Question The Sources
by Matt at Sep 25th, 2008
It’s pretty sad that the only way Barack Obama can attack John McCain is by linking him to President Bush… my friend Scott Leffler seems to think that a similar strategy would work in the 26th District by linking Chris Lee to Tom Reynolds, who many liberal bloggers in WNY despise, for whatever ridiculous reason they can come up with.
… I just found this web page that lists congressmen based on how well they stick up for the middle class. It says he’s at 50 percent for the year. And he’s gotten F’s on the previous four years they graded.Yup, that’s the Tom Reynolds I remember … stickin’ it to the middle class.
And he’s endorsed Chris Lee. I wonder if Lee thought about declining that endorsement? Doubt it. From what I can tell, Lee aspires to be just like Reynolds. He’s got the same campaign staff. And he doesn’t return my calls. Just. Like. Reynolds.
If I were advising the Dems, I’d tell them to make sure to link Lee to Reynolds just like Obama is linking McCain to Bush. After all, no one really believes that Reynolds isn’t running so he can spend time with his family. It’s cause he was afraid of getting his ass kicked.
And no one really believes Barack Obama is qualified to be President of the United States, but that’s not stopping millions from for him… But I digress.
What I don’t understand is why Scott was so quick to accept the assessment of the website TheMiddleClass.org as legitimate and objective. It’s easy for a blogger or even a member of the media to give credence to a poll, or a study, or an organization that tells them what they want to hear, while dismissing those that don’t.
The other day, Buffalo Pundit criticized Chris Lee’s latest ad for citing data from a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. It’s fair argument to make, just as I have similarly questioned the sources Democrats use to support their claims, be it from liberal think tanks, research groups, etc.
What Scott failed to do (or just chose not to do) was question the source. It would have taken all of 10 seconds to find out that TheMiddleClass.org is run by the Drum Major Institute, and that the Drum Major Institute is a liberal research group. Not bipartisan. Not nonpartisan. Liberal.
Do I really need to say anything else?
The only way Obama can win is by linking McCain to Bush? No one has to link McCain to Bush. McCain’s record does that all on its own.
I don’t link Lee to Reynolds because Lee is not as conservative as Reynolds was. There are some questions about Lee’s stance on abortion that makes it appear that he is somewhat moderate on the issue. I don’t think he is similar to Reynolds (and other Republicans) when it comes to free trade, taxes and the economy. But I don’t think Lee is nearly as conservative as Reynolds is/was.
By the way, it wasn’t just that Lee used the Heritage Foundation in his ad. I agree that using nonpartisan sources (like an independent study completed by the government) would be better, but both sides use their choice of sources. In this case, what the Heritage Foundation used doesn’t apply to Kryzan. This had to do with tax discussions back in March. I didn’t understand the rationale behind trying to tie Kryzan to something that was voted on when she wasn’t in Congress.
I know that if the same thing was done to Chris Lee, we would be hearing about it.