McCain Radio Ad Hammers Biden's "No Coal Plants" Line
The McCain campaign has this new radio ad hammering Joe Biden's "no coal plants" gaffe, a serious economic issue in coal-producing states, with ads running in the battleground states of Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Here's the Ohio version:
"No coal plants here in America," Biden says. "We're not supporting clean coal."
"No coal plants in America?" the announcer says in disbelief. "No jobs in Ohio? No energy independence for America?"
At the time, the Obama camp jumped to say that Biden's remarks were taken out of context -- that he was criticizing China for building old-fashioned dirty coal plants, and that Obama and Biden support investments in cleaner coal technologies.
That said, the McCain campaign clearly sees this gaffe as a wedge issue they can use in the swing states to undercut Obama's superior reputation on economic issues.
I wonder just how effective radio ads are in terms of effectively reaching people.
September 29, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't worry too much really. That campagin has almost no credibility left. Atleast most people in the middle will see everything they produce with a little skepticsm.
Obama should keep using word 'Lies' in his responses. At this point, most people are inclined to question McLame's assertions and motives.
September 29, 2008 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama can easily cut a radio ad stating that he has always supported "clean coal".
September 29, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me McLame, but there is no such thing as "clean coal." It is a factor in global climate change, I don't care what they do.
Plus they are taking the tops off of mountains in the Appalachians to mine coal. They've strip mined most of a mountain here in Questa - I've seen it. It's obscene.
I hate coal. I love the smell of coal smoke - it's a delicious smell; my parents had a coal burning stove in Colorado. But it's not good for the environment from both directions - extracting it and burning it.
September 29, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Double-ditto and amen. I have to live near those destroyed mountains and it's not fucking funny.
"Clean coal" is a myth - a dangerous myth on the order of "sex with a virgin cures AIDs."
Or, as Media Czech puts it - "healthy cigarettes."
Biden and Obama should grab this opportunity to expose this myth and start the long-overdue process of ending coal use.
September 29, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's just another finite fossil fuel, for the love of heaven.
I thought the idea was to get off of fossil fuels.
September 29, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm from East Kentucky too and in my day, I spent a lot of time doing economic forecasts for the region based on coal industry data in my pre-lawyer days as part of an attempt to try to convice the state governments there that no matter how much coal we burned, the number of jobs the industry provided was going to spiral downward pretty much forever. Mountain top removal is simply evil, like a Katrina a day disaster, and, yes, "clean coal" is a misnomer. And once solar, wind and alternative techs are capitalized, the economics of digging coal out of the Appalachians will collapse, but I expect the Montana and Wyoming coal industry will still be more than competitive unless there's a huge carbon tax. Its like you scrape off a couple of feet of dirt and you hit thirty foot seams of nearly pure carbon out there.
But "clean coal" is not not just a coal industry PR campaign (unlike their hilariously evil "C02 is fertilizer" which will lead to "the greening of the Earth" if we keep burning coal PR campaign in the 90s.) There are technologies that can mitigate C02 from coal burning and there are countries that aren't going to stop burning it even if we do. If they can come up with technologies that would reduce the amount of carbon China pumps into the air by any appreciable amount, I have to support it and if we can be the ones who invent it and sell it to them, I'm especially for it.
September 29, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would support stopping China from causing more pollution, too, but the fact is that they won't use the technology if it costs them to retool.
I've not seen a 3d world country yet that hasn't destroyed their environment in the attempt to catch up technologically.
India is a prime example, and China is worse because it's a communist country and I know what the USSR did to Russia.
September 29, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can't we talk about natural gas instead? I mean there is a load of natural gas in the ground and it burns cleaner.
September 29, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
September 29, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
The McCain campaign makes a last-minute attempt at campaigning on actual issues for a change. They now realize that campaigning on personalities has now run its course for McDrama and his Palin gamble.
September 29, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I rather think that inasmuch as McLame has caught so much shit for being negative that he'll go back to issues here at the end, instead of "character."
Goody - he loses on the issues, too.
September 29, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, by now, we all all "believe" these SCHMUCKS!
September 29, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they should put Joe on ice for a little while.
September 29, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink