OpEdNews » A Little "PR" Advice For Senator Obama

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Tag(s): Bucks; College; Health; Iraq; Obama-Barack; Oil; Orleans; Pentagon; Rendition; Republican; (more...) Rights; Torture (less...)
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March 7, 2008 at 23:04:57

A Little "PR" Advice For Senator Obama

by Sherwood Ross Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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If Senator Obama spends his time between now and the Pennsylvania primary April 22 attacking Senator Clinton he will have focused on the wrong target. Public Enemy No. 1 in America today is George Bush, not Hillary Clinton. When there’s a Mafioso in the White House you don’t spend your time attacking a legislator he’s got in his pocket that voted his way. You go after the capo de regime.

There’s enough material on Bush’s crimes for Obama to come up with a new “J’Accuse” white paper every day---unless, of course, he prefers to go on quibbling with Hillary over health care plans. Health care, after all, is perceived as Hillary’s strong suit and the one radio spot she ran in Wyoming focused on it.

Obama, of course, is right not to respond in kind to Hillary’s smears. As Bob Herbert pointed out in the March 8, New York Times, when asked if she believed Obama was a Muslim, Ms. Clinton replied, “there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know.” Got that? So maybe Obama is a Muslim after all, Hillary hints.

“While still calibrating how to challenge Mrs. Clinton, advisers to Mr. Obama seemed to settle on an approach by seizing on her delay in releasing her income tax returns and the slow pace at which papers from the Clinton White House are being made public,” The Times reported March 8th. Well, aren’t those exciting issues? Snore!

How much better off Obama would be to turn the media spotlight on a detested president! He’s got a fantastic educational opportunity if he exploits it. For example, he might issue a new white paper on Bush wrongdoing each day for the rest of the campaign. Here are a few suggested press conference topics Obama might consider the first week:

Monday: Present a detailed white paper about the scores of horrific violations of the U.S. Constitution of which Bush is guilty. Why should judges be strict constructionists while the president is allowed to run amok?

Tuesday: Disclose the financial ties to the oil majors of top Republican politicos such as Condoleezza Rice. Explain how they cashed in and later urged a war that has doubled the price of a gallon of gas from $1.60 to $3.20.

Wednesday: expose the illegalities of extraordinary rendition, the dragnet arrests across the Middle East, and how thousands are being held without due process.

Thursday: lay out a blueprint for national educational uplift, from Head Start to Pell grants, from job training and retraining to community college expansion, to vocational training and a national living wage.

Friday: Call for indictments of those responsible for the torture scandal that has shocked the conscience of the world. Scores of high Bush officials are culpable. Start with Bush and Vice President Cheney and name ‘em all.

Saturday: present the true cost of the war, as a trillion bucks is just a preliminary estimate. And who needs $1.5-trillion in Pentagon research outlays for Death Star-type attack platforms, biological warfare and atomic weapons? Clearly, the runaway military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned of needs to be stopped.

Sunday: Call for an “American Marshall Plan” to overcome years of neglect. Offer plans to rebuild our neglected infrastructure, inner cities and, particularly, New Orleans. Continue this informational process, day in, day out, a new topic daily.

And how about an appeal to the idealism of the American people? Acknowledging our own suffering is slight compared to Iraqis’ ordeal, a truly compassionate candidate could say, “Our first obligation is to restore Iraq. President Bush, you can’t lay waste to a country and walk away.” Iraq’s need is URGENT.

Recall Bush promised to make Iraq‘s infrastructure “the best in the region.” That, of course, is the kind of shabby lie Americans have come to expect of him. One authority described his actual record as “one of the greatest colonial rip offs in history.” So let’s hear Obama articulate a true rehab plan now.

And since he’s supported the war from day one, may we hear Senator McCain’s plan for rebuilding Iraq’s war-shattered housing, roads, electric plants, water-works’, oil pipelines, schools, stores, hospitals, public buildings, ad infinitum?

Obama needs to remind Senators Clinton and McCain of the adage: “You broke it; you own it.” Overall, though, attacking Bush and ignoring Clinton may be Obama’s best strategy. #

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5 comments

Bio not available at this time
BernardBio not available at this time

I might disagree

Bush has been a magnet for opposing opinions. Bush is not running for re-election. The Republicans remain untarnished. McCain can run as the "new beginning". Running against Bush is a waste of time. IMO.

I perceive three issues. Fear. The Ohio vote was a vote of fear about the economy that directly affects their lives. Stay the course. The Texas vote was keep buiness as usual. War time President. A number of people want a "Patriot", a President that would not hesitate to cluster bomb civilians to kill a suspected terrorist. A person that makes the hard decisions we don't need to make. A person that would start a nuclear war.

by Bernard (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 56 comments) on Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 6:30:15 PM

Born in Philadelphia, grew up on a farm, which my parents lost in the Great Depression. I suppose my political inclination began when I watched Dad ride our horse across snow-covered fields to vote for FDR. Married, three great sons, divorced. Still learning.
L.M. ArndtBorn in Philadelphia, grew up on a farm, which my parents lost in the Great Depression. I suppose my political inclination began when I watched Dad ride our horse across snow-covered fields to vote for FDR. Married, three great sons, divorced. Still learning.

Yes bush broke it BUT. . .

This sounds an awful lot like staying in Iraq until the cows come home! WE – the U.S. – can't fix Iraq! What we COULD do, speaking of Marshall Plans, is work through the U.N. to contribute to a rebuilding plan, but WE MUST END OUR OCCUPATION AND BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!

by L.M. Arndt (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 42 comments) on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 5:52:22 PM

Sherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

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Sherwood RossSherwood Ross has worked as a publicist for Chicago; as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and workplace columnist for Reuters. He has also been a media consultant to colleges, law schools, labor unions, and to the editors of more than 100 national magazines. A civil rights activist, he was News Director for the National Urban League, a talk show host at WOL Radio, Washington, D.C., and holds an award for "best spot news coverage" for Chicago radio stations for civil rights reporting. He is t...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Reply to reader

Thanks for the above observations. However, nothing in this article was intended to imply the U.S. should continue its military presence in Iraq for one moment. The U.S. needs to be out NOW, today, this minute. And there is no reason for delay. However, as the architect of the war it is responsible for the restoration of that country. --- Sherwood Ross

by Sherwood Ross (167 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 97 comments) on Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 10:31:45 PM

Volunteer peace activist, seeking to restore the Constitution and International Law, not the "might makes right" ethos of this misbegotten administration. We just did a survey of the major parties' presidential candidates on issues of war and law, see the full q&a on our website: warandlaw.org. Although only 3 of 18 responded, these crucial questions should be asked again and again. Without a review of the legality of the presidential war power, our nation will slip further into tyranny with n...

to see more of bio, click on member name
ladyguruVolunteer peace activist, seeking to restore the Constitution and International Law, not the "might makes right" ethos of this misbegotten administration. We just did a survey of the major parties' presidential candidates on issues of war and law, see the full q&a on our website: warandlaw.org. Although only 3 of 18 responded, these crucial questions should be asked again and again. Without a review of the legality of the presidential war power, our nation will slip further into tyranny with n...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Mr. "O" needs more than a little "PR" advice

Obama is riding the crest of a unique phenomenon; his candidacy is, for reasons larger than his personal or political agenda, resonating with disillusioned and newly awakened voters, who perceive hope here and nowhere else. But the perception far outstrips the person, whom I see as a guarded, status-quo candidate, whose penchant for change scrupulously avoids discussion of particulars. He courts the middle class, he glosses over valid issues of racial disparity, he toes a narrow national security agenda, and even when he claims to be anti-war, he frequently calls for increased economic sanctions and "aggressive diplomacy"(against perceived enemies), and support of violent acts by client nations, in tones that would sound like a Republican rant if not couched in the generalized oratory of "hope" and "change". A better educated electorate would see through the mirage, would challenge his stance on free trade for instance, or foreign policy, would analyze his take on core economic issues, but the dubious pressure of "identity politics" may be what is left to take up the slack.

Now the word is that another "tit-for-tat" will demand that heads roll for the (Ferraro's) remark by Clinton's campaign that much of Obama's mileage comes from color. Doesn't it?

I wholeheartedly agree that it would be best for the Obama campaign to rise above the divisive competition for Democratic delegates, especially in thay he has already differentiated his Iraq war stance from Bush/ McCain/ Clinton. But scratch the surface, and the difference is in the veneer, the performance doesn't bear up. Rather than a little "PR". which is there already to overflowing, some actual substance is called for: some divestment from sub-prime sponsors and nuclear energy pimps in the campaign, some solid criticism of the shady arms deals and other inequitable maneuvers that characterize U.S. international relations, and a domestic "Marshall Plan" for reconstructing our own nation in the wake of Bush's war against the planet as well as the Constitution, would inspire me to believe in the Obama dream.

by ladyguru (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 29 comments) on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 6:36:32 PM

Response to your letter.

Thanks for your cogent comments. A domestic Marshall Plan was propounded in 1962 by Whitney M. Young Jr. of the National Urban League. That was nearly half a century ago. --- Sherwood Ross

by Sherwood Ross (167 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 97 comments) on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 8:10:20 PM