AP News, October 28th, 2007
In another jab at his chief rival, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says in an ad released Sunday that the country needs an honest dialogue about Social Security in order to fix the system.
Obama launched the spot a day after he directly challenged Hillary Rodham Clinton on the issue while campaigning at a senior center in Des Moines, Iowa.
He accused Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, of dodging tough questions about whether the government should tax workers' earnings above the present cap of $97,500 to help pay for Social Security benefits.
"I don't want to just put my finger out to the wind and see what the polls say," Obama says in the 30-second television ad that was to begin airing Sunday in Iowa. "I want to bring the country together to solve a problem."
The ad names no other candidates. It portrays Obama, a senator from Illinois, as a straight talker willing to be honest about his thoughts on Social Security. That portrayal contrasts with his depiction a day earlier of Clinton as ducking tough questions about Social Security for political reasons.
The ad shows Obama speaking to a group of older people who quietly nod as he tells them that, with 78 million baby boomers projected to retire, Social Security will pay more money in benefits than it receives to fund the system.
He also ticks off his priorities for the program: protecting benefits, preventing privatization and eliminating the "tax exemption for the wealthy."
"If we have failed to have a real, honest conversation about Social Security, it will not get fixed," Obama says in the ad.
