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OBAMA'S BIG MISTAKE.
(Photos: Divided We Fail advocates at Rudolph Giuliani and John Edwards events, Iowa, August 2007)
Tonight the AARP is holding a Democratic presidential candidate forum in Davenport, Iowa. Barack Obama, in what I believe is the worst mistake to date by his otherwise strong Iowa campaign, will not be there. The Des Moines Register's Thomas Beaumont summed up the stakes in August:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's decision to opt out of all but a handful of appearances with his opponents this fall means an influential Iowa audience will lose the chance to judge him alongside his rivals next month.Obama plans to skip AARP's Sept. 20 forum in Davenport, where New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will address about 2,400 Iowa seniors and a national public television audience.
The decision to not attend the AARP event, aimed at issues important to people 50 and older, could nag at the Illinois senator, some Democrat activists and political observers said. AARP is a national association formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.
"I understand what he's trying to do, and I guess I'll cut him some slack," said undecided Iowa City Democrat Anne Tanner, who is 68. "But the audience skews older in Iowa, and I don't think a lot of them are going to understand."
The AARP matters in Iowa this year more than it ever has, not just because so many older voters caucus, but because it is conducting a campaign along with the SEIU and the Business Roundtable called "Divided We Fail," which is giving the local Iowa chapters a great deal to do. My unscientific impression in Iowa was that the local AARP chapters functioned like social clubs for elderly women and were extremely vibrant, especially in the smaller towns. A substantial fraction of the candidate events I attended in Iowa featured a row of people, between middle- and old-age, seated right up front, wearing the red AARP Divided We Fail T-shirts, and ready to ask questions as soon as the candidates stopped speaking.
Obama's absence at the AARP forum is a real missed opportunity to reach that critical constituency, which will also be holding AARP-organized debate watch parties tonight.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
COMMENTS (10)
Interesting. In fact, given Obama's newly-released tax plan (which Kevin Drum just summarized), someone might well put the words in Obama's mouth: "Hey, I'm giving old people money, isn't that enough to make them like me? Do I have to show up and *talk* to them, too? Sheesh."
Posted by: Chris | September 20, 2007 11:18 AM
This seems like a monumentally stupid thing to do by Obama's campaign. I don't know what they're thinking.
Posted by: disappointed obama supporter | September 20, 2007 11:28 AM
Well, the article did also say this:
"Obama plans to attend the remaining five party-sponsored debates this fall and winter, another aimed at Latino issues and two more in Iowa this winter, including The Des Moines Register's debate."
This might be forgotten after the other two Iowa debates. I agree it is probably a mistake to skip this forum though. I guess we'll see whether the voters will hold it against him.
Posted by: Moonlight | September 20, 2007 11:34 AM
they problbly think that despite what they say baout being undecided, this group being made up of older women primarily, is probably already a done deal for Hillary and that Obama's time could better be spent aiming at other constiuents
Posted by: jg40 | September 20, 2007 11:42 AM
Obama isn't showing because his campaign committed to doing only a certain number of debates/forums. I'm sure the whiny Iowans want him to visit every pancake stand and corn farm in the useless state, but believe it or not, a U.S. Senator's time is perhaps not best spent by traveling every other day to meet with every hick in the great state of Iowa.
The fact that he's missing out on an AARP debate is unfortunate, but it's ridiculous, and I think Obama is making a good decision, by not attending every interest group's special forum.
Posted by: Steve W. | September 20, 2007 11:48 AM
He didn't pull out of this forum, nor did he make the decision to skip this forum in particular.
About a month or 6 weeks back, he said he wasn't doing anymore debates or forums that didn't meet 1 of 2 conditions
1-He's already committed to the event
or
2-The event was sanctioned by the DNC.
That's it. Said that doing too many of them was hampering his campaign (it was), and that he didn't want to pick n choose between them.
Seeing as how at that time he had not yet committed to this event (nor had some other candidates, as I recall), it makes sense, even if he's going to catch some s**t for it. If he decided to go back on his pledge just this once, that's a slap in the face to every forum that he didn't deem important enough.
Posted by: mopper | September 20, 2007 12:21 PM
You know what...? Can I say this...?
F*CK IOWA.
And while we're at it, F*CK NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Why do the people in these states get such a disproportionate say in who gets to be President...?
Have they demonstrated any particular wisdom in choosing the best candidates...?
What makes them better, more authentic, more "American" than, say Wisconsin, or South Dakota, or New Jersey, or (God preserve us)Massachusetts...?
The whole primary system is just a big money grab for these states. The only thing NH has going for it is it's commutable to Boston. The Skiing sucks, and the Maple Syrup is now imported from Canada due to global warming.
As for Iowa, I mean: Go, Hawkeyes and all that, but isn't just Nebraska or Kansas with another name...? A big square state witht he Missisippi River at one end...?
I guess it must be written in the Bible that these folks get to choose the democratic presidential nominee in perpetuity - written right next to the spot where it says the world was created in a puff of magic 5,000 years ago....
Posted by: steveconga | September 20, 2007 1:15 PM
I'm sure the whiny Iowans want him to visit every pancake stand and corn farm in the useless state
I might agree with you but when part of his tax policy is--
"Eliminating the income tax for any American senior making less than $50,000 per year, eliminating income taxes for about 7 million American seniors."
--skipping an AARP event isn't a good strategic move.
Posted by: corinne | September 20, 2007 1:32 PM
I was trying to be more professional, but you took the words out of my mouth steveconga.
Posted by: Steve W. | September 20, 2007 6:32 PM
I was trying to be more professional, but you took the words out of my mouth steveconga.
Posted by: Steve W. | September 20, 2007 6:32 PM