Breaking: Hillary Launches First Negative Ad of Pennsylvania Primary

[malik flavors]

Clinton hitting Obama on PA radio

Clinton aide Howard Wolfson said on a conference call with reporters just now that the campaign would
"respond" on the radio to an Obama television ad that makes the (only trivially true) claim that he doesn't take money from oil companies.

"We didn't feel like we could allow him to continue to mislead the voters of Pennsylvania with respect to his record," said Wolfson.

Axelrod defended the ad to Lynn Sweet today; he didn't make this point, but if you were looking for a defense, it would be that Obama doesn't take money from PACs.

Listen to it here:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/files/audio/press/200804090848.mp3

Full script:

In his TV ads, Barack Obama sounds like he'll take on the oil companies.

"I don't take money from oil companies."

What he doesn’t tell you is that “no candidate does….they cant,” according to the Annenberg Center’s Factcheck.org...It's been against the law for companies to donate to candidates for a hundred years.

Listen to Barack Obama some more.

"Now Exxon's making forty billion dollars a year and we're paying three fifty for gas."

Obama also doesn't mention that he voted for the Bush Cheney energy bill.

It was called a piñata of perks and the best energy bill corporations could buy.

Hillary Clinton voted against that bill.

She’s the one who will make the oil companies pay to set up a new strategic energy fund that will cut our dependence on foreign oil .invest in new clean energy, and create five million new jobs.

It's time for president who takes on the oil companies in real life, not just on TV.

Hillary Clinton.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0408/Clinton_hitting_Obama_on_PA_radio.html

[GarbagemanLB]

1. I hope they make an add with Penn and hit Hillary for her lies on NAFTA .

[lligrd]

6. And The Columbian Trade Deal

And her sniper fire story

And her 109 million income

And her uninsured pregnant woman inaccuracies

And her lies about her name...

[Cha]

14. I'm wondering about this..'cause it looks like

hilary's negative ads worked in Ohio so how is the Obama campaign gonna learn from that and what will they do in PA? The suspense continues!

[VenusRising]

26. Ohio had an open primary with Repubs crossing over.

PA doesn't have an open primary, so that will be one less worry for the Obama camp, at least.

[Cha]

49. Thanks for that info, VenusRising!

So bil won't be going on the rush limpbaugh show the night before the April 22nd Dem primary to get repukes to join the clinton primary campaign only to vote for mccain in the GE.

[VenusRising]

57. Well, he might....

but it won't help them like it did in Ohio.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Thanks so much, Hil." - Republicon homelanders

"Smirk." - Republicon homelanders

[Better Believe It]

8. So Is Hillary Going To Nationalize Big Oil?

Or does she intend to continue their tax breaks?

Hillary! Obama!

Don't let Big Oil ruin and run our lives .... take them over!

[Hepburn]

3. Pure stupidity on the part of the Clinton campaign.

Why in the hell start the personal fight? She ... or he ... who throws the fist peronal snowball better has a ton in reserve and a hell of a lot more than the person they are attacking.

In this case...Hillary does NOT have the funds to combat what is gonna be thrown back at her.

Stupid move...but not at all surprising considering that other than Ghouliani, she has by far run the worse campaign of this season.

[Cha]

18. The only smart thing hilary did in this campaign

and it was far from sincere was choke up before New Hampshire in the one second and steel up the next so noticably that the woman who she was talking to voted for Obama(no link, I just remember that anecdote).

[BlueIdaho]

4. How to behave un-presidentially - see HRC for details. nt.

[stellanoir]

5. How many kitchen sinks can one woman have?

It's mind boggling really.

[PoliticalAmazon]

7. What he should have said is "I don't take money from death-squad leaders." n/t

[2rth2pwr]

9. Obama Visits Billionaires Row- April 6th 2008

So although the San Francisco Bay Area is probably the most pro-Obama section of the entire country, with Obama signs and stickers visible everywhere you turn, when Obama himself actually visited his electoral home base, he ignored the hoi polloi -- all the little people who swoon over him -- and instead, he spent the entire day with the rich. According to local gossip columnist Leah Garchik: http://www.sfisonline.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/26/DDMKVPJT1.DTL

In the Haight, stencils of Barack Obama's smiling face are decorating the sidewalk. But in real life, he is turning up in more lucrative venues: The candidate will be around here on April 6, at a series of events that includes three $2,300-a-head maximum-strength fundraisers: Sara and Sohaib Abbasi are throwing a luncheon in Atherton; he'll zip up to Nancy and Bob Farese's house in Kentfield in mid-afternoon; and proceed from there to Ann and Gordon Getty's in San Francisco.

http://www.bookwormroom.com/2008/04/07/obama-hangs-with-the-rich-folk/
Obama bills himself as a man of the people, who will beat down big business. ... Given his populist stance, Obama's recent trip to the Bay Area, during which he hobnobbed only with the richest and most famous, is amusing, since it either presents a man with no discernible principles or it presents a bunch of rich people who are allowing themselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter.
...
The 46-year-old Democratic senator started the day in Atherton , made his way to Marin and then was due in at the Getty mansion in San Francisco for another event.

Actually, the political pandering from Obama, on the one hand, and the stupid fawning from the rich, on the other hand, wasn't what I found so irritating about the IJ article. Politics in America is, after all, mostly about power, and Obama looks as if he will have the power and these people think that they can buy access. End of story.


Wait just a minute there. If you do the math, on just this one day in the Bay Area, Obama went to four events, three of which had $2,300 minimum donations per ticket, and the other $1,000 minimum per ticket. Each of the events, from the various descriptions, held as many as 400 people (the Getty mansion has a ballroom that reportedly seats at least 300). 400 x $2,300 = $920,000 per event, times three events = $2.76 million, plus the other event, which undoubtedly puts him over $3 million in contributions for this one day alone. And who knows how many other similar days he schedules in other parts of the country.

Michelle Obama (and other Obama campaign spokespeople) aren't telling the truth. It seems that a signficant portion of Obama's monthly campaign contributions are coming from "large donors"' -- i.e. rich people, not just the "$20 to $50" donations they're constantly bragging about.

[rodeodance]

28. so much for the " little guy" donations.

[AllentownJake]

33. Want to do a comparison of avg donation?

Just checking because you don't.

[2rth2pwr]

38. If you average $2300 from the big boys with 25 people buyinga coffee mug at $8

and 3 people buying shirts and 1 person buying a yard sign and a poster.

You can play with numbers quite a bit when you count people buying Obama keychains as contributers.

[dchill]

53. If you "average" $2300, then it's not an average.

$2300 is the MAXIMUM that a single person can donate. Do you get that? MAXIMUM!

[2rth2pwr]

58. Dude chill. Reread my post.

[dchill]

59. OK, I see what you're saying...

I still can't believe that you would want to get into a debate about fundraising.

[rodeodance]

39. go ahead--do it.

[AllentownJake]

43. $109

What's your campaigns.

[uponit7771]

51. oops...crickets

[dchill]

52. That's a pretty huge post just to point out...

that the maximum donation from ANYONE is $2300. "$2,300-a-head maximum-strength fundraisers" I can't believe that any Hillary Clinton supporter with even a rudimentary grasp of the real situation would want to get into a debate about fundraising.

BTW, the average Obama donor gives $96. What kind of "access" do you think they expect?

[NJSecularist]

10. I see Wolfson is making his imprints on the campaign already... what a slime ball. n/t

[slinkerwink]

11. that energy bill increased taxes on the energy companies

[crankychatter]

12. it did? and Clinton was AGAINST IT?

don't make me think please
just give me lurid soundbytes so I can have my mind made up for me

[DemGa]

13. Here's the BO smear campaign memo calling Hillary a liar

The dirtiest I've ever seen. Dirty, dirty BO.

"Obama Camp Memo on Clinton “Misleading” Voters"

http://thepage.time.com/obama-camp-memo-on-clinton-misleading-voters/

[lligrd]

16. Not A Smear, She Is A Known Liar nt

[DemGa]

20. The very same smear tactic they used on Al Gore

Nasty stuff indeed -- and it needs to be exposed. It's SOURCE needs to be exposed. Yes, they painted Gore as a "liar" too.

"How can the people trust a candidate," Bradley asked in New York the day after the New Hampshire primary, "who doesn't respect them enough to tell them the truth in the campaign?"

There's much more, and it should sound familiar.

http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/column.php?id=228

[AllentownJake]

42. But she is a liar

See she lies...a lot. That is why they call her a liar. Either that or Forest Gump stole her story.

[malik flavors]

19. Oh no! A memo! The Obama campaign is truly filthy. They wrote a memo last month.

[DemGa]

22. Smear campaign -- dirty indeed N/T

[malik flavors]

27. Yes, those memos are horrible. Almost as horrible as leaking pictures of Obama in African garb.

But the Clinton campaign didn't do that..."as far as I know."

Yes, smear campaigns are a dirty thing.

[rodeodance]

35. Drudge NEVER produced evidence. It was Hearsay--but BO toke his word--like you

are doing.

[malik flavors]

46. The Clinton campaign never denied it either.

[Mags]

47. the most sneaky, underhanded dirty campaigning I have ever witnessed.

Just like the Republicans.

[Hepburn]

25. HiLIARy is a liar.

So what's your point?

[OzarkDem]

15. Great ad, tells the truth

[AllentownJake]

17. I'd be worried

If she had the money to play it with her other 5 new ads. She doesn't. This ad will not be in the rotation too much. They made it to play on cable news shows.

[Oreo]

21. So she's replying to a TV ad on Radio?

If her money situation gets any worse she's going to start tying campaign notes to small birds.

[GarbagemanLB]

24. LOL

[quantass]

29. LOL! Funny mental imagery you painted

[malik flavors]

30. LOFL. Best line I've heard all day!! Hahaha

[OzarkDem]

31. She just released 5 tv ads in PA

[Lucky 13]

34. Just odd that she would respond to an Obama TV ad on the radio.

Why didn't she respond with a TV ad? Would have made more sense.

:shrug:

[GarbagemanLB]

36. Yeah, and she has the money to air each one once.

[AllentownJake]

37. Obama released 4

Which ones do you think will be getting the better air time and more play?

Just curious?

[demokatgurrl]

45. I see at least one Obama ad on TV every day, and I

do not watch a lot of TV. In fact, I only watch sports on TV, in the mornings for an hour and in the evenings if there is a game I'm interested in. Usually I see one ad in the morning, and one in the evening if I'm watching, at least.

[my3boyz]

61. HAHAHAHAHAHHA! It is so pathetic! If she was

a nicer person I would feel sorry for her! However, she is not so I don't!

[bunnies]

23. Responding on the Radio to a TV ad?! hmmmm

Someones funds are low.

[zulchzulu]

32. Since Hillary is using Factcheck in the ad...this nukes her argument

FactCheck: Oil & gas giveaways stripped from final 2005 Bill

Obama and Clinton dueled over the 2005 energy bill, but Clinton repeated her misleading claims. Clinton said, "It's well accepted that the 2005 energy bill was the Dick Cheney lobbyist energy bill. It was written by lobbyists. It was championed by Dick Cheney. It wasn't just the green light that it gave to more nuclear power. It had enormous giveaways to the oil and gas industries."

While it's true that Republican lawmakers had once considered large tax breaks for oil and gas companies in the bill, the biggest of them had been stripped out of the bill by the time it passed.

It's true that the Energy Policy Act contained $14.3 billion in tax breaks, but most went to electric utilities for such things as incentives for new transmission lines & "clean coal" facilities, and also for incentives for alternative fuels research and subsidies for energy efficient cars and homes.

The bill did give $2.6 billion in tax breaks for oil companies, but those were offset by $2.9 billion in tax increases.

Source: FactCheck.org on 2008 Democratic debate in Las Vegas Jan 16, 2008

More:

Clinton wrongly claimed that the Bush-Cheney administration had increased tax breaks for the oil industry:

CLINTON: First of all, I have proposed a strategic energy fund that I would fund by taking away the tax break for the oil companies, which have gotten much greater under Bush and Cheney.

Actually, the highly publicized energy bill the president signed in 2005 raised taxes slightly on the oil industry as a whole. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 provided about $2.6 billion of tax cuts for the oil and gas industry, plus $2.9 billion of tax increases, for a net tax increase on the industry of nearly $300 million over 11 years.

It's true that many generous subsidies were proposed and debated, but those were stripped out before the bill was passed. The final bill contained $14.3 billion in tax breaks, but the bulk of the cuts went to electric utilities, and nuclear, and also to alternative fuels research and subsidies for energy-efficiency--not to the oil industry.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Hillary_Clinton_Energy_+_Oil.htm

Sorry, Hillary...but Googling in 3 minutes gave you the Smackdown. Drop out.

[godai]

41. Thanks for this info. I'm so tired of Hillary calling it the Dick Cheney energy bill.

What a misrepresentation on her part. Once again, she will do and say ANYTHING to try to get the nomination.

[slinkerwink]

55. it's a total lie

[yasmina27]

40. I heard that today! n/t

[demokatgurrl]

44. I'll have to go watch his ad again- I could have sworn

he SAID he doesn't take money from PACs.

[saracat]

48. Good for her. I am tired of her constantly being called a liar but barack given a free pass.

[bhikkhu]

50. The ad would have more weight if we saw Hillary's earmarks

That is, if we could remove the question of how deeply in the energy industry's pockets is Hillary, based upon legislative favors, then her criticism of Barack might carry some weight. As it is, it seems more of a "Barack is claiming the high road, but really we are both on the low road" argument.

[slinkerwink]

56. yeah

[dchill]

54. This OP doesn't even rise to the level of...

"(only trivially true)"

[kwenu]

60. DUCK!!! IT'S A KITCHEN SINK!!!!