obama's town hall today made very little mention of clinton but at hillary's rally, she spent an awful lot of time talking about obama. making accusations, comparing him to the republicans. she went all out in her last desperate moments.
since the media is likely to highlight the back and forths and not the substance, here's a bit of what obama had to say during the q&a session at his town hall today in reading. it was one of the better ones.
on welfare, he said reforms were needed. but after reforms, people weren't given the tools they were needed to move out of poverty, most notably childcare expense was a big problem.
he answered smartly on venezuela's jugo chavez, saying he's exporting anti-american views because he can. we need his oil and we give his country money power over us because of that need. looking at the bigger picture, obama says what we spend in iraq -- $400 million a day -- is out of proportion with what we spend in the whole of south america. he also wants to recruit younger people for the peace corp to represent america in other countries so that we have a presence. chavez is helping the poor in his country and can get away with saying bad things about america because no one is there to deny it and those being helped by chavez are more inclined to believe what he tells them. obama also said he's willing to meet with chavez. the idea of "punishing" a nation by not meeting with them doesn't help.
on carter meeting with hamas: he says it is a bad idea. hamas isn't a state, he said. earlier this week, john mccain was pushing the idea that hamas wants obama for president, another childish tactic, one of many dark, dark attacks to come.
meanwhile, mccain is attempting to sear into our minds that al quaeda did it. and like the extremists on the right, mccain has moved on to the weatherman, trying to stir up, once again, guilt by association.
the obama camp was quick to counter:
cnn: “I'm sure he's very patriotic. But his relationship with Mr. Ayers is open to question,” said McCain.
“He became friends with him and spent time with him while the guy was unrepentant over his activities as a member of a terrorist organization, the Weathermen,” said the Arizona senator.
“Does he condemn them? Would he condemn someone who that says they're unrepentant and wished that they had bombed more?”
The Obama campaign responded a short time later. “Unable to sell his out-of-touch ideas on the economy and Iraq, John McCain has stooped to the same smear politics and low road that he denounced in 2000," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "The American people can’t afford a third term of President Bush’s failed policies and divisive tactics.”
