From the 3 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on August 6:
SAVIDGE: Chris Kofinis is a Democratic strategist and former communications director for John Edwards. Cheri Jacobus is a Republican strategist. Hello to both of you. Cheri, let me ask you this. I want to read to you Obama campaign -- or their response, actually, to the latest McCain ad, and it goes something like this: “Another day brings a dishonest attack from John McCain. While Senator Obama has proposed cutting taxes for 95 percent of American families, what he's not telling us is that he wants to give $4 billion in tax credits to the oil companies, and continue giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and provide no direct tax relief,” and on and on and on. What I'm getting at here, Cheri, is can you site one Obama proposal where he's really said he's going to raise taxes to anyone making less than $250,000 a year?
JACOBUS: Oh, look. We already know he's done it. He's already voted for a bill while he was in the Senate, the short time he's been in the Senate, that would raise taxes on families earning $35,000 or more, so it's actually there. The problem with his response in the real world with politics is that, when you said it, you said, “and on and on and on.” He's got to parse his words and sort of tap-dance around to try to give an explanation, so I think that Obama's a little bit off his game if he can't come up with something that really is going to resonate with voters.
SAVIDGE: All right, Chris, Obama's talking about money from -- taking money from Big Oil, and yet, you know, John McCain is claiming that he is also getting money from Big Oil. The question here is, Obama's getting that same money, so isn't he a bit of a liar claiming McCain is the man guilty of getting Big Oil money?
KOFINIS: No, I think it has to do with, you know, the fact that, you know, John McCain is taking millions of dollars from oil companies. He's taking millions of dollars from PACs and lobbyists. I think it's a significant difference. Barack Obama doesn't take a dime from either PACs or lobbyists. But what's really fascinating about what's happening here is that these two campaigns are really struggling and fighting it out trying to define each other. I think the problem for John McCain is, every time you go on the attack and you exaggerate the truth and you basically misstate the truth, as he did in this latest attack ad, you basically diminish your brand. I mean, it's ironic that he's doing a “maverick” commercial when he's anything but. I mean, that, I think, is the fundamental challenge facing the McCain campaign. They can't decide which candidate they are. Are they the candidate from 2000, or are they the Bush-loving, Bush policy-loving candidate of 2008?
