Props to TPM for the video and prepared text of Barack Obama’s speech in Chillicothe, Ohio, this morning:
The heart of the matter:
It’s easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that’s not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious. The challenges are too great. The American people aren’t looking for someone who can divide this country — they’re looking for someone who will lead it. We’re in a serious crisis — now, more than ever, it is time to put country ahead of politics. Now, more than ever, it is time to bring change to Washington so that it works for the people of this country that we love.
I know my opponent is worried about his campaign. But that’s not what I’m concerned about. I’m thinking about the Americans losing their jobs, and their homes, and their life savings. We can’t afford four more years of the economic theory that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.
I’ve been watching campaigns since Kennedy-Nixon, so I’ve seen lots of vileness. But I give you my word, never — never — have I seen one as vile as John McCain and Sarah Palin’s. Yes, governance this bad (only recently), but never such dishonorable campaigning.
UPDATE: July 30, the town where I grew up:
And the next day:
John McCain’s campaign manager is accusing Barack Obama of unfairly using the issue of race, a significant accusation in a campaign featuring the first African-American major party nominee.
"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck," said Rick Davis, in a statement issued from the McCain campaign. "It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."
Yesterday in Missouri, Obama predicted McCain and the GOP would use racially tinged attacks against him.
John Cole is impressed that Obama “plays the long game” and knew exactly what was coming. Well, of course he does and did (and I don’t really think Cole’s surprised — just marveling).
UPDATE II: McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responds (emphasis mine): "Instead of acknowledging the real differences that exist in this election, Barack Obama is using America’s economic crisis to deflect legitimate criticisms of himself and his record. …”
That (Update II) does it: Tucker Bounds is just ‘tupid.
Wow. WaPo’s Dan Balz, who has up to now written ridiculously pro-McCain slanted stories, has snapped awake with a start:
Jee min nee, even a Fox poll says McCain, not Obama, is the one catching Ayers blowback.
Lotus @ 1: about the age of four, when I first started to choose my own wardrobe for the day, one of my older sisters told my mother, “I think we let her dress herself too soon”. Well, I think Tucker’s mommy let him out on his own a little too soon.
This election is all about color. For those with an IQ of less than a rock it is about black and white. For the rest of us it is about green (as in finances and the environment) and yellow (as in McCain’s negative chicken shit campaign).