In WSJ op-ed, Rove misled about Obama ad
SUMMARY: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Karl Rove stated that an ad for Barack Obama "says he was raised with 'values straight from the Kansas heartland,' though he grew up in Hawaii." But Obama does not suggest in the ad that he was raised in Kansas; rather, he explicitly notes his mother and grandparents "grew up" there. Rove also asserted that Obama claims in the ad "to have passed three bills, but fails to mention that two were in the Illinois state Senate." However, Obama does not suggest that the bills referenced in the ad were passed by the U.S. Senate, and the ad displays the years in which the bills were passed.
In a July 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Fox News contributor Karl Rove wrote that Sen. Barack Obama's "ads show he's aware of his vulnerability on two fronts: his liberal values and his meager achievements. Yet he should be more cautious with these weaknesses. His bio ad says he was raised with 'values straight from the Kansas heartland,' though he grew up in Hawaii." However, in the ad, Obama does not in any way suggest that he was raised in Kansas; rather, he explicitly refers to his upbringing by his mother and grandparents, who he notes "grew up" in Kansas. Obama stated: "I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up" [emphasis added]. Further, Rove wrote that Obama "claims to have passed three bills, but fails to mention that two were in the Illinois state Senate." Yet Obama does not suggest that the bills he references in the ad were passed by the U.S. Senate. To the contrary, the ad displays the dates the bills were passed, which were both well before Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In Obama's bio ad, "The Country I Love," Obama states of his mother and grandparents:
OBAMA: I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up, taking jobs and loans to make it through college.
A Kansas City Star article stated that Obama's "maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham, attended El Dorado high school [in El Dorado, Kansas] and married the candidate's grandmother, Madelyn Payne, a young woman from nearby Augusta, in the 1930s. Dunham would go on to serve in World War II while his wife worked on a defense assembly line. She gave birth to Obama's mother at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They later moved to Hawaii, where their daughter would marry Kenyan Barack Obama Sr. -- who lead a largely absentee life in the future presidential candidate's upbringing."
While Rove wrote that Obama "claims to have passed three bills, but fails to mention that two were in the Illinois state Senate," on-screen text in the ad indicates that he helped pass those bills well before he joined the U.S. Senate in January 2005. In 1997, Obama was a main co-sponsor of the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (Illinois Public Act 90-0017). Text in Obama's ad states that he "Moved people from welfare to work." Underneath those words read the date "6/19/97." Additionally, Obama co-sponsored a bill that created the Illinois state earned income tax credit program for low-income individuals and families (Illinois Public Act 91-0700). Text in the ad states that Obama "cut taxes for working families." Underneath those words read the date "5/11/00."
From the ad:
From Rove's July 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed:
But early television may not be as smart as it appears. Is it wise for Mr. Obama to spend almost as much on ads in three weeks in July as he raised in May? His fund raising peaked in February. June's fund-raising numbers, due in mid-July, will show whether his current pace of spending can be sustained. And TV becomes less effective in a general election, since so much free media attention is focused on the presidential candidates, whose actions have a larger impact than ads.
Mr. Obama's ads show he's aware of his vulnerability on two fronts: his liberal values and his meager achievements. Yet he should be more cautious with these weaknesses. His bio ad says he was raised with "values straight from the Kansas heartland," though he grew up in Hawaii. He claims to have passed three bills, but fails to mention that two were in the Illinois state Senate and that he didn't vote on the third in the U.S. Senate. His new ad praises welfare reform, yet he opposed the legislation when a Republican Congress passed and President Clinton signed it.
Mr. Obama may be overreaching by running ads in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana, Nebraska, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota -- states Republicans won by comfortable margins in recent years. It would require a shift of between one-sixth and over one-quarter of the vote to win any of them. Shifts that large rarely happen.
This really bothers Karl Rove and others of his ilk.
They want to portray Obama as an elite. Saying that he was raised by a single mom and his grandparents and saying that he had to get loans to get through college makes him look more like the 'regular folk' than John McCain pretends to be. John McCain's father and grandfather were Admirals in the Navy. He went to the USNA, and then married an heiress. He's about as far from someone the average Joe can associate with as possible.
Having those differences pointed out scares the crap out of Karl Rove.
Saying that Obama grew up in Hawaii makes people think he's lucky, because that's where people dream of going to live. Anything to denigrate Obama's message.
-- Obama "claims to have passed three bills -- mmfa/Rove
Atta boy, Obama...two bills passed at the state level...one of them 11 years ago...and one at the federal level...now that's a rich resume. Maybe in the next 11 years you can get another 2-3 passed.
Yeah, I know about the others...the ones mmfa brags on all the time. One of them co-sponsored by about half the senate...another passed on a unanimous voice vote. I don't know how they would ever have made it through without Obama's great skills in bipartisan diplomacy.
...and in that same time period McCain has passed, let me see here... one bill? McCain-Feingold? And that only took him 7 years, along with his Democratic co-sponsor...
That certainly qualifies him to be President, right Wes?
kyle
If you think that I'm going to defend McCain's legislative record...think again.
Obama or McCain? At this point in time I'm pretty much a voter without a candidate.
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures
Perhaps you're too cynical to see the new golden age coming after the greed and corruption play out, but I believe that part of Obama's attraction is his idealism and ability to inspire hope in people. It's up to the voters, all of us, to push our leaders in the right direction.
This is all part of the GOP smear machine to paint Obama as a unpatriotic, muslim. Notice how Karl Rove is setting the stage for more smears .
His bio ad says he was raised with "values straight from the Kansas heartland," though he grew up in Hawaii
Nice lie and smear Karl.
I like to think of Karl as a caricature of this guy.
"Widdley Wahhhh, Widdley Widdley Widdley Wahhhhhhh"
Warning, it's explicit!
"values straight from the Kansas heartland"
So Obama brags he obtained his values in Hawaii from 3 people who themselves grew up in Kansas. Should we tell him that some other people have obtained Kansas heartland values from hundreds or thousands of people while actually living in Kansas? How much better that must be!
Karl Rove did not mislead: Lack of "heartland values" and lack of US Senate accomplishments are Obama weaknesses not helped much by this ad.
As to MMFA saying that viewers can deduce his achievements were from the Illinois legislature by looking at the dates, that is quite indirect. Obama should be introduced, then, as current US Senator and former IL legislator Barack Obama, if his cited accomplishments include IL ones.
"Karl Rove did not mislead:"
That's where you lost me. Karl Rove never NOT misleads. I know, double negative...
Excuse me, but who cares if people who live in Kansas are influenced MORE by thousands that live there? Not to mention, that statement is not true.
I was born in Ohio, but I was more influenced by the values that my mother brought to Ohio from growing up in a small farm town in Minnesota, than I was by my father's Ohio side, or people in Ohio. Many in Minnesota were influenced by the values of Norwegian and German parents/grandparents/greatgrandparents that came to Minnesota. Although I grew up in a small Ohio town, my mother's family filled my childhood with everything from farm knowledge to the languages and customs of Norway and Germany, and the foods of Minnesota and those countries. So, I could say, thanks to my mother and her family, I was raised with the values of small town Minnesota even though I grew up in Ohio.
Some of us grow up influenced more by our peers, the place where we grow up, and the people around us, and others are influenced more by our parents and the values they accumulated where ever they lived.
As for Obama stating that he helped pass three bills, there is no need to change how people introduce him. Let's say you worked in law enforcement for 2o years, and you were running for major. Your ads list a number of accomplishments you achieved from rookie to police chief. Should we address you with all those job titles, or perhaps you should be limited to mentioning just the things you accomplised only as the police chief? Do you understand how idiotic you comment is about Obama listing/dating his lifetime political accomplishments?
If you want to make the point that Minnesota values are the best, then logically a person from Minnesota who experienced the culture first-hand would be a better candidate than you on that point. Likewise for a Kansan versus Obama.
As to your last point, perhaps you never watched Al Bundy on Married With Children, who made 4 touchdowns in a single football game in high school. Or how about a current major league baseball player who claims to have hit dozens of home runs in a single year (with only the year given to allow you to figure out that it was from 11 years ago when he was in the minors). As Karl noted, Obama used minor league data without explicitly noting that.
I never made a point that Minnesota values are best, nor did Obama state that Kansas values are best.
Obama simply stated that his values are from a mother and grandparents who are from the Kansas heartland. He never said being from the Kansas heartland makes anyone more special than anyone else.
You must also know that candidates and their writers..of BOTH parties....are going to use words and phrases that create the best images in the minds of voters.
If someone states that their values come from their grandparents, who were hard working farmers, it doesn't mean they are a farmer, or that farmers are the only hard workers in America, nor does it mean farmers are any more special that anyone else.
I get your "joke" about spelling major instead of mayor in my comment, but as you can see, that was noted by an earlier poster and noted by me. It was obvious I didn't mean my example was campaigning to be the town major.
Since Obama gave the dates of the bills that he helped pass, it is obvious that he is making clear when it happened. Funny how providing dates and details confuses so many people on the right.
some other people have obtained Kansas heartland values from hundreds or thousands of people while actually living in Kansas? How much better that must be!Chromium
I'm not sure I get your point here. Are you saying that Kansas values are better than Hawaii values? Or that getting your values from a large number of people is better than getting them from a small group? If it's the latter, wouldn't the opportunity to get your imported Kansas values along with the values of thousands of Hawwaiians be best of all, even better than getting only Kansas values?
Karl Rove is absolutely ignorant and very divisive. It disgusts me that someone who speaks so ignorantly is afforded so much ink. Senator Obama does have the values of Kansas because his mother and grandparents are from Kansas. Although he was born and grew up in Hawaii, he was taught their values.
People migrate to other areas and bring their values and beliefs with them. So how is it invalid the Senator Obama's people brought their values with them to Hawaii? Karl Rove is so desperate to smear Senator Obama that he prattles anything and then the MSM picks it and tries to give it traction..
What does Karl Rove support? Let him identify those Bust policies which he and McCain want to continue. I'm sick of mud-slinging and attack politics... it is undemocratic.