Obama-Foster Ad
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Call It A Comeback
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It’s clear Jim Oberweis isn’t smart enough to argue his way out of a paper bag, so let’s look at the most recent Trib editorial on the fumbling campaign run by the man who cannot win:
Total fiction. All of it. These people don’t exist. They were created by Oberweis’ campaign, which bought stock photos to use in the ad.
They’re nice-looking folks, although they’re sporting awfully big smiles given that they could be slapped with Foster’s huge tax increases.
Oh, wait, these families don’t exist. They’re fake.
The flier cops to this trickery in itty bitty print at the bottom. “The four examples above are fictional, and any similarity between these characters and any real people is pure coincidence,” it reads.
Pure coincidence? Makes us think any similarity between the Oberweis campaign and the truth is pure coincidence.
He’s done this kind of thing before. In 2006, he ran a TV ad that used fake headlines from several newspapers to trash his Republican opponent for governor, Judy Baar Topinka. The ad had the Tribune masthead above a headline that said: “Investigation into Topinka.” The Tribune didn’t run that headline or those words.
This page endorsed Bill Foster earlier this week. One reason for that decision: Oberweis has shown in four campaigns that he plays fast and loose with the truth.
By the way, using Oberweis’ calculations, the Wadsworths must be paying $34,250 in taxes on their $73,000 income. And that’s before the $8,905 increase.
They really need a new tax accountant.
Oh, that’s right. They’re not real.
This page is closer to Oberweis than Foster on several economic and foreign policy issues. But we watched Oberweis in his races for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, and for governor in 2006. We’ve watched this race for Congress. His campaign style has consistently been nasty, smug, condescending … and dishonest.
In 2004, he ran an ad in which he hovered over Soldier Field in a helicopter and said 10,000 illegal aliens come to the U.S. each day, “enough to fill Soldier Field every single week.” The number was grossly inflated and the ad smacked of fear-mongering.
In 2006, he ran TV ads that used headlines from the Tribune and other newspapers to attack an opponent. But the headlines were fake. They hadn’t appeared in the newspapers.
This year, Oberweis’ campaign is based on the notion that his opponent is a big-spending liberal. Oberweis’ TV and radio ads quote Foster saying, “There’s nothing in life that you can’t improve by pouring money at it. …”
Foster did say that, at a League of Women Voters debate. But the transcript makes it clear he was talking about the federal government’s “poor efforts” to improve air-traffic-control safety. His conclusion: “This is one example of a place I would look to save taxpayer dollars.”
And Oberweis’ immediate response at the debate? He said: “I find myself in the almost embarrassing position of tending to agree with Bill on some of his comments there.”
The sum impression of Oberweis from four campaigns: He sees public office as an opportunity to pick a fight.
What we hear over and over from Republicans and Democrats in our communities is that people are tired of the bickering and divisiveness in government, whether in Springfield or Washington. Oberweis’ relentless attacks on state Sen. Chris Lauzen in the Republican primary election hint that he is not the right candidate to end government gridlock.
Foster isn’t as “extreme” as his opponent has branded him. On Oberweis’ signature issue of illegal immigration, the two men actually agree on much — both support better border security, a worker-visa program and workplace enforcement that includes some form of a national ID card. Foster, however, takes a more realistic and compassionate approach to dealing with the millions of undocumented workers already here.
Make no mistake, immigration reform is a Fox Valley issue as much as a national one. Foster supports a path to citizenship and points out that if absolute workplace enforcement were to be put in place today, some local businesses would be shut down. Oberweis has taken a harder line, saying stronger employer sanctions will lead to 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants going home. That’s wishful thinking at best.
There’s a price for pissing off your base.
Hysterical
Actually it looks like a hard drive problem. Back tomorrow.
Peter Daou tells an interesting story for the press on the $35 million raised ($30 million online). Peter’s a smart guy and probably could have done an even better job if they had let him do this earlier.
The campaign’s Internet chief, Peter Daou, said online donors had included “students who skipped meals, grandmothers who had never used a credit card on the internet.”
Terry McCauliffe blows the story though
“There are $35 million worth of people who have skipped dinners, who have not taken medications, who have written us emails that Peter will talk about so that they can be part of this campaign, they’re there to fight for Hillary Clinton, and I can tell you this, Hillary is going to fight for them…”
Not taking medication? For Mark Penn to get $8 million and $1200 on Dunkin Donuts in a month. Fantastic! I mean, Mark Penn clearly is in need here.
Apparently celebrating the passing of Wirtz has brought me Sam Zell.
I have no idea why the state should buy Wrigley. I thought it was a joke when I first heard it and while I doubt it passes, I’m shocked the idea has gotten as far as it has.
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I had the obvious response of that’s great, she’ll answer the phone, but she might respond to the wrong country since she voted to invade Iraq after terrorists from Afghanistan attacked us. However, the Obama campaign was ahead of that:
“We don’t think the ad is going to be effective at all. Senator Clinton already had her red phone moment — to decide whether to allow George Bush to invade Iraq. She answered affirmatively. She did not read the National Intelligence Estimate. She still, curiously, tries to suggest that it wasn’t a vote for war, but it most assuredly was…”This is about what you say when you answer that phone. What judgment you show…She, John McCain and George Bush gave the wrong answer.”
Bus meet ditch.
Making Bill Pascoe’s faux outrage even worse, Oberweis talked about wanting to privatize social security during the Trib forum.
“In return for being able to direct one quarter of the total payments into the special account, the individual would be giving up…the first, approximately six years of social security payments. It would move him from, say, 66 retirement to age 72 retirement.”
How does Pascoe refer to this privatization plan:
“To begin: the Foster ad falsely claims that Jim ’supported Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security, gambling your retirement in the stock market.’ Bill Foster knows this isn’t true, because he sat next to Jim Oberweis yesterday in the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board endorsement session and heard Jim talk about his plan to strengthen Social Security, to make sure it’s still there 30 years from now.
Err…Oberweis has what is called a privatization plan–as CATO originally called it and, not only that, he wants to raise the age of retirement to 72!