New Ad: Barack Obama's Christmas Spectacular

Dec. 21 - Democratic Courage, a political action committee dedicated to electing a "progressive, courageous, and winning" Democratic presidential candidate, today released its second television ad, entitled "Santa Obama's Christmas Spectacular." The ad will run on television in Iowa during the holiday season. It is available for viewing at www.democraticcourage.com.

The spot shows "Santa Barack Obama" delivering lumps of coal to Iowa voters as a narrator recounts the many times when Obama sided with Bush and big corporate lobbyists at the expense of the environment, working families, and health care.

"By repeatedly capitulating to pressure from President Bush and corporate lobbyists, Barack Obama is behaving like a Bad Santa to Iowans," said Democratic Courage president Glenn Hurowitz. "This ad is humorous, but the consequences of Obama's dealings with corporate CEO's have brought anything but holiday good cheer to America."

Hurowitz added that while Obama's goal of "changing the tone in Washington" by reaching out to Republicans and ultrarich CEO's is admirable, it's not worth it when it means voting to worsen the climate crisis, put Iowans out of work, or leave millions uninsured.

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"The 'real' Santa Claus brings people together - good people," Hurowitz said. "But all too often, Obama is bringing together corporate CEO's and Republicans and leaving Iowans out in the cold. If Obama can't even stand up to the credit card industry, how is he ever going to end the war in Iraq?"

Democratic Courage PAC had previously focused exclusively on Hillary Clinton's capitulations to corporate interests and Republicans, notably in its ad released earlier this month "Blowin' in the Wind," in which a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton flaps in the wind as Rudy Giuliani intimidates Clinton into backing off a progressive agenda (http://www.dcourage.com/a/2007/12/new_ad_criticizes_hillary_for.php). The Wall Street Journal wrote about the ad as a case study of an advertisement that made a big impact with relatively little money: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/12/19/case-study-in-cheap-political-ads/

"Our campaign about Hillary helped open the floodgates to a critique of her repeated capitulations to big business and waffling ways," Hurowitz said. "With Hillary sinking, we want to make sure Iowans know how Barack Obama repeatedly sacrifices families' well-being on the altar of creating a polite tone inside the Beltway. Is having senators make nicey-nice really worth exacerbating the climate crisis or putting people out of work?"

The "Christmas Spectacular" spot focuses on a few issues in particular:

Obama's vote for President Bush's 2005 energy bill, which contained more than $13.1 billion in tax breaks for the oil, coal, and nuclear industries, and $4 billion in subsidies for oil companies (U.S. Public Interest Research Group analysis, August 8, 2005. http://uspirg.org/uspirgnewsroom.asp?id2=18502)

Obama's support for an amendment allowing credit card companies to raise interest rates over 30 percent (Ken Auletta, "Barack Obama, Inc.: The Birth of a Washington Machine" Atlantic Monthly, November 2006 and Vote on Senate Amendment 31 to S. 256 (http://obama.senate.gov/votes/109/index.cfm?start=626)

Obama's support for one of President Bush's top priorities - expanding Nafta to Peru - even as Republicans were obstructing every major Democratic priority and Iowa workers, like those in Maytag's Newton, IA factory are losing their jobs in large part due to unfair foreign competition. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-hurowitz/barack-obama-worlds-wor_b_67922.html, http://www.citizenstrade.org/pdf/AMTACPeruStatement_110107.pdf, http://www.citizenstrade.org/pdf/NFFCLetteronPeru_11062007.pdf, and http://www.citizenstrade.org/pdf/EnviroLettertoCongressaboutPeru1007.pdf.

Obama's health care plan fails to provide truly universal health coverage, leaving millions of Americans without health security. (Krugman, Paul. "Mandates and Mudslinging" The New York Times. November 30, 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/opinion/30krugman.html)