Clinton Courts the Retiree Vote

[Karmadillo]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/clinton-courts-the-retiree-vote/

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“I see a lot of fellow baby boomers, and we’re all thinking about how we’re going to deal with the issues that we’ll confront just like we once had to worry about our parents or our grandparents,” she said. “Now we’ve got to make sure that we have a secure retirement, health care and that social security and Medicare are strong.”

As president, Mrs. Clinton said she would take steps to ensure that the older Americans can “afford to retire with dignity and comfort.” She pledged to put pressure on employers to strengthen the system of defined benefit pension plans and touted her proposal for providing universal health care.

Recalling her husband’s presidency, Mrs. Clinton also said that she would take the idea of privatizing social security off the table.

“We need to get back to the fiscal responsibility of the 1990’s when we weren’t raiding the social security trust fund,” she said. “When my husband left office, we had a security social security system until 2055. And then all of a sudden the Bush administration took us back into deficits. We’ve lost 14 years off the solvency of the social security trust fund.”

In reaching out to retirees, Mrs. Clinton was attempting to build support among a demographic group that has traditionally turned out in large numbers at the ballot box and one that is increasingly asserting itself in the 2008 race.

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[Clintonista2]

1. After Obama's ignorant comment against the elderly, I'm glad to see someone paying attention to them

In this primary.

[DURHAM D]

2. I am not sure what you call elderly but Obama has

trashed the entire population of older citizens - specifically early boomers. To me that means 50 and up.

[Alamom]

3. IMHO, Big Mistake! Actually, 2 big ones.........

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=b1368edf6827a3a9&ex=1327035600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


Shushing the Baby Boomers


John M. Broder
1/21/07

THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.

In taking the first steps toward a presidential candidacy last week, Mr. Obama, who was born in 1961 and considers himself a member of the post-boomer generation, said Americans hungered for “a different kind of politics,” one that moved beyond the tired ideological battles of the 1960s.

>

Mr. Obama would be foolish to run solely as the anti-boomer, Mr. Lehane said, if for no other reason than that the baby boomers are the largest generation in American history, and they vote.





Source: The Daily Show

Obama;
"One hopes that more experience means better judgment," he said, but "everybody knows a lot of 50-, 60- and 70-year-olds that don't have good judgment, because they keep on making the same mistakes over and over again."



Actually, Obama, not everyone does know "a lot of 50-, 60- and 70-year-olds that don't have good judgment, because they keep on making the same mistakes over and over again." Since when was a person's judgment correlated to their age? There are plenty of adults in their 20's, 30's and 40's who demonstrate bad judgment and keep making the same mistakes over and over.

It's not an issue of age, it's an issue of self-discipline. It's a shame Obama hasn't shown more of it on the campaign trail. And if Obama was targeting someone specifically, why didn't he mention her/him by name? What's with the lame passive-aggressiveness?

Coincidentally, the Obama campaign announced last week that Obama will not be participating in any additional primary debates, because Obama feels that there are too many debates. Obama rejected an invitation to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) debate, and it's hard not to wonder why.


The AARP forum is expected to focus on issues such as health care and retirement security, top concerns for Iowa’s 50-and-older crowd.That group also has carried disproportionate clout in recent caucuses, according to Iowa Democratic Party statistics.

In 2004, 64 percent of the people who participated in the Democratic presidential caucuses were 50 or older. In 2000, the figure was 63 percent.

by Berkeley Vox
Aug 28, 2007

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/28/152611/157

[DURHAM D]

4. If Obama had made only one mistake in trashing the over

50 crowd one could assume he misspoke. But he has repeatedly gone after the early boomers and up.

I think he has some real personal issue - almost as if it is driven by anger at his parents. It really seems like he wants to start a war between the over and under 50 (or 45) year olds. I assume he thinks it is smart political rhetoric and designed to get the youth vote. Good luck with focusing only on that demographic.

Sooner or later some national journalist will do a whole article on his anger problem - it is just too obvious.