Craig Crawford on Obama & Substance
By SusanUnPC on February 18, 2008 at 9:21 PM in Barack Obama
In “Yes We Can WHAT?,” Craig Crawford writes at his CQPolitics blog today:
The news media’s long-awaited scrubbing of Barack Obama’s concrete plans for governing has begun and, not surprisingly, it doesn’t take long. The Democratic presidential contender’s famously inspirational speeches offer little sustenance for wonks. [...]
Obama’s supporters and advisers refer pesky policy inquiries to the campaign web site, but it is difficult to connect the dots between this internet data dump and a candidate whose public comments reveal little evidence that he has read it himself. As Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, an Obama fan, concluded after examining the web site, “I’m still puzzled about where to locate Obama on this policy map.” [...]
[O]n the stump he provides little guidance to the occasional voter who might be curious about exactly what he would do as president.
Politically speaking, it is probably true that Obama does not need to sweat the policy details. He has so far made it to the brink of success in the Democratic race without specifics. Instead, his admiring crowds appear content to chant “Yes We Can” without bothering to finish the sentence.
Poor Craig Crawford. He hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid.
In “Fresh Target for Wingnuts,” Taylor Marsh has much more on Obama’s various, um, discrepancies and borrowings — and how often he appropriated John Edwards’ phrases and policies, even invoking the ire of Elizabeth Edwards:
Edwards said Obama was using stolen ideas:
Edwards’s campaign also blasted Obama for parroting the former senator in a foreign policy speech he gave Tuesday in which he said he wanted to work towards ending nuclear proliferation. They said the senator has followed Edwards on a number of issues this campaign year, including healthcare, poverty and now nuclear proliferation.
“If you need any more proof that John Edwards is shaping the race for the Democratic nomination, you don’t need to look any further than Senator Obama, who has followed Edwards’s lead on healthcare, poverty and, today, eliminating nuclear weapons,” Murray said in an e-mail to The Hill. “Next thing you know, he’ll be rooting for the Tar Heels.”
Obama copies line from Edwards 2003 announcement speech. “For months, Obama has been telling crowds, ‘I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.’ Edwards gave a similar spin to his short political resume when he announced his candidacy in September 2003, declaring, ‘I haven’t spent most of my life in politics, but I’ve spent enough time in Washington to know how much we need to change it.’”
Obama borrows from Edwards (That’s a link to the Boston Herald‘s important work on Obama’s use of other politicians’ words and ideas.)
Elizabeth Edwards on Obama (via the National Journal):
In the Aug. issue of Progressive magazine Elizabeth Edwards goes so far as to call Obama an outright copycat, accusing him of “lifting her husband’s best lines.” E. Edwards: “You listen to the language of what people say, particularly Obama, who seems to be using a lot of John’s 2004 language, which is maybe not surprising since one of his speechwriters was one of our speechwriters, his media guy was our media guy. These people know John’s mantra as well as anybody could know it. They’ve moved from ‘hope is on the way’ to ‘the audacity of hope.’ I’m constantly hearing things in a familiar tone.”
… … Edwards: “We are not the party of Washington insiders. We are the party of the people, and so from this day forward we say no — no forever to the money from Washington lobbyists.”
The only difference — Obama beat him to it that day, towing the same anti-lobbyist line at an earlier event that day in central Iowa. Obama: “We’ve got to have a president in the White House who sets bold targets and sets broad goals and isn’t intimidated by the barriers and the roadblocks and isn’t driven by those who already have an investment in the status quo – somebody who can overcome the lobby-driven, divisive politics that characterizes this issue.”
Meanwhile, back at the labor forum, Obama used another token Edwardian statement: “We need a president…who is not afraid to mention unions.”
by Ronald Scott
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