Monday, July 28, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Obama Thinks He Told the Germans To Do More in Iraq

Obama had one of his strongest performances I've seen on Meet the Press this weekend, really impressive since he was at the last stop of what must have been an exhausting whirlwind tour. (While Tom Brokaw is probably the best choice NBC News could have made on short notice, I miss Tim Russert. And I think that I'll be saying that for a long time.)

But there were a few points to quibble on.

One, when discussing the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout, Obama seemed to acknowledge the flaws in the bill, but didn't give much sign of opposition. And then he said:

But keep in mind that many of these folks were not so much speculators as they were probably in over their heads. They tried to get more house than they could afford because they were told by these mortgage brokers that they could afford it.

Don't you hate it when those mortgage brokers make you buy more house than you can afford?

I wasn't thrilled that twice, when confronted with criticism, Obama's first response was essentially, "well, a lot of other people like me." Better to just address the criticism head-on, I think. First, Brokaw asked Obama whether he was surprised about poll numbers showing McCain ahead of Obama by a factor of more than 2-to-1 on "knowledge and experience" and "would he be a good commander-in-chief."

SEN. OBAMA: No, because, let's say we had reversed—or rephrased the question. Let's say the question had been, "Who's more likely to bring about change in the country?" I suspect I would beat Senator McCain handily. Or another way we could have phrased it was, "Who's more likely to maintain the status quo?" Well, John McCain would have won that poll handily.

The second time, when asked about David Brooks' criticism of the Berlin speech:

"Let me say first of all, there were a bunch of really good reviews that you didn't, you didn't put up on the screen. I'd, I'd say there were about nine good reviews for every, every bad one."

He might as well say, "Tom, you're asking the wrong questions and reading the wrong quotes."

In responding to the criticism from the Brooks column, Obama seemed to make his Berlin speech sound a little tougher on the Germans than it was.

"When I talked about the fact that they need to do more in Iraq despite our past differences, that wasn't an applause line in Germany."

Really? Here is the sum total of what he said on Iraq:

"And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close."

To Obama that's a call to the Germans to do more. I wonder how many Germans interpreted that as a call to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.

Finally, Obama offered perhaps the lamest dodge yet on why he won't do joint town-hall meetings with McCain:

SEN. OBAMA: Well, here's the thing, I mean, listen, I, I, I think—I can say a little something about debates since I had 22 of them in, in the Democratic primary. I don't know how many John had. At a certain point, they become, I think, less of a serious exchange of ideas and rather they have—they become competing talking points or, or press releases. I, I think it's important for us to have some hard-hitting debates. I think it's also important for us to spend time talking to the voters directly, and that's what I intend to do.

Hey, you know what's good for talking to the voters directly? Joint town-hall meetings.

07/28 09:56 AMShare