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McCain mocks Obama's 'infomercial' |
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By Sam Youngman
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Posted: 10/29/08 08:33 PM [ET] |
John McCain blasted Barack Obama's "gauzy, feel-good" 30-minute network ad Wednesday night as having been bought and paid for with "broken promises," affordable only because Obama did not accept public financing.
McCain, speaking in the battleground state of Florida, compared Obama's ad to other televised half-hour product infomercials, accusing Obama of attempting to sell liberal economic policies to American voters.
"As with other infomercials, he’s got a few things he wants to sell you: He’s offering government-run health care, an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed," McCain said, according to his prepared remarks.
Obama bought 30 minutes of airtime on NBC, CBS, and Fox Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET.
McCain was also prepared to blast Obama for delaying the already-delayed Game 5 of the World Series. A representative from the Fox Network reportedly said that Obama's ad was in fact not responsible for delaying the game.
"It used to be that only rain or some other act of God could delay the World Series, but I guess the network execs figured an Obama infomercial was close enough," McCain said.
But McCain saved the harshest of his attacks to blast Obama for not accepting public financing. While McCain's campaign, excluding the fundraising of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was held to $84 million after the convention, Obama raised $150 million in September alone.
"Sen. Obama signed a piece of paper committing to public financing of his campaign," McCain said. "Twice he looked the American people in the eye and said he would sit down with me before he abandoned public financing. He didn’t mean a word of it. When it was in his interest to break his promise, he tossed it aside like it didn’t mean a thing. He is the first candidate since Watergate to abandon the public financing system, and his campaign is now being flooded with hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed and questionable donations. His campaign has directly profited from his broken promise and because of that, the American people have to ask: what does the broken promise behind tonight’s infomercial say about the value of his other commitments?"
The Obama campaign has argued that because of the record-breaking number of donors and the low-dollar amount of the average contribution, Obama has in effect accepted a form of public financing. |
