Obama gives me a reason to vote for McCain
Here’s the latest Obama ad for Michigan: I have no doubt this will play in Michigan — but the ad has a different effect on your humble blogger: The ad implies that Obama’s willing to give out loan guarantees to Detroit. Question to Obama’s economic team — are there any industries you are not going to offer ...
Here's the latest Obama ad for Michigan: I have no doubt this will play in Michigan -- but the ad has a different effect on your humble blogger: The ad implies that Obama's willing to give out loan guarantees to Detroit. Question to Obama's economic team -- are there any industries you are not going to offer a federal handout? And no, oil doesn't count. My Democrat friends keep insisting that Obama doesn't mean any of his protectionist rhetoric. But how many ads about "shipping jobs overseas" does it take for one to wonder about Obama's foreign economic policy? This ad actually brings up one of the few actual "straight talk" moments for McCain in this campaign -- when he told Michigan auto workers that he wasn't going to be able to bring their jobs back. One of the side benefits of the widening number of swing states is that the rust belt starts to matter less. Which means that maybe in another election cycle or two protectionist pandering like this becomes less necessary [You're dreaming, you know that, right?--ed. Oh, let me have this fantasy.] I'm not necessarily going to vote for McCain -- but ads like this sure don't give me warm fuzzies about Obama.
Here’s the latest Obama ad for Michigan:
I have no doubt this will play in Michigan — but the ad has a different effect on your humble blogger:
- The ad implies that Obama’s willing to give out loan guarantees to Detroit. Question to Obama’s economic team — are there any industries you are not going to offer a federal handout? And no, oil doesn’t count.
- My Democrat friends keep insisting that Obama doesn’t mean any of his protectionist rhetoric. But how many ads about “shipping jobs overseas” does it take for one to wonder about Obama’s foreign economic policy?
- This ad actually brings up one of the few actual “straight talk” moments for McCain in this campaign — when he told Michigan auto workers that he wasn’t going to be able to bring their jobs back.
- One of the side benefits of the widening number of swing states is that the rust belt starts to matter less. Which means that maybe in another election cycle or two protectionist pandering like this becomes less necessary [You’re dreaming, you know that, right?–ed. Oh, let me have this fantasy.]
I’m not necessarily going to vote for McCain — but ads like this sure don’t give me warm fuzzies about Obama.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. He blogged regularly for Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2014. Twitter: @dandrezner
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