Obama decries the campaign bickering
Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2008 11:47 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: 2008, Obama
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
ANDERSON, IN -- As Obama campaigned in Indiana this weekend, he talked about his attempts to avoid the kind of divisive politics that he says have shaped this country over the last 20 years. It's a central part of his "new politics" argument
"If you watched the last few weeks of this campaign, you would think that all politics is about is negative ads and bickering and arguing and gaffes and sideline issues," he complained. "There's no discussion, serious discussion about how we're actually gonna bring back jobs to Anderson. That's not what's been debated. That's not what's being discussed, but that's the politics that we've become used to over the last 20 years. I'm tired of that politics 'cause it doesn't solve problems."
Obama went on to talk about his work across the aisle in the Illinois state house and the US Senate, saying he had tried to resist the old politics. "So one of the things that we've gotta do is bring this country together and stop being distracted by, you know, back-and-forth, tit-and-tat (sic) bickering," he said. "I have been trying to resist this in this campaign and I will continue to resist it when I'm president of the United States of America."
The Clinton campaign has stepped up its criticism of Obama, arguing he had made a conscious decision to go negative in the final days in Pennsylvania, risking his brand as a positive politician who offered a politics of hope.
But Obama sought to portray himself as someone who chooses his battles wisely. "During this campaign, I’ve been taking some hits, and you know people it’s interesting, when I don’t always hit back then folks go: 'What’s the matter with you? How come, you know maybe he’s not mean enough, maybe he’s not tough enough,'" he began, before going on to explain his view that truly tough people are not always looking to start a fight.
"I’m not interested in fighting people just for the sake of scoring political points or getting on the cable news shows. If I’m gonna fight something, it’s going to be fighting over the American people and what they need," he said.
Still, Obama didn't pull his punches during the town hall, painting Clinton, as he often does, as a product of that same Washington politics and drawing laughter when he mentioned her explanation for having voted for a 2001 bankruptcy bill he said favored banks: that she hoped it didn't pass.
He also hit McCain for his gas tax holiday proposal, calling it a "scheme."
"If somebody comes to you and says, ‘well, you know what, I’m gonna just, I’m gonna lower gas prices -- we’ll have a holiday on the federal tax on gas,’ this is one of John McCain’s latest schemes. You know, it’ll save you about $25. Except that’s the federal highway fund that we use to build our roads and our bridges," he said. "You remember that bridge in Minneapolis? We’re already short on money in terms of investing. And for what, for $25? So what I’ve said is look -- we’ll go after the oil companies for their windfall profits so that we can get some of that money to provide people who are really having trouble heating their homes, getting to work."
<SNIP>
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/27/949878.aspx
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
