Obama supporter: McCain's Chicago ad full of 'distortions and distractions' Nick Juliano

Published: Monday September 22, 2008





Print This Email This Barack Obama's presidential campaign is accusing Republican John McCain of relying on a campaign of guilt-by-association smears and distracting personal attacks to hide the fact that his "fuzzy" financial proposals would worsen an already devastating economic crisis.



In a new ad, Obama accuses McCain of wanting to apply the same principles that led to the recent Wall Street meltdown to the healthcare industry. The ad cites a recent article appearing under McCain's by-line that argues for deregulating the health insurance industry.



"There's no question that what has happened in the Bush administration -- supported wholeheartedly by Sen. McCain -- has led us to this crisis" in US financial markets, said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, during a conference call sponsored by the Obama campaign Monday.



Sebelius said applying the same principles to healthcare would leave people's lives at risk and argued that the country couldn't afford to risk McCain, who has been putting forward "very fuzzy" proposals on the economy.



For its part, the McCain campaign's offering to the airwaves Monday dealt with none of the problems facing the country right now. Instead it painted Obama as a figure "born of the corrupt Chicago machine" and highlighted some corrupt figures his hometown who at one time had tangential connections to the Illinois senator.



Sebelius accused McCain of "continuing the distortions and distractions of trying to defame Sen. Obama with information he knows is untrue."



Obama spokesman Bill Burton said McCain's campaign was trying to distract from a new report that his campaign manager earned nearly $2 million for overseeing a lobbying campaign on behalf of embattled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.



It's no coincidence ... the McCain campaign would launch this false, gratuitous attack," Burton said. "Barack Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate as an independent Democrat. He took on the Chicago Democratic organization in a primary to win a seat in the US Senate. And in both Illinois and Washington, he has challenged the Old Guard for landmark ethics reforms."



The story of Rick Davis's inolvement on Fannie and Freddie's behalf appeared in the New York Times three days after McCain tried to tie Obama to the same companies. It drew a sharp rebuke from campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, who likely learned his bash-the-press tactics from mentor Karl Rove.



"We are first amendment absolutists on this campaign," he said during a conference call. "Of course, it is constitutionally protected with regard to writing whatever they want to write. Let's be clear and be honest with each other. Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization."





