Talking Obama at the July 4 BBQ

Turns out "time to roast the wienies" is how you might feel when confronted with those aggro, right-wing relatives and friends who come after you at the friendly July 4 BBQ, wanting to pick a fight about Obama. You're a peace-loving soul and know to let sleeping dogs lie, but fact is fact and fiction is Fox News, so in the interest of accuracy it's nice--if not necessary--to provide corroborable, documented, context-sensitive information.

MOMocrats got your back. Just remember: words good, hitting bad.

Here's some talking points:

PLAY DEFENSE

1. FighttheSmears.com: Pretty much a compendium of "greatest hits" of malicious, disgraceful misinformation and the facts that debunk them. Obama is Christian. (And plenty of fine people are Muslim/see nothing wrong with being named 'Hussein'.) Obama is not Muslim, for the umpteenth hundred thousandth time. He has no connection to Louis Ferrakhan, and has rejected Ferrakhan's statements and positions.
2. With regard to the Washington Post article on the mortgage rate he received upon purchasing Obama's current Chicago home: it's well within the range of mortgages that were available to everyday, high-income, non-Senators with good credit scores at that time.
3. Wes Clark did not say John McCain was "unpatriotic". He praised McCain's record of military service, and at the same time said that McCain lacked "executive experience" in the military. Give the context for the quote "Riding in a fighter jet and getting shot down is not a qualification for being president." Compare General Wes Clark's bio with McCain's. Wonder to your inquisitor why McCain has only released 19 pages of his military records to date, when George W. Bush released 300 pages relating to his brief time in the National Guard and both John Kerry and Wes Clark released their entire military records to the public when they ran for president.
4. Here's a little background on where Obama stands on the recent Supreme Court death penalty decision, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (warrantless wiretapping), and gun rights for individuals.
5. With regard to Reverend Wright (ZOMG, people still care about this??): Obama is no longer a member of Trinity United Church of Christ. If someone says, "Why did he stay for 20 years when...", you can return with a question: "Are you in lockstep with every single thing your pastor/rabbi/minister says?" Or, "Maybe he liked the people in the congregation more than what the minister had to say. It's a huge church community--more than 8,500 belong. There are 8 pastors and associate pastors." TUCC is well-known for its orientation toward social justice and many programs working toward this. Also, Obama can't be a "scary wild-eyed Muslim extremist" (see #1 above) and a "scary follower of an extremist black Christian church" (this right-wing talking point we're deconstructing) at the same time. Which is it?
6. Obama is not elitist, nor are his awkward characterizations of rural areas with longstanding depressed economies elitist (ZOMG, people still care about "bittergate"?). He is well-educated, intelligent, articulate, dedicated, accomplished, and yes, has experienced financial success from the sale of his books. After graduating with the distinction of being editor of the Harvard Law Review, he went back to community organizing and began a life in elected office. He lives in one house.

PLAY OFFENSE

1. Suggest that Hillary dead-enders consider the make-up of the Supreme Court in years to come. Ask if they care about the right to choose--if not for themselves, then for the women they love and care about. McCain is the clear anti-choice candidate. Obama is unequivocally pro-choice. Here's McCain's statement of his philosophy on choosing Supreme Court Justices--again and again he's said clearly that he favors "strict constructionists" like the ones appointed by Bush.
2. Suggest that Hillary dead-enders consider John McCain's entire record on women, and why a vote for McCain is a vote against women's interests/women's rights.
3. For hardcore anti-Obamaites and unrepentant Republicans, suggest voting for Bob Barr or Ron Paul as an alternative to McCain.
4. Suggest that anti-Obamaite Democrats who are unable to bring themselves to vote for a presidential candidate instead turn out on election day this November to support down-ticket Democratic Party races.
5. John McCain is the elitist: he's practically the photo-negative of Obama. McCain was a poor student, an inconsistent and waffling Senator with an uneven record, hot-headed and prone to furious outbursts when he feels provoked, and with his heiress wife, regularly carries 5- and  6-figure balances on a debt-free credit card. (Where's your credit card allowing you to carry balances with no interest from month to month?  It must be where mine is--somewhere on the island where all those LOST people are.) And with his heiress wife, he owns more than 8 homes in several different states, one of which was 4 years delinquent in taxes. Regular people get their credit screwed if they don't pay real estate taxes. Elitists somehow get a pass.

Okay, good luck. Enjoy your 4th. And try to keep your marshmallows from catching on fire.

Photo credit: Bob Morley, StockXchange.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k. She enjoys the challenge of roasting the perfect marshmallow more than eating it. Luckily, her 4.5 year old son is there to see that these toasty brown treats aren't wasted.

Comments

[Daisy]

Thanks for the info! It should make our Independence Day very interesting.

[Julie Pippert]

Dude. About a week late for me, although I think I did all right with my McCain Slam Talking Points.

[Heidi Renee]

thank you for this - i'm headed to a family reunion and i know that there will be the times when i'll need to speak truth into conversations that can get so off the rails - nice to have talking points!

[Kristin]

I'm getting sick of arguing with my super Far Left friends about what a sell-out Obama is...I've got my talking points, but boy is it getting old being told that I've been brainwashed. Somehow, the extraordinary enthusiasm we have for an incredibly successful and promising candidate -- after eight years of an unbelievable nightmare -- equates to being brainwashed.

I think people have expectations of Obama that are somehow profoundly different than those folks had of Kerry or Gore because they can't accept the idea that an African American man can be at all moderate on some issues. If they are moderate, instead of believing that those are the candidate's actual views, there is this idea that there is somehow some sort of corporate sell-out.

[cynematic]

Kristin, I hear you! Which is why, even though I differ with Obama on the position he's taken (and I linked to his latest official statement on HuffPo; see above), I'm still going to do my damnedest to get him elected this November.

And why I wrote this: http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2008/06/latest-update-o.html

McCain is not an option!

(These talking points are more for the fact-free devotees of Rush, Faux News, et al.)

[Scheherazade Khan]

These points/facts are great for anytime, not just the 4th! We should keep them in mind between now and November, as I'm sure that when the Repub 527's (ie, vets for freedom, or whatever...) starts their slime machines, there will be a need to counter the effects on an unsuspecting (?) public, and of course, family and friends.