Oh-eight (D): The Populist Manifesto?
Posted: Monday, February 18, 2008 9:19 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
CLINTON: The Clinton campaign has a new way of circulating its views on the economy. "Clinton's campaign released a 13-page blueprint for fixing the economy Monday, detailing the former first lady's plans to achieve universal health care, address the home foreclosure crisis and develop jobs for the middle class. The pamphlet, which will be distributed to voters at campaign events and posted online, outlines many of the ideas she talks about on the campaign trail each day. But by pulling them together, the document resembles a populist manifesto - with Clinton championing the needs of working-class voters over corporate and business interests.”
“‘Over the past seven years, big corporations and special interests have been given a free pass to profit, often at the expense of the American worker. As President, Hillary will make it a priority to scale back special benefits and subsidies to these corporations and put those resources to work for our economy again,’ the pamphlet declares. Among other things, the document stresses Clinton's plan to freeze home foreclosures and subprime adjustable rate mortgages - a plan some economists believe would raise interest rates on other consumers.”
Bill Clinton's outbursts yesterday, which we detailed, were probably not that bad -- despite the heavy Drudge play. There was a passion to it that didn't seem out of place.
OBAMA: "Obama has launched a newly aggressive strategy to undermine two pillars of support for rival Hillary Rodham Clinton: Latinos and working-class white voters. In Ohio, Obama backers are courting local union leaders and members with promises that the Illinois senator will change U.S. trade policies enacted by Clinton's husband, and which the unions blame for severe job losses. In Texas, Obama has launched a new effort to introduce himself to Latino voters as someone who understands their challenges, thanks to his background of attending college on a scholarship and working with churches as a community organizer."
Of the two big March 4 states, it appears Texas is the state Obama's campaign is more fired up about. "Obama has one other advantage in Texas: The state's complicated system of voting, involving both a primary and a caucus, awards convention delegates based in part on past voter turnout in state Senate districts. Because blacks in cities such as Houston and Dallas have voted at a higher rate than Latinos in the valley -- and blacks are expected to go heavily for Obama -- those black voters will have outsized influence over the final delegate count."
USA Today: “Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign hammered rival Barack Obama on Sunday for refusing to reaffirm his commitment to accept public financing in the general election, a development a top aide criticized as ‘a pretty big flip-flop’ and an opening for Republican attack.”
The similarities between speeches given by Obama and given by his ally, Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, is back in the news again. A Wisconsin Obama speech and one given by Patrick two years ago were strikingly similar. The Obama campaign said he and Patrick often trade speaking ideas. “‘They often riff off one another. They share a world view,’ Mr. Axelrod said. ‘Both of them are effective speakers whose words tend to get requoted and arguments tend to be embraced widely.’”
Reports that Barack Obama used language from Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts isn't surprising, NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan reports. The two politicians are close, sharing similar upbringings and a penchant towards eloquence. But Patrick has also helped Obama with several of his speeches on the campaign trail, including the critical Jefferson-Jackson Dinner speech in Iowa that served as a turning point for Obama's campaign and was highly praised by the media.
Patrick confirmed this to NBC News/National Journal in late December when he was on the road with Obama in Iowa. He added that they shared ideas and spoke frequently. When Obama and Patrick were on the road together, he used lines from Patrick and joked with the crowd, "I'm stealing some lines from Deval because he stole a bunch of mine when he was running for governor."
That email which accuses Obama of being bad for Israel is making the rounds again and the New York Post has picked up on it.
The New York Daily News on Obama followers: “Scoffing bloggers write of ‘the blind frenzy of a mob clamoring to touch the hem of his garment’ and ask, ‘What next? Obama raises the dead?’ Even some Democrats who back Obama are leery. ‘Many of the Obama people not only have partaken of the Kool Aid, but they drank it undiluted,’ one Obama voter wrote in an online discussion titled: ‘Barack Obama Is Not Jesus.’”
