Obama to McCain: ‘Economic Disaster Is Happening Right Now’ « The Washington Independent
Jul 31, 2020283.4K Shares3.8M Views
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.–There are lines that resonate. They stay in your gut long after they’re said and are recalled as pivotal moments during the course of a campaign. Standing in a sweltering gymnasium during a town hall here today–whose crowd included my big sister Suguna and her daughters, Maya and Samsara–the presumptive Democratic nominee might have delivered such a line, such a blow.
After recalling the sentiments about the economy expressed by his republican rival, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama struck back with great precision, saying "Mr. McCain, let me explain to you, the economic disaster is happening right now."
Such a statement couldn’t have come at a better time. While on vacation last week, Obama ceded the news cycle to McCain, allowing him to show off his presidential chops as he spoke of the Georgia-Russia crisis daily, making sure to tell each crowd he addressed that he was on the phone with his good friend with whom he jet-skied with on the Black Sea, the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, daily. It was McCain as the statesman, the experienced foreign policy expert, the safe choice for a world in peril.
Now Obama is back. And while Russia continues to plunge the free world into an existential crisis, the junior senator form Illinois has redirected the course of the conversation back to the immediate concerns of most Americans. It’s been 18 years since Bill Clinton used the economy to defeat a president who’d won a war abroad only to find an economy in recession at home. Now he’s truly starting to use the Clinton playbook in earnest. And while things on the surface remain frosty at best between Obama and the 42nd president, it’s clear that Obama is ready to fully embrace the Clinton playbook. Barack Obama is ready to feel your pain.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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