Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Barack Does Bill Bradley! Obama takes the Plutocrat line on Social Security

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
Karmadillo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 08:56 PM
Original message
Barack Does Bill Bradley! Obama takes the Plutocrat line on Social Security
Somebody has to trash Hillary, but I expected it to be somebody on the right. I'm sure Obama is angry at having frittered away all that favorable publicity, but that hardly justifies this sort of attack on a fellow Democrat.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh102907.shtml

BARACK DOES BILL BRADLEY! Pundits cheered when Bradley trashed Gore. Now, someone else takes a turn

<edit>

Obama is going to be “more aggressive” about Clinton—and he’s starting with Social Security. According to Obama, Clinton has been hedging, ducking, dodging and spinning the issue. And omigod! The point of this new approach by Obama is even more clear in what follows:

BACON (continuing directly): The statements marked the latest escalation of campaign rhetoric from a candidate who earlier this year declined to criticize his chief opponent for the nomination. Increasingly, he is taking on not just Clinton's policy views but also her character, and is casting the Democratic front-runner as someone who makes decisions based on polls and calculation, rather than on her convictions.
Increasingly, Obama is talking about Clinton’s “character.” Granted, that’s an assessment by Bacon, not a quote from Obama. But when you say that someone is ducking, hedging, dodging and spinning a serious issue, you are, of course, critiquing her character. And that is the way your claims will be reported—especially since the candidate in question has the last name of Clinton.


Of course, Clinton really hasn’t been ducking or hedging or dodging or spinning this non-issue issue. In a recent Washington Post news report, she made a perfectly accurate statement about Social Security—a statement that is massively more accurate than the embarrassing blather Obama offered at the September 26 Dem debate. At that debate, the plutocrat tribune, Timothy Russert, pushed this non-issue back onto the table. Quite correctly, here’s what Clinton told the Post’s Anne Kornblut in the wake of that familiar performance:

KORNBLUT (10/10/07): Clinton offered insights into the governing priorities she would bring to the White House, speaking cautiously about extricating the nation from Iraq and urgently about health-care reform. She also said she will take no position on how to fix Social Security and made it clear she does not regard it as a front-burner issue.

"I do not believe it is in a crisis," she said of the retirement program.

“She will take no position” is, of course, Kornblut’s top-heavy spin. “I do not believe it is in a crisis” was Clinton’s actual statement—and her statement is perfectly accurate. Indeed, we would have though that all Democrats knew that—until that embarrassing debate. At that session, the plutocrat Russert continued trying to push this non-issue center stage, and Obama and Edwards embarrassed themselves, even reciting the tired old plutocrat line: College kids don’t even think they’ll ever get Social Security! Good God! Plutocrat “think tanks” have pimped that line for decades now, attempting to create a false sense of crisis. And there were Candidates Obama and Edwards, reciting their bogus cant for them (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/28/07).

Again, Clinton is right on this silly non-issue, as Democrats all seemed to know in 2005. But so what? Now, we read that Obama is going to push the issue as a referendum on Clinton’s bad character! And make no mistake: A plutocrat press corps will praise Obama for both parts of this approach. They’ll praise him for attacking Clinton’s character—a long-time, favorite focus of theirs. And they’ll praise him for pimping the “problem” of Social Security, as plutocrat think tanks have so long done—as they themselves did, without mercy, in their two-year-long War Against Gore.

more...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
jmp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:00 PM
Response to Original message
1. Looks like a cheap attempt to link Hillary with Gore.
...
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Eric J in MN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:21 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Bob Somerby is sincerely concerned that the Washington press corp.
...will trash Hillary Clinton like they trashed Al Gore.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jmp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. I've seen more than a few guys get beat up.
Some had it coming ... some didn't. I shed no tears for the ones who received a well deserved beat down.



Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Eric J in MN Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 10:37 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. Are you saying that Al Gore deserved to be beaten down by the press? NT
NT
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
jmp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-30-07 10:03 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. No, I'm saying Hillary deserves her beating.
...

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Bitwit1234 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
2. OK now Obama you are making me mad as hell LEAVE MY SS ALONE.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mark414 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:13 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. ...
Barack Obama will protect and strengthen Social Security, protect private-sector pensions that seniors have worked for their whole lives, and promote private savings. Obama also will safeguard from discrimination those who choose to work past the age of 65, and urge younger workers to save more.

As president, Barack Obama will:

1. Protect and Strengthen Social Security. Social Security is indispensable to our workers and our seniors. It is a great reflection of our values as a country. Barack Obama will make sure Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future. Two-thirds of beneficiaries depend on Social Security for more than half of their monthly income. Barack Obama fought against President Bush's efforts to privatize Social Security. As president, Obama will preserve Social Security by stopping any efforts to privatize it. Obama will work in a bipartisan way to maintain Social Security's solvency for future generations.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/seniors/
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Elidor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:33 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. "Looming Catastrophe as Campaign Opportunity"
If Obama is hoping for an issue to gain traction with vis a vis Hillary, he's really muffed it picking Social Security. In itself the idea of removing or significantly restructuring the 'cap' on payroll taxes is a good one, at least one with a lot to recommend it. The current approach (though one with a long history and embraced by many strong Social Security advocates) makes the funding structure of Social Security highly regressive. But what Obama is doing is buying into the false idea that Social Security is in some sort of crisis.

If you're an outsider to this debate -- a Republican, someone who doesn't care much about the program or a privatizer -- that argument may not make sense to you on the merits. But it is what most Democrats who care most about this issue do think. So it puts him on the wrong side of the people whose support he's trying to garner. As I said, this is setting aside the substance of the issue, which I've written about in the past at some length. The politics of it is completely upside down.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/057285.php
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mark414 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:34 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. okay? that's one guy's opinion
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Elidor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #8
11. Nice rebuttal!
A lot of people share that opinion: social security is fine. If anyone brings up the idea of fixing it, the only thing that's going to happen is that it's going to be gutted. Progressives spent over a year convincing everyone that Bush's fix (and everyone else's ideas for "fixing" it) were only going to lead to privatization of a program that is working fine. Obama truly doesn't get it.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
mark414 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 11:47 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. social security IS fine. where on obama's site does he say it's a crisis?
but should we wait until it IS a crisis (granted, that's in about 30 years) to do anything about it? no.

make the necessary changes now (raise the cap mainly) so we don't ever have to worry about it again. plan ahead for the coming baby boom retirement

that's all obama is saying. that's all i'm saying.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
lvx35 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:12 PM
Response to Original message
3. "someone who makes decisions based on polls and calculation"
Can somebody tell me WHY this is a political attack??? THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT A PRESIDENT TO DO!!! For instance, if polls say 70% of people are against a unilateral attack of Iraq, DON'T FUCKING DO IT! If polls say they are angry, THEN CHANGE.

"Leading by conviction" is what Bush and my local representitive Baird have been doing, and what it translates as is pissing on your constituency and bending to other interests. Nothing against Obama, but that is NOT what I want to hear he will do!
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Yukari Yakumo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-29-07 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
9. ...aaand what is your plan, Barack?
Before going on a warpsth, maybe Obama should be able to back his words up.

Unless he comes up with a good plan to fix SS, he's going to look foolish.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
flpoljunkie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-30-07 10:07 AM
Response to Original message
14. Bob Somerby needs to get his facts straight on Obama's position, as well
Edited on Tue Oct-30-07 10:08 AM by flpoljunkie
In Des Moines, Obama spoke about his solutions for Social Security, and said President Bush's argument that the system is broken and needs and overhaul is an exaggeration.

"The underlying system is sound. The actual problem is a projected cash shortfall that can be readily solved. But the longer we wait to solve the problem, the bigger it grows," Obama said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071027/ap_po/obama_clinton




Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Sat May 04th 2024, 02:18 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC