Monday, September 15, 2008

Joe Biden and a traditional Democratic message

Joe Biden today went on the attack against John McCain:

"Joe Biden threw his hardest punches yet at John McCain on Monday, linking the Republican presidential candidate to the economic policies of the Bush administration, describing him as out of touch with middle-class Americans and claiming he is in the pocket of big oil and other corporations. “John McCain doesn’t seem to understand what middle-class people are going through today,” Biden said at a campaign stop. “I don’t doubt that he cares. He just doesn’t think that we have any responsibility to help people who are hurting. “My dad used to have an expression: Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and Ill tell you what you value. By that measure, John McCain doesn’t stand with the middle class. He stands with George Bush firmly in the corner of the wealthy and well-connected,” Biden said."

Now here's what's interesting about this. Remember the Obama campaign's mantra? "Change We Can Believe In." Yes--well, where's the change in Joe Biden's message? Joe Biden isn't talking change. Rather, he's handing out a very old, Franklin D. Roosevelt-style, New-Deal-style message, trying to identify with the middle class, attacking Republicans as tools of the rich. There's no "change" here. This is a message Democrats have been peddling for over 6 decades. It's the kind of message that John Kerry and Al Gore, in the end, tried to sell.

Now who knows, with the economy in some difficult straits and with today's bad stock market news, maybe this message will sell more. But it's also true that a message of "change" it ain't--and Republicans and conservatives should be sure and make that point, again and again.