OBAMA BACKERS BLAST AFSCME FLIER

[babylonsister]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/21/530523.aspx

OBAMA BACKERS BLAST AFSCME FLIER

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan and Carrie Dann

The controversy continues over those anti-Obama mailers paid for by Hillary-backing union AFSCME. As reported by NBC/NJ on Wednesday, the direct mail piece going out in Iowa slams Obama's health-care plan as "yet another Band-Aid solution" that leaves "15 million Americans uninsured." That's the argument made by the Clinton campaign, which has criticized Obama's plan for its lack of a universal mandate requiring coverage for all Americans.

But in a conference call sponsored by the Obama campaign, two AFSCME members -- Henry Beyer, the executive director of Illinois' AFSCME chapter, and Carter Woodruff, a former state treasurer of AFSCME in Iowa -- criticized the mailer on the grounds that AFSCME has had a long-held position against mandates for healthcare.

Beyer said he was "dismayed" to see the direct mail piece. "We've always opposed individual mandates. We were very concerned about the Massachusetts plan," he said referencing the health-care plan passed under Gov. Romney in Massachusetts, which required state residents to purchase health insurance.

Woodruff had harsh words for his international union, calling the mailer a "desperate attempt to attack" Obama and "hypocritical" considering the union's previous stances on mandates. He attributed the attack on Obama's gain in the polls. "Senator Obama has gained with Senator Clinton here in Iowa, and in some polls he was in the lead. Currently they are still neck and neck, and I think they are scared."

The AFSCME flier also caused controversy earlier this week because it quotes Edwards -- not Clinton -- as a critic of Obama's policy. The Edwards campaign yesterday responded by decrying the reference as a misleading attempt by AFSCME and the Clinton campaign to disguise the source of the negative attack.

AFSCME's backing is a key element of Clinton's ground game in Iowa, with its launch of massive independent expenditure efforts and its mobilization of volunteers in the state.

[David Dunham]

1. Obama's gone after Hillary. Payback can be a b-itch, Barackies!!!

[K Gardner]

2. Good grief.. HRC can't even get an underhanded backswipe attack right?

Pretty bad when you get it wrong on ALL sides and have the union coming out to blast the Rovian tactics of a candidate some of them support ! It gets SO confusinggggggggggggg.............

[rinsd]

3. "We've always opposed individual mandates"

Except when Obama has them.

[K Gardner]

4. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Obama's plan has no mandates.

[killbotfactory]

8. I believe children are required to be covered under his plan

but other than that, no further mandates. The reason why is that children are much cheaper to insure, and there are many programs that can be expanded to cover all children who need it. When it comes to adult coverage, if healthcare is too expensive, and the coverage so poor (or in my case nearly worthless) requiring people to buy into the system won't help anything, it will just force the working poor to buy into shitty expensive rip-off healthcare plans, unless strong reforms are put in place beforehand. If strong reforms are put in place that made quality healthcare affordable, mandates would be somewhat redundant.

If single-payer was a realistic option, none of this would matter.

[rinsd]

11. Children are mandated under Obama's health plan.

[K Gardner]

12. God forbid ! Throw those damned children under the bus !!

[rinsd]

13. A mandate is a mandate.

[indimuse]

5. Obama has been quietly running a dirty and hypocritical campaign for months

"She's just held to a different standard in every respect," says Mark Halperin, Time's editor at large. "The press rooted for Obama to go negative, and when he did he was applauded. When she does it, it's treated as this huge violation of propriety." While Clinton's mistakes deserve full coverage, Halperin says, "the press's flaws -- wild swings, accentuating the negative -- are magnified 50 times when it comes to her. It's not a level playing field."
So when Obama attacked Hillary with the "Lite" label even though he's been more pro-GOP and pro-Bush/Cheney appointee in senate voting (and in his criticizing of
resistant Democrats), the Clinton campaign should have seen it as just, you know, constructive criticism?

And all the way back last June when the Obama campaign developed an oppo document referring to Hillary Clinton as (D-Punjab), it was really just an innocent policy

distinction? Ah, I see, that wasn't racist, xenophobic, or tasteless - after all, he's so handsome, and he's half-black, he lived in Indonesia, he would never...
IF YOU think Obama has run a positive campaign. Hillary maintained the high road for -months- before finally answering some of the mud.
Clinton's senior advisers have grown convinced that the media deck is stacked against them, that their candidate is drawing far harsher scrutiny than Barack Obama.

And at least some journalists agree.
See for example http://attacktimeline.com/


http://attacktimeline.com/

http://attacktimeline.com/

[Lurking Dem]

6. A Clinton campaign site as reference?

[babylonsister]

10. Ah, I see Clinton's new attack website is up and running, and you found it!

Bravo for you. :eyes:

[Bitwit1234]

7. Sure he isn't very Union friendly, but that's cause the Union didn't endorse him

And that a bunch of crap, if it wasn't for the Unions we wouldn't have had a middle class. So Obama the cry baby chew on that.

[cali]

9. He's very union friendly. You're simply parroting a lie. n/t

[ClarkUSA]

14. Um, Obama worked with AFSME for 20 years - since he was a South Side community organizer

That's why the IL branch of AFSME decided to endorse him -- because they know of his long history of supporting union causes
way before he entered politics. Your unfamiliarity with the facts seems to be a chronic problem.

[K Gardner]

15. Kick