MANCHESTER, N.H. - As Hurricane Gustav threatened to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast two weeks ago, Democrat Barack Obama made a point of toning down his campaign rhetoric during a swing through the Midwest, saying it was not a time for politics.
The White House hopeful and his Republican opponent John McCain also took a day off from battling each other on Thursday to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in a solemn ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City.
But Obama, who has faced complaints from some supporters that he is not fighting back hard enough against McCain’s attacks, was undeterred in his determination on Saturday to keep up a more aggressive tone to his campaigning as Hurricane Ike raked Texas.
Obama used the first several minutes of his rally speech here to express sympathy for people in Texas whose lives have been “upended as a consequence of Hurricane Ike.”
Then he transitioned back to the campaign by saying that Americans across the country are facing a “quiet storm” because of the failed policies of the Bush administration.
He lambasted McCain as someone offering more of the same, saying he was “out of touch” while latching onto the Democrat’s message of change.
“You’ve got John McCain, my opponent in this election, who has been standing up since his convention suggesting that somehow he and his running mate are going to be the original mavericks and are going to shake things up in Washington,” Obama told the outdoor rally of about 7,000 people.
That prompted McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds to point out that Obama had canceled plans to appear on Saturday Night Live this weekend because of Hurricane Ike but did not set politics aside. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, scrapped plans to attend the Manchester rally with Obama in light of the storm.
“Today’s attacks mark a new low from Barack Obama,” Bounds said, adding that “it says a lot about Barack Obama’s judgment.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton volleyed back with a scathing criticism of McCain as someone who is “cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history.”
The statement was one of blizzard of e-mails the Obama campaign sent out during the day bashing McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin. One such e-mail was a lengthy memo cataloguing what it characterized as the McCain campaign’s “lies and spin”.
McCain was off the campaign trail for the day while Palin held a rally in Alaska before heading to campaign in the lower 48 states.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/ Neal Hamberg (Obama at a New Hampshire rally.)
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People, lets us make every attempt to be able to disagree without being nasty.
- Posted by Kelly SmithObama has agrees with and has voted for abortion where they take the baby and leave it in a dark room to die after birth, this includes babies who have down syndrome.
Can you honestly say you can vote for someone who approves that?
If true that Obama is prepared to ratchet up the numbingly passive tone and content of his campaign, it’s about time.
McCain/Palin, & the legion of Rove-operatives led by Steve Schmidt & co., have been clobbering Obama in every major media news-cycle for weeks, and on the web as well (see the numerous Republican Party-sponsored youtube hate-clips on immigration, abortion, race, etc.).
At the end of the day, most voters want to know not only the views of politicians, but that they are fighters who will work hard for them, an impression Obama/Biden have not been willing or able to project.
Hopefully for our nation, the so-far aloof Obama and Biden have at long last started to “get” this point.
They have to right their capsized campaign quickly and forcefully, before it’s too late. If they don’t, all Americans will be the losers, and we’ll suffer painfully for the next four years.
- Posted by sunTo Nick:
One of Obama’s strongest advantages is that he has very detailed and specific plans to deal with a wide array of problems. You may not agree with everything, but he certainly puts on a spread and presents his ideas with thoughtfulness and a genuine desire to fix problems. I suggest you check out his website or pay close attention to his policy proposals in the media.
- Posted by JPI am not american, and i have a question i am sure a lot of people around the world have the same.
- Posted by rodrigo…does anybody can tell me why somebody like McCain has a chance to win these elections? I think that this guy, everywhere in the world, would be seen as a joke, with absolutely no chance of being elected.
I think only in USA we can see these kind of caricatural candidate. It is so obvious that this man will continue the bush gvt policy and doesn’t care for the people. And Sarah Palin? I think the choice of Palin for VP is showing how the only interest of McCain is to become president, and if the democrat candidate was Hillary, McCain should have choosed a black man as VP… so much hipocrisy!…
Americans will elect McCain, and after 2 more wars and millions more of poor people, they will elect him again, because he will do the “best” TV spot attacks on his democrat opponent.
Americans are still too much racist and ignorant to vote for Obama. (And somebody call Barack Hussein must probably be an an agent of Al-Qaida!)
America is the only rich country where people doesn’t have the education and the intellectual tools to make a good choice when electing the president of their country.
The problem is that this choice will have an effect on the whole planet… unfortunately.
Has Obama changed the change he was going to change yet? Or is he changing the change he had already changed?
Lets have less hot air and more policy specifics. I am no fan of Mcain but time is running out for you to start giving us some concrete ideas of what you will do that is actually unique rather than more of the same old Democrat policies.
- Posted by NickI wonder how Mr. McCain feels about the new Palin-McCain presidential ticket.
According to an MSNBC documentary about Mrs. Palin’s rise to power and prominence in population-deprived Alaska, and her rise to celebrity status in the lower 48, “Mrs. Palin could be the key to America’s future”.
Holy Cow! That’s really reaching into the twilight zone, isn’t it, Mr. & Mrs. Reader?
I was, am & will always be my own key to my own American future if you don’t mind…you MSNBC wimps who obviously need the pair that Amy Poehler’s H.R. Clinton character offered to you on SNL last night.
At least SNL retained its pair, after MSNBC had its radical vasectomy.
It’s really tough for Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden and domestic/foreign policy issues to be heard above the media din FOR Mrs. Palin (and by inference, also for Mrs. Palin’s running mate, Mr. McCain). What was that…the media is supposed to be NEUTRAL? Guess again, M&MR.
Mrs. McCain has figured it out though. Yes, she has the solution for getting noticed above the din.
Rather than raise her voice and lose it in the process, Mrs. McCain simply wears very loud colors to get the attention that she once commanded before Mrs. Palin came along and filled Mr. McCain with glee and delight.
As a matter of fact, Mrs. Palin has enraptured the media as well, i.e., the press (women as well as men). You know, M&MR, the press that is specified in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, i.e., the press that is supposed to have the freedom to find out all about virtually unknown politicians who “could be the key to America’s future”.
Although the media is shamefully avoiding taking on Mrs. Palin’s flawed side by way of the First Amendment, she doesn’t mind using her First Amendment freedoms of religion and speech in the political pulpit. Of course, she seems to have missed the point of the founding fathers, i.e., with freedom of religion comes separation of church and government (a.k.a. politics, government).
I guess that Mrs. Palin is okay with 2 out of 4 clauses of the supreme law of the land’s First Amendment, i.e., the 2 clauses that are convenient and play well at the moment. Recap: She likes freedom of speech and religion, and the fact that the media has abdicated freedom of the press. Plus, she figures that with the latter it must be okay for her to skip over that little nuisance called separation of church and state.
Does this sound like anybody else we Americans are familiar with?
Wow! Yes! Now we have the female version of George Walker Bush! Along with that, we have the good ole vasectomized media.
Naturally, in Mr. Bush’s case, he wasn’t too peachy keen on anybody’s freedom of speech except his own (and that of Mr. Cheney, of course). Remember that guy, Ari Fleischer? You know, M&MR, that fellow who told us on *September 26, 2001, to “watch what we say, watch what we do” when he was Mr. Bush’s press secretary. Now he’s a paid, partisan, political commentator. Mr. Fleischer, of course, supports Mrs. Palin. Perhaps he wants his old job back come the Palin-McCain administration on January 20th. Well, one can hope can’t one?
OK Jack
*MR. FLEISCHER: I’m aware of the press reports about what he said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself. But assuming the press reports are right, it’s a terrible thing to say, and it unfortunate. And that’s why — there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party — they’re reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.
- Posted by OK Jack