Throw the flag against: The McCain-Palin campaign.
Call: Unsportsmanlike conduct.
What happened: A new 30-second TV ad attacks Barack Obama's record on education, saying that Obama backed legislation to teach " 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The announcer then says, "Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. Wrong on education. Wrong for your family."
Why that's wrong: This is a deliberately misleading accusation. It came hours after the Obama campaign released a TV ad critical of McCain's votes on public education. As a state senator in Illinois, Obama did vote for but was not a sponsor of legislation dealing with sex ed for grades K-12.
But the legislation allowed local school boards to teach "age-appropriate" sex education, not comprehensive lessons to kindergartners, and it gave schools the ability to warn young children about inappropriate touching and sexual predators.
Republican Alan Keyes tried to use Obama's vote against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. At the time, Obama spoke about wanting to protect young children from abuse. He made clear then that he was not supporting teaching kindergartners about explicit details of sex.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Tuesday of McCain's ad: "It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls."
Penalty: 15 yards for the McCain campaign's deliberate low blow.
I have decided to start another MySpace page for our group One Million MySpace Friends for Obama/Biden'08! to hopefully register new voters. Show your support for this effort by plumping our friends list on MySpace and add us to your top friends!
http://www.myspace.com/thispage_8
Making lots of friend requests is a lot of hard work that has to be done every day to make the page a success. Please make a friend request so we can impress new voters with our numbers and advertise our page in your bulletins by reposting. I will be posting the address in bulletins.
Thanks for all you do!
Beth
Administrator and Founder
One Million MySpace Friends for Obama'08!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/03/mccain-palin-ad-defends-p_n_123560.html
The aggressiveness of the spot creates a sharp contrast to the first political advertisement that the Obama campaign ran for its VP candidate, Joe Biden. That spot had no mention of McCain; rather, it pushed a small town theme and highlighted the Senator's Scranton roots. In a way, the two ads provide a telling insight not only into the contrasting political cultures of each campaign but how differently Palin and Biden's VP rollouts have proceeded.
MSNBC notes that almost every charge in the ad is untrue:
It's important to note that there are a few misleading assertions in the ad. For one, the "Journal" that's cited is the conservative and partisan Wall Street Journal editorial page. Two, to call Obama the Senate's most liberal senator is dubious. (The charge comes from the National Journal ranking Obama as having the most liberal Senate voting record of 2007, but he was nowhere near the top in 2005 and 2006; it's also worth noting that Obama missed many Senate votes in 2007, so that ranking is a bit skewed.) And three, the charge that Obama "gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways" is misleading. (According to nonpartisan fact-checkers, the 2005 energy bill the McCain camp is referring to actual resulted in a net tax INCREASE on oil companies.)
The ad, the campaign says, will air in key states. Here is the script:
ANNCR: The Journal says: "Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's." They're right.She "has a record of bi-partisan reform."He's the Senate's "most liberal." She "took on the oil producers."He gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways.She's "earned a reputation as a reformer."His reputation? Empty words.JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.
She "has a record of bi-partisan reform."
He's the Senate's "most liberal."
She "took on the oil producers."
He gave big oil billions in subsidies and giveaways.
She's "earned a reputation as a reformer."
His reputation? Empty words.
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I approved this message.
