Obama’s “His Administration” Ad Only Partially True

September 16th, 2008 By: Michael Merritt | Tags:
Leave a comment | Trackback

If you believe the latest by Democratic nominee Barack Obama, a big Washington lobbyist is leading the McCain transition team.  They’re the people who will work with the Bush administration to plan the handover of power should McCain win.  Here’s Obama’s take on Timmons:

YouTube Preview Image

Obama’s camp seems to suggest that Timmons is leading up the whole effort.  Not so fast, says Time Magazine.  Well, they don’t actually say “not so fast,” but they provide details Obama leaves out.  Such as this tidbit (emphasis mine):

A prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every Republican President since Richard Nixon has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition should John McCain win the election, according to sources familiar with the process.

Conducting a study, huh?  Seems far from leading the transition team.  But don’t take my word for it, take Time’s (emph. mine):

 Timmons, who is not leading the effort, is working on the McCain transition-planning with former Navy Secretary John Lehman Jr., a friend and traveling companion of McCain’s who runs an investment bank and recently served on the national commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

So is a lobbyist working for McCain’s transition team?  Yes.  Is he planning an administration?  He might have a part, but who knows for sure?  Is he leading the team, as insinuated?  Doesn’t seem to be the case.  Note that Obama’s camp never actually says “leading the team.”  But the meaning behind the ad is clear.  That’s been one of their shticks with McCain for months: that McCain has a whole bunch of lobbyists heading his campaign.

On a side note, if you haven’t noticed, I’m beginning to have a fascination with finding out the truth behind political ads.  As both campaigns gear up to get down and dirty in the next seven weeks, a good fact checking will be needed to clear up the distortions and lies. Expect more of this kind of post.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • SphereIt
  • NewsVine
  • TailRank
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  1. Karen
    October 8th, 2008 at 23:20
    Reply | Quote | #1

    Thanks for making it clear!  You cut right through it! 

PoliGazette Comments Policy

PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree. Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors. Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.

(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should not be posted.

(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.

(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.

(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.

(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements. Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.

Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors by email only.


Warning: is_writable() [function.is-writable]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(error_log) is not within the allowed path(s): (/home/p6525pol:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/tmp) in /home/p6525pol/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 500