9.18.2008

Obama's Economic Plan Meets Empty Rhetoric Challenge

Sen. Barack Obama has taken things to another level with in providing Americans with a plan for change. Yes, this time, the Democratic senator from Illinois actually outlines a what he means by "America needs change."

Obama waits out his opponent and formulates a message, which is delivered in a video and then distributed in a pdf file across the internet. The video serves as an introduction while the "Economic Plan" is formatted much like a Q&A. The message, aside from repeated rhetoric of "change," moves simply to the truth. "The truth is that while you’ve been living up to your responsibilities Washington has not," Obama says in his latest video broadcast on my.barackobama.com.

Obama's new ad will be broadcast today across battleground states and makes a strong attempt to provide many people with answers instead of empty rhetoric. The new political adverstisement is below:

Video: Plan for Change



Again, looking deeply into the message, voters may actually hear something that has not been heard before: action items that constitute how one major part of the campaign and, quite possibly, the next four years might play out. Excerpts from the two-minute TV ad follow:

Reform our tax system to give a $1,000 tax break to the middle class instead of showering more on oil companies and corporations that outsource our jobs. End the "anything goes" culture on Wall Street with real regulation that protects your investments and pensions. Fast track a plan for energy ‘made-in-America’ that will free us from our dependence on mid-east oil in 10 years and put millions of Americans to work. Crack down on lobbyists — once and for all -- so their back-room deal-making no longer drowns out the voices of the middle class and undermines our common interests as Americans. And yes, bring a responsible end to this war in Iraq so we stop spending billions each month rebuilding their country when we should be rebuilding ours.
In addition to the two-minute spot, the senator from Illinios has re-launched, on barackobama.com, his economy portion of the Web site. The new page, found at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/economyplan, outlines 12 principles that the campaign promises to "bring about real change to our economy." While the very first item again promises a $1,000 tax cut for middle class American families, the others include creating new jobs, energy rebates and finding work-family balance.

Meanwhile, Obama for America, an advocacy group positioned to elect Barack Obama to the White House, issued yesterday a similar plan that comes across as more of a Q&A. The three main points draw focus to the senator's new economic plan, his "consistent record of calling for solutions to economic problems" before they arise and McCain's record as a "self-professed 'deregulator,' asleep at the switch as our economic crises have unfolded." While much of the document reads like a position paper, there are some interesting points. The full document can be found at: http://obama.3cdn.net/6e85401e3caddd95cc_zecnmvshd.pdf

The McCain-Palin campaign has recently re-launched their campaign Web site as well, but the recent news does not include their version of an action plan. As reported yesterday in Flingjore's World, McCain's strategists pushed the senator to answer calls for an economic solution immediately led to a series of backtracking and overlapping themes. In fact, the campaign launched a series of new political ads that almost had dissimilar themes.

Kudos to the candidates for answering the call. Now, help us figure out what the bailout package for A.I.G., on top of earlier government support for Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will do to Joe taxpayer. And, then, please explain how such a huge turnaround will affect stunned European policy makers accustomed to government intervention even as they acknowledge the shock of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

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