Is Obama Dissing Seniors?

Talented Fixer Chris Cillizza asks whether Barack Obama's new Iowa ad will be "literally and figuratively" the candidate's most important of the cycle.

Every time I speak about my hope for America, the cynics in Washington roll their eyes. You see, they don't believe we can actually change politics and bring an end to decades of division and deadlock. They don't believe we can limit the power of lobbyists who block our progress, or that we can trust the American people with the truth. And that’s why we face the same problems and hear the same promises every four years. My experience tells me something very different. In twenty years of public service, I've brought Democrats and Republicans together to solve problems that touch the lives of everyday people. I've taken on the drug and insurance companies and won. I defied the politics of the moment, and opposed the war in Iraq before it began. This is Barack Obama. I approve this message to ask you to believe -- not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington.

Iowa is a weird place to run this ad, which is why it's so audacious in the first place. A partisan primary is a very weird time to run this ad, which is why it stands out so much. Independents don't vote in the Iowa caucus; Democrats do.

And oh, by the way: older Democrats disproportionately do. 64$ of caucus goers in 2004 were older than 50; in 2000, 63% percent were older than 50. Attempts to recruit college students to lower the average age of caucus goers have generally failed in the past, although Obama is making every effort.

His ran began to air the day before he skips an important political forum: the Iowa branch of the AARP is hosting presidential candidates in Davenport. Weeks ago, Obama decided to skip the forum.

His campaign strongly disputes the notion that Obama intends not to appeal to seniors; they are, after all, helped materially by his new middle class tax relief plan. But Obama's rivals are certain to try and exploit and heighten the generational tension embedded in Obama's argument. Turning the page implies a break with the old ways of doing things; the baby boomers are no longer the relevant generation; the younger age cohorts are fed up with partisanship, etc.

Comments

So Obama will replace partisan divisions with generational divisions? Brilliant!

Posted by AJ | September 20, 2007 11:14 AM

I don't get what you are saying at all. It doesn't have anything to do with age. The ad is about promoting a change of politics as we know it. He is saying that he won't play games. He is promising to be honest in his practice and methods. And the underlying message is that hillary is old school and it is time to move on.

You can appreciate that message no matter what your age.

Posted by aiko | September 20, 2007 11:45 AM

Obama wisely knows he can't win playing Hillary's game, he must change the stats and make yoiunger people a bigger % of caucus goers. He is not going to be able to outpander Hillary anyway.

Posted by rich | September 20, 2007 1:32 PM

AJ - Obama is not making generational divisions...only the media is speaking in those terms. Providing leadership to change a corrupt political structure (lobbyists paying for the right to create legislation instead of it coming from our "representatives") that is weighing down this country is something that a person of any age can support. Especially if they truly believe in the democratic principles upon which this country was founded.

Posted by anthony | September 20, 2007 1:47 PM

There are a lot of seniors and middle-aged people who identify with Obama's call for a change from the "decades of division and deadlock" in Washington. Anyone who was young in the 1960s or 1970s remembers a time when many people thought the world was about to change for the better -- and though beaten down, they've never given up that hope. And in fact, Obama looks to many of us exactly like the change we have been fighting for, our whole lives.

Posted by david | September 20, 2007 4:50 PM

Well, Obama lost me.

It sounds like it is about age to me. The Boomer generation is not relevant?

We'll see about that.

Posted by Maddie In Florida | September 20, 2007 11:35 PM

This analysis is just odd. It sounds to me like Ambinder is just projecting his own insecurities here. This is only a generational argument to older people who are part of the DC establishment Obama is criticizing.

Posted by Reality Man | September 21, 2007 1:17 AM

Obama, who graduated from Columbia and decided to go back to Chicago to organize poor people around issues, has approached his campaign as an opportunity to build a movement — a movement based in communities around issues that matter.
Why are so many people responding to Obama? Because he is straightforward, and is clearly about a lot more than his own ego. Unlike John Edwards, Obama hasn’t had to “move to the left” or discover that he was wrong about Iraq. Obama didn’t discover unions and the rift between rich and poor after losing an election in 2004.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Obama has been consistently solid on the key issues — and unlike Hillary, we know, if Obama is elected, where he will be on the issues. (Do we really need a second Clinton presidency, framed by lots of progressive hype, which delivers so little in the way of progressive legislation, and so much to Wall St?) And, perhaps most important, Obama’s followers have the potential — with the support of their candidate — to build a new progressive movement in the U.S. and a new reform movement in the Democratic Party. Obama speaks about his candidacy, and even his possible election as president, as part of the launching of a new movement to change America. The president of the United States encouraging a movement for progressive social change? Now there’s a thought!
There are two ways that we can look at next year’s election. We can look at it as an opportunity to stop the endless mudslide of domestic and foreign disasters that have darkened our horizons during the Bush years. This would be no minor accomplishment. But, next year, we can try to do more. We can look to elect a president who not only looks different, but who thinks and acts differently, a progressive champion who boldly reasserts government’s role as protector and uplifter of the people at home, and who can reinvent American foreign policy as a force for peace, not coercive power, across the globe.
We need a candidate, and a president, who understands that he or she cannot succeed unless the people are standing alongside him — ahead of the powerbrokers and money guys — ready to help enforce their collective will. There is no question that Barack Obama is such a candidate.

Posted by msnz911 | September 21, 2007 6:42 AM