Here's what "Santa Barack Obama" was up to over Christmas, according to this new ad by Democratic Courage, the political action committee I run.
It's running on television in Iowa during the holiday season (you can help keep it running by contributing here).
We decided to run this ad because we're concerned that Obama isn't the "progressive, courageous, and winning" Democrat we're looking for. Although candidates like John Edwards have offered sharp contrasts with Obama's accomodationist style, no one has really tackled Obama's accomodationist record, which provides the convincing evidence that could really persuade voters.
Why not? I think it's largely because Obama made the wise move early in the campaign of claiming that digging through people's voting records was somehow dirty politics. Instead, the Clinton campaign has resorted to ACTUAL dirty politics like raising questions about Obama's teenage drug use and insinuating that he is a Muslim, based solely on his name and heritage, while attempting to obscure the fact that he is in fact a Christian.
Anyway, while the Clinton campaign is wasting its time with these kind of amateurish assays that might work in the general election but really just turn off voters in the primaries, we decided to focus some light on criticisms that do make a difference to Democratic voters: what Obama has done when he's faced tough choices in office. Too often, the answer has been that's he's given in to pressure from the Bush administration or corporate lobbyists.
I wish one of his opponents would repeat these votes one after another in a speech:
Obama voted for President Bush's energy bill, sending more than $13 billion in subsidies and tax breaks to oil, coal, and nuclear companies. Obama voted with Republicans to allow credit card companies to raise interest rates over 30 percent, increasing hardship for families on the brink. Obama voted for one of President Bush's top priorities - expanding Nafta to South America - even as President Bush obstructed all the top Democratic priorities. Obama voted with Bush to make it harder for ordinary people to hold big corporations accountable when they do things like sell toxic toys, poisonous pet food, or just plain rip you off. Obama was the Senate's biggest Democratic advocate of subsidies for liquid coal, even though liquid coal produces twice the global warming pollution of the crude oil it's meant to replace (Obama "backed off" this position after being pummeled by environmentalists for several months, but still, along with Clinton, voted for increased subsidies, albeit with conditions).
Most of all, I think the thing progressives need to be most worried about is how Obama tells progressives to "trim their sails" - or cut back on their ambitions, for the sake of political harmony. If Obama were to win, I can just imagine hearing that phrase over and over again as Obama tried to recycle another Democratic campaign that attempted to paint himself as a mushy centrist, rather than a proud progressive.
You can find out more about the ad - and how to get in on the air - at Democratic Courage.