Mondale campaign ad from 1984 eerily similar to rhetoric of Obama 2012 re-election efforts.
(Alexandria, Virginia) – A presidential candidate is on the stump claiming that his opponent will ‘slash Medicare,’ and promising voters he won’t allow middle-class taxpayers ‘to pay more, so millionaires can pay less’ in taxes. Though this rhetoric has been the cornerstone of the Obama re-election campaign, the candidate in fact is Walter Mondale, and the year is 1984.
In the campaign ad to be viewed here, Walter Mondale is seen 28 years ago delivering the meat of President Obama’s campaign message today, which is based almost entirely on false claims that his opponent will devastate Medicare and hurt middle-class Americans. “I refuse to make your family pay more,” says Mondale, “so that millionaires can pay less.”
Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “It is astounding that after nearly 30 years, the Democrats still run the same false Medi-scare tactics they did against Reagan, and spout the same class-warfare rhetoric that misleads working Americans. This is the Obama prescription for America; he gives us malaise like Jimmy Carter, and campaign speeches that parrot Walter Mondale. Carter gave us malaise in 1980, and this ad exposes the roots behind Obamalaise in 2012. The Democrats’ failed ideas never change, just the candidates pushing them.
“This ad is a perfect reminder of the two different paths followed by presidents who inherited a recession and a bleak economic outlook. Reagan cut taxes and slowed the growth of government, and in return we saw an economic boom that created over 26 million new jobs and a restoration of national pride. Obama exploded the growth of government, lowered the credit rating of our nation, oversaw a boom in the welfare rolls and food stamps, and leaves the middle-class treading water under a miserable economy and a mountain of debt.
“Americans rejected Mondale’s ideology 28 years ago, and they will reject it again in November. It’s downright laughable that the Obama campaign is borrowing a strategy from the only politician from a major party to lose an election in all fifty states,” Martin said, referencing Mondale’s 49-state loss to Reagan in ’84 and his failed comeback attempt in Minnesota in 2002. “If Obama believes he can ride the wisdom and charisma of the Mondale campaign to victory in November, he’s even more out of touch than we thought. All that’s missing is asking Governor Romney, ‘where’s the beef’ in the upcoming debates.”
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