Obama to McCain: 'Economic Disaster Is Happening Right Now'

By Sridhar Pappu 08/18/2008 06:31PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--There are lines that resonate. They stay in your gut long after they're said and are recalled as pivotal moments during the course of a campaign. Standing in a sweltering gymnasium during a town hall here today--whose crowd included my big sister Suguna and her daughters, Maya and Samsara--the presumptive Democratic nominee might have delivered such a line, such a blow.

After recalling the sentiments about the economy expressed by his republican rival, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama struck back with great precision, saying "Mr. McCain, let me explain to you, the economic disaster is happening right now."

Such a statement couldn't have come at a better time. While on vacation last week, Obama ceded the news cycle to McCain, allowing him to show off his presidential chops as he spoke of the Georgia-Russia crisis daily, making sure to tell each crowd he addressed that he was on the phone with his good friend with whom he jet-skied with on the Black Sea, the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, daily. It was McCain as the statesman, the experienced foreign policy expert, the safe choice for a world in peril.

Now Obama is back. And while Russia continues to plunge the free world into an existential crisis, the junior senator form Illinois has redirected the course of the conversation back to the immediate concerns of most Americans. It's been 18 years since Bill Clinton used the economy to defeat a president who'd won a war abroad only to find an economy in recession at home. Now he's truly starting to use the Clinton playbook in earnest. And while things on the surface remain frosty at best between Obama and the 42nd president, it's clear that Obama is ready to fully embrace the Clinton playbook. Barack Obama is ready to feel your pain.

Comments:

bpower
Posted 08/18/2008 09:06pm with

I suppose McCain showed off his presidential chops if what you’re looking for is, y’know, bluster rather than an actual plan to handle the crisis. Pushing Georgia into NATO would commit us to, y’know, actual war with Russia. The only ones who can possibly think that’s a “Presidential” idea are the gang at PNAC and similar necon cabals.

Most Americans are probably sufficiently pacified by the idea of McCain and his close personal friend, of course. I mean, it sounds good, right?

tahut
Posted 08/19/2008 10:30am with

Just think what it will take for the US to stand up to the Ruskies:

1) Re-instate the draft cause we don’t have enough troops to fight to two hot wars we’re currently engaged in. Remember, during the Cold War, the US had 300,000 plus troops stationed in Europe; it’s now down to under 75,000.
2) Our fighter aircraft was designed in the 60’s, tested in the 70’s and put in service in the 80’s. The F-22 was designed to defeat an Ruskie aircraft that no longer exists and the F-22 is still years away from seeing service.
3) Rummie didn’t think too highly of heavy armor, so he pretty much trashed what we have in favor of light armor and speed. If you saw any of the pictures of the battles in Georgia, you saw a whole lotta heavies being used.
4) We got no money cause we don’t got no taxes. Besides we have some heavy interest payments on T-bills held by the Chinese that have to be paid. And we got no surplus to spend. Just one huge deficit to pay off.

So before anyone goes off and threatens da Ruskies, ya better have something stronger than a big stick cause the US economy has been run aground.