AP is being the deficit hawk here--if only we had had a media organization this concerned about government spending in the lead-up to Iraq or the Bush tax cuts!  It's so heartening to see the AP find its inner fiscal conservative holding Democrats accountable just a week before the election.  After all, late is better than never.

THE SPIN: "I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care."

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: "I want to start doing something about it." He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

I didn't hear Obama guarantee health coverage for all.  Did anyone else hear that?  If the McCain campaign is already calling Obama a socialist, just imagine what they would be saying if Obama actually promised every American health coverage regardless of cost?  I guess that would make him to the left of the Communists.  I'll check my political science texts to see just what that might look like.

Thanks for keeping us honest, AP.  Putting words in Obama's mouth and then attacking him for lying about the words you just made up--now that's journalism.

More:

THE SPIN: "We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad that we've got to look at bringing that war to a close." These lines in the ad were taken from a debate with McCain.

THE FACTS: Obama was once and very often definitive about getting combat troops out in 16 months (At times during the primaries, he promised to do so within a year). More recently, without backing away explicitly from the 16-month withdrawal pledge, he has talked of the need for flexibility. In the primaries, it would have been a jarring departure for him to have said merely that "we've got to look at" ending the war. As for Iraq's surplus, it's true that Iraq could end up with a surplus that large, but that hasn't happened yet.

OK, let me get this straight.  Obama says we've got to "look at bringing that war to a close."  Because he may or may not do it within 16 months, that means he's obviously lying.  Because "look at bringing that war to a close" is such a precise statement that he's just begging to be held to account for it.

And besides, who knows if Iraq will actually have a surplus that big?  We may have to keep troops there indefinitely, lest Iraq actually end up in national debt.  A 100 year occupation just might do the trick to keep Iraq in the black.  Because as much as the AP is a newfound strict deficit hawk here at home, you should just see how tough they are on government debt in Iraq.

marine does have a point.  I wouldnt call the AP a shinning example of integrity in journalism, but you might as well have rebutted with a source from the Obama website.

I remember when I brought up all this stuff about McCain not looking after veterans and someone rebutted me with a source from the McCain for president website to counter my claim.  that was funny.

The one thing I noticed was how he said "those making under 200,000" will get a tax cut.

...isn't it 250K?

Good fact check article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081030/ap_ … k_obama_ad

Sorry if its been already posted, gotta go to bed, night.

"i wont have to..."

lulz.  keep your kid in school you dumb twat.  so she doesn't grow up to be a useless sack of shit like you.