Tweet
Democrats swing into damage-control
Striking a Reaganesque posture, Republican challenger Mitt Romney has demanded to know of President Barack Obama: Can he claim that Americans are better off now than nearly four years ago when he won the landmark White House race with the promise of “hope” and “change”?
The Romney poser at last week’s GOP convention, repeated by other Republicans thereafter, caught top Democrats off guard on the Sunday talk shows, resulting in fumbles, gaffes and contradictory replies.
Republicans insist that the Democrats do not have a cogent and convincing answer to the question – just as Jimmy Carter did not have when Ronald Reagan sank his campaign with that repeated line back in 1980.
But the Democrats appeared to be getting their act together, just ahead of their convention opening in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday evening. The word out of the Democratic camp is: Yes, Americans are “absolutely” better off than they were four years ago.
Vice President Joe Biden, who will give his acceptance speech on Wednesday, led the chorus: “Folks let me make something clear, and say it to the press: America is better off today than they left us when they left.”
“Let me just sum it up this way folks, you want to know why we’re better off? I got a little bumper sticker for you. Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Biden commented at a Labour Day rally in Detroit, adding: “The president and I are determined to replace the word outsourcing for our children’s generation for the word insourcing.”
Biden’s sharp response came on a day when his Republican opponent Paul Ryan tossed the “are you better off?” question yet again during a campaign stop in North Carolina.
Earlier, a top Democrat, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, ended up admitting in a Sunday TV show that Americans were not better off now and blaming it all on the predecessor Bush administration.
When CBS anchor Bob Schieffer asked if he could “honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago?”, O’Malley said: “No. But that’s not the question of this election. Without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recessions, the Bush deficits.”
O’Malley then made amends in an interview to CNN on Monday: “We are clearly better off as a country because we’re now creating jobs rather than losing them.”
He was not the only senior Democrat to find himself at a loss for an effective answer. Senior Obama adviser David Plouffe dodged the question repeatedly on ABC News, saying: “I think the American people understand that we got into a terrible economic situation, a recession -- the Great Depression is the only one the country has ever seen like it.”
The Republicans say they are going to keep up the pressure. They have set up what they call a “rapid response unit”, not far from the Democratic convention venue, to make sure that the pro-Obama “spin” does not go unchallenged.
In Charlotte, Democrats are going to be on the defensive,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus commented, claiming that they cannot win an argument over the facts marshalled by the Republicans.
Obama taps NRI actor Kal Penn for campaign promo at convention
US President Barack Obama has tapped Indian American actor Kal Penn to host a web-only promo ahead of his highly-anticipated acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Charlotte on Thursday.
Kal Penn is the stage name of Kalpen Suresh Modi, the 35-year-old actor who is known for his roles in the “Harold and Kumar” comedy films. A close supporter of Obama since his 2008 presidential campaign, Penn took a two-year break when Obama appointed him to serve in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
For the convention promo, Penn will be interviewing celebrities, campaign officials and guests. The web special that he will host on the Democratic convention site will include interviews with Marc Anthony, Elizabeth Banks, Aisha Tyler, Olivia Wilde, Fran Drescher, Zach Braff and Alexis Bledel, the Obama campaign said.
In an interesting build-up to the show, the campaign has put out a web ad showing President Obama making a phone call to Penn, asking him to “get this right”.
“Hey this is Barack. Listen, I need to know if you’re on board,” says Obama. “I’m counting on you. Everybody is. We have to get this right. So there’s a lot at stake. Just remember that I’m trusting you on this and I’ll see you there.”
t is only at that point the viewers get to know the person the president is talking to. It’s Penn, sitting in front of a television set with fellow actor
John Cho.
“Dude, who was that? That sounded intense,” says Cho. “The president,” replies Penn matter-of-factly, and the two burst into laughter.
Striking a Reaganesque posture, Republican challenger Mitt Romney has demanded to know of President Barack Obama: Can he claim that Americans are better off now than nearly four years ago when he won the landmark White House race with the promise of “hope” and “change”?
The Romney poser at last week’s GOP convention, repeated by other Republicans thereafter, caught top Democrats off guard on the Sunday talk shows, resulting in fumbles, gaffes and contradictory replies.
Republicans insist that the Democrats do not have a cogent and convincing answer to the question – just as Jimmy Carter did not have when Ronald Reagan sank his campaign with that repeated line back in 1980.
But the Democrats appeared to be getting their act together, just ahead of their convention opening in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday evening. The word out of the Democratic camp is: Yes, Americans are “absolutely” better off than they were four years ago.
Vice President Joe Biden, who will give his acceptance speech on Wednesday, led the chorus: “Folks let me make something clear, and say it to the press: America is better off today than they left us when they left.”
“Let me just sum it up this way folks, you want to know why we’re better off? I got a little bumper sticker for you. Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Biden commented at a Labour Day rally in Detroit, adding: “The president and I are determined to replace the word outsourcing for our children’s generation for the word insourcing.”
Biden’s sharp response came on a day when his Republican opponent Paul Ryan tossed the “are you better off?” question yet again during a campaign stop in North Carolina.
Earlier, a top Democrat, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, ended up admitting in a Sunday TV show that Americans were not better off now and blaming it all on the predecessor Bush administration.
When CBS anchor Bob Schieffer asked if he could “honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago?”, O’Malley said: “No. But that’s not the question of this election. Without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recessions, the Bush deficits.”
O’Malley then made amends in an interview to CNN on Monday: “We are clearly better off as a country because we’re now creating jobs rather than losing them.”
He was not the only senior Democrat to find himself at a loss for an effective answer. Senior Obama adviser David Plouffe dodged the question repeatedly on ABC News, saying: “I think the American people understand that we got into a terrible economic situation, a recession -- the Great Depression is the only one the country has ever seen like it.”
The Republicans say they are going to keep up the pressure. They have set up what they call a “rapid response unit”, not far from the Democratic convention venue, to make sure that the pro-Obama “spin” does not go unchallenged.
In Charlotte, Democrats are going to be on the defensive,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus commented, claiming that they cannot win an argument over the facts marshalled by the Republicans.
Obama taps NRI actor Kal Penn for campaign promo at convention
US President Barack Obama has tapped Indian American actor Kal Penn to host a web-only promo ahead of his highly-anticipated acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Charlotte on Thursday.
Kal Penn is the stage name of Kalpen Suresh Modi, the 35-year-old actor who is known for his roles in the “Harold and Kumar” comedy films. A close supporter of Obama since his 2008 presidential campaign, Penn took a two-year break when Obama appointed him to serve in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
For the convention promo, Penn will be interviewing celebrities, campaign officials and guests. The web special that he will host on the Democratic convention site will include interviews with Marc Anthony, Elizabeth Banks, Aisha Tyler, Olivia Wilde, Fran Drescher, Zach Braff and Alexis Bledel, the Obama campaign said.
In an interesting build-up to the show, the campaign has put out a web ad showing President Obama making a phone call to Penn, asking him to “get this right”.
“Hey this is Barack. Listen, I need to know if you’re on board,” says Obama. “I’m counting on you. Everybody is. We have to get this right. So there’s a lot at stake. Just remember that I’m trusting you on this and I’ll see you there.”
t is only at that point the viewers get to know the person the president is talking to. It’s Penn, sitting in front of a television set with fellow actor
John Cho.
“Dude, who was that? That sounded intense,” says Cho. “The president,” replies Penn matter-of-factly, and the two burst into laughter.
