Campaign Notebook: Attack!

Obama campaign responds to 2012 Swift Boating on bin Laden: The effort by a Republican front group to attack President Barack Obama on his handling of the raid on 9/11 terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden elicited a response from the Obama campaign delivered by Rob Diamond, the director of a group named National Veterans and Military Families Vote.

“Recently, several small Republican-aligned groups have tried to smear President Obama by distorting, misrepresenting, and telling flat-out mistruths about his national security record. As a former Navy officer and Iraq War veteran, I respect the right of my fellow veterans to express their opinions, and I feel grateful every day that we live in a nation where citizens have the right to speak freely about their political views. But with that freedom comes responsibility. These kinds of offensive, personal, and baseless attacks do nothing to further debate about our most pressing national security challenges. They fail to meet the high standards that we, who have worn the uniform of the United States, set for ourselves. And they have no place in a presidential campaign. President Obama ended the war in Iraq responsibly, took the fight aggressively to al-Qaeda and devastated its leadership, and has a plan to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. The Republicans are resorting to Swift Boat tactics because Mitt Romney has only offered reckless rhetoric – but no plans – on national security issues.”

Kaine responds to Americans for Prosperity attack: The other AFP has been on the attack against former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine from the start of his campaign for the United States Senate.

Kaine for Virginia Communications Director Brandi Hoffine on the latest AFP attack:

“We agree – Virginians have the option of two very different directions in this election.  But, unlike the special interest groups that are propping up George Allen’s re-election campaign, we believe Virginians want to move forward with Tim Kaine’s proposals to strengthen our economy, not return to George Allen’s policies of putting tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans ahead of investments in businesses, affordable education, Medicare, Social Security, veterans’ health care, national security, and other priorities that Virginians value.  As governor, Tim Kaine cut taxes for hundreds of thousands of Virginians, cut more than $5 billion in spending including his own pay, and balanced Virginia’s budget all four years even during an economic crisis. As senator, George Allen helped turned a federal budget surplus into a massive deficit, voted four times to raise his own pay, and added trillions to our national debt by voting to repeal commonsense rules that required Congress to pay for the legislation it passes.

“Yesterday, Tim Kaine released a positive ad speaking directly to Virginians about his record of fiscal responsibility and bipartisanship. Today, George Allen is benefitting from yet another negative, misleading ad run by a secret money-backed special interest group. That’s another example of the two very different directions in this campaign.”