Obama hits Davis on 'issues'

[ErinBerin84]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Obama_hits_Davis_on_issues.html


Obama hits Davis on 'issues'

Carrie Budoff Brown reports:

Barack Obama hit John McCain Wednesday over a comment from his campaign manager that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues.

“Which probably explains why last night when they were speaking, all these speakers (at the Republican National Convention) came up, you didn’t hear a single word about the economy,” Obama said at an economic forum in New Philadelphia, Ohio. “Not once did people mention the hardships that people are going through.”

“I guess I don’t blame them,” Obama added, “because if you don’t have any issues to run on, you want it all to be about personality. If you have got George Bush’s track record and John McCain voting 90 percent of the time in agreement with George Bush, then you probably you don’t want to talk about issues either.”

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told Washington Post editors Tuesday that issues have an impact but not conclusive among undecided voters.

“This election is not about issues,” Davis said. “This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.”

Davis added that issues will no doubt play a major role in the decisions undecided voters will make but that they won't ultimately be conclusive.

The Obama campaign challenged the remarks Tuesday, and Obama added criticism of Davis’s remarks in his stump speech Wednesday, as part of an extended riff aimed at painting McCain as out of touch.

[writes3000]

1. Smart move, Obama. Put it in an AD! nt

[ErinBerin84]

2. I agree.

Nice addition to a stump speech and everything, but he is probably preaching to the converted. That comment got no media attention yesterday, and it further shows the McCain campaign's "Obama is all personality! He is a celebrity!" ads to look stupid. Put it in an ad!

[Median Democrat]

3. Fantastic!