Clinton, Obama ads spar over gasoline taxes
TITLE: "Trouble."
LENGTH: 30 seconds.
AIRING: Indiana and North Carolina.
SCRIPT: Clinton: "I'm Hillary Clinton and I approved this message."
Announcer: "The economy's in trouble. When the housing crisis broke, Hillary Clinton called for action: a freeze on foreclosures. Barack Obama said, no. Now, gas prices are skyrocketing, and she's ready to act again. Hillary's plan: Use the windfall profits of the oil companies to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer. Barack Obama says no, again. People are hurting. It's time for a president who's ready to take action now."
KEY IMAGES: Workers in a factory, a suburban street, then Clinton on the stump. A white-on-black graphic appears on the screen: "Barack Obama said NO to a freeze on foreclosures." A video clip of hands counting money by a gas pump is followed by another white-on-black graphic: "Barack Obama says NO to suspending the gas tax."
THE SPIN: Clinton is pitching herself as a candidate with solutions and focusing on the economy, the top issue in the minds of most voters. By stating that Obama opposes her solutions, the ad implies Obama has no solutions to offer. This is the first "contrast" ad from either candidate to air in Indiana or North Carolina. Both states hold their primaries on Tuesday.
ANALYSIS: The facts in the ad are beyond dispute.
Clinton has proposed to freeze foreclosures as one answer to the housing crisis. Obama has opposed that step. Clinton also has suggested a summertime suspension of the gasoline tax. Obama has dismissed that idea as a gimmick.
But Obama has offered other proposals. He has said the freeze on foreclosures would drive up interest rates and keep other people from getting mortgages. Both candidates also support legislation to help homeowners whose houses are worth less than their mortgages, though Clinton also wants the federal government to buy such mortgages and reduce payments to a level homeowners can afford.
Obama, echoing the view of some economists, has argued that eliminating the tax temporarily would not help consumers because the price of gas would rise to fill the void.
The Obama campaign, sensing the potential damage from the ad, responded Wednesday with a 60-second spot to run in Indiana and North Carolina.
The idea to suspend the 18.4-cent federal gas tax and 24.4-cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day was first proposed by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Clinton has said she would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.
___
TITLE: "Truth."
LENGTH: 60 seconds.
AIRING: Indiana and North Carolina.
SCRIPT: Barack Obama: "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message."
Obama on the stump: "I'm here to tell you the truth. We could suspend the gas tax for six months, but that's not going to bring down gas prices long-term. You're gonna save about 25, 30 dollars, or half a tank of gas. That's typical of how Washington works. There's a problem, everybody's upset about gas prices, let's find some short-term, quick-fix that we can say we did something even though, even though we're not really doing anything. We cannot deliver on a better energy policy unless we change how business is done in Washington. We've got to go out to the oil companies and look at their price-gouging. We've got to start using less oil, and that means raising fuel-efficiency standards on cars and developing alternative fuels. That's the real honest answer to how we're going to solve this problem. That's what you need from a president — someone who's going to tell you the truth."
KEY IMAGES: Obama, in shirt sleeves, speaks to a supportive crowd. The camera cuts to members of the audience laughing when Obama likens the benefits of a gas tax suspension to "half a tank of gas." A video graphic lists Obama's energy plan: "Raise fuel efficiency standards. Develop alternative fuels. $1,000 middle-class tax cut." The crowd rises to a standing ovation.
THE SPIN: The ad responds to one-half of Clinton's economic ad. That ad cites Obama's opposition to her proposed freeze on foreclosures and to the suspension of the gas tax. In releasing the ad, the Obama campaign said the Clinton ad "misrepresents Obama's plans to stimulate the economy while advocating a gas tax holiday gimmick as a solution to high gas prices, even though economists have widely panned the plan as ineffective."
ANALYSIS: The Clinton ad accurately presented Obama's opposition to the gas tax holiday, though it did not spell out his reason. A number of economists support Obama's argument that temporarily reducing the gasoline tax would not ultimately help consumers because the savings would be minimal and because prices would simply climb to fill the tax gap.
Obama's proposals to investigate oil companies for price gouging, adopt higher fuel efficiency standards and invest in alternative fuels are long-term proposals that would not alleviate the current high prices.
Analysis by Jim Kuhnhenn