Obama Ads Cite Tax, War and Health Plans
TITLE: President
LENGTH: 30 seconds
AIRING: Nevada
KEY IMAGES: Obama's Iowa victory speech is interspersed with images of him speaking and listening to potential voters, shaking hands along a rope line, walking toward a flag. Toward the end, a woman with a small flag embraces a soldier. The ad also includes references to news accounts: "Obama offers universal health care plan." "Obama calls for middle class tax relief." "Obama opposed Iraq war from the start." The ad reminds voters to caucus at 11 a.m. Saturday.
SCRIPT: "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message.
From speech: "I'll be a president who finally makes health care affordable to every single American by bringing Democrats and Republicans together. I'll be a president who ends the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans. And I'll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally bring our troops home. We are one nation and out time for change has come."
ANALYSIS: The clip from the speech touches on four Obama themes: unity and bipartisanship, expanding health care, helping the middle class and ending the war in Iraq. Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards are in a close contest for Saturday's Nevada caucuses. The ad is one of two that Obama began airing in Nevada. It is part of a weeklong ad expenditure of more than $550,000 in the state.
Health Care: Obama has proposed making health care more affordable. His package would prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage because of pre-existing conditions. It would also create a National Health Insurance Exchange to monitor insurance companies and limit their profits. Obama has said the typical consumer would save $2,500 a year on premiums.
In choosing a headline that states "Obama offers universal health care plan," Obama enters into disputed territory. The ad attributes the headline to a May 29, 2007, Associated Press account. That news story did not represent Obama's plan as universal health care. The article stated: "Obama's first promise as a presidential candidate was that he would sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of his firm term in the White House. But there is some dispute over whether his plan would provide universal care — it's aimed at lowering costs so all Americans can afford insurance, but does not guarantee everyone would buy it."
Taxes: Obama would raise income taxes on wealthiest and their capital gains and dividends taxes. He would also raise corporate taxes and provide $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and elderly, including tripling Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credit for larger families.
Iraq: Obama did speak out against the war in 2002, before he was in the U.S. Senate, and has been a critic of President bush's policies in Iraq. But asked by the New York Times in 2004 how he would have voted on the use of force resolution, Obama demurred, noting he had not seen intelligence reports that fellow Democrats had seen. "What would I have done? I don't know," he replied. In 2006, he backed a nonbinding resolution to pull troops out of Iraq, but sided with Republicans and a majority of Democrats in rejecting legislation that would have required the troops to come home by a specific date.
The ad correctly attributes the statement "Obama opposed Iraq war from the start," to an Oct. 2, 2007, Associated Press analysis. But the very next paragraph in the analysis stated: "Nobody should accept at face value the Illinois senator's claim that he was a 'courageous leader' who opposed the war at great political risk.
TITLE: "Would"
LENGTH: 30 seconds
AIRING: Nevada
KEY IMAGES: The ad begins with close-up, black and white photographs of Obama speaking. One photograph portrays him alone on the White House lawn, another in Congress. Then the switches to color photos — Obama in a crowd, Obama grabbing the hands of supporters on the campaign trail.
SCRIPT: Narrator: "Five years ago he said what the others would not, opposing a rash and reckless war in Iraq, warning that it would not make us safer. In Washington he did what the others could not, taking dead aim at the power of lobbyists, passing the farthest reaching ethics reforms in a generation. As president, he will do what the others cannot, unite a divided nation, repair our standing in the world and bring change we can believe in."
ANALYSIS: The ad's narrative and its image — with its black and white photos of a solitary figure — initially portray Obama as a lone force tilting against political forces. Then it changes as the narrator speaks of Obama's vision of unity and change.
Obama did speak out against the war in 2002 at an anti-war rally before he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He joined forces with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to write new ethics rules that ban gifts, meals and trips from lobbyists and lobbying organizations for members of Congress. It also prevents members of Congress from flying on corporate jets at cut rate prices.
The ad attempts to counter criticism, particularly from Hillary Rodham Clinton, that Obama has rhetorical grace but no leadership experience to back it up.
He did speak out against the war in Iraq, and in 2006 he backed a nonbinding resolution to pull troops out of Iraq. But he voted with Republicans and a majority of Democrats against legislation that would have required the troops to come home by a specific date. Former President Bill Clinton has said Obama's claims to being a steady, unflinching voice against the war is a "fairy tale."
The ad's assertion that as president he would unite the nation and bring change that "the others cannot," is self promotion that relies on polling data that has shown Clinton to be a more divisive figure.
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Analysis by Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn
TITLE: "Hope"
LENGTH: 60 seconds
AIRING: Nevada
KEY IMAGES: Obama's Iowa victory speech is interspersed with images of Hispanics, including a smiling family of four, and cheering, sign-waving crowds. His remarks are translated into Spanish text.
SCRIPT: Narrator (in Spanish): "We're millions. Ordinary people, cooks, construction workers, professionals, heads of houses, who together can believe with Barack Obama that we can indeed do extraordinary things." The ad ends with Obama saying in Spanish, "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message."
ANALYSIS: The clip from the speech and the narrator's comments focus on Obama's theme of hope, unity and overcoming long odds to achieve goals. The ad is one of two Spanish-speaking spots that Obama is airing in an effort to reach Hispanics, who account for about a quarter of Nevada's population. The ads coincide with Hillary Clinton's first Spanish-language ads in Nevada.
TITLE: "Something Is Happening"
LENGTH: 30 seconds
AIRING: Nevada
KEY IMAGES: The ad shows cheering, sign-waving Obama supporters, then switches to footage of Obama and his wife and daughters walking through a crowd of suporters, followed by footage of Obama at a podium joining the crowd in chanting "Yes, we can." The Spanish subtitle, "Si, se puede," is displayed.
SCRIPT: Narrator: "Something huge is happening across America. A surging tide for change. ... It is time to have affordable and available health care for all, to stop making college education a privilege of a few and the outsourcing of jobs overseas. Now it's up to you. It's time to make history."
It ends with Obama saying in Spanish that he approves the message.
ANALYSIS: The ad's narrative and its images portray Obama as a force for change and a voice for the disadvantaged who are denied the opportunities of the privileged, such as college, or can't get a job because jobs are outsourced. No statistics are provided to back up the statements.
Analysis by Associated Press Writer Brendan Riley