A reader writes:
I hope the Obama campaign emphasizes the severity of Rick Davis. Knowing the media, they will try to somehow say that both had lobbyists and that this simply evens it out or something inane like that (Josh Levs of CNN said basically the same thing a week ago about lobbyists in general... comparing Obama camp and McCain camp).
Obama camp needs to make 2 things obvious:
1. This is McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER. He's not some no name adviser who sometimes advises him on policy. This guy is a BIG FISH. He isn't someone who McCain spoke to for 5 minutes (Raines and Obama), he is someone who is trusted very much by McCain and ALWAYS has McCain's ears. He isn't some UNPAID adviser or an adviser that's one out of hundreds, but he is WITHIN the INNER CIRCLE of the McCain camp. They need to stress this. Last week, especially in light of Raine's ad, I thought the Obama camps response, by way of Dem surrogates on tv, wasn't too effective.
2. He did some SERIOUS LOBBYING. He didn't simply work for some lawfirm representing many different clients with this being just a small part of his work. THIS WAS A MAJOR DEAL. He not only collected almost $2 million in lobbying fees in 5 years, but he FOUGHT BACK HARD against regulation - the same regulation that McCain now says should have been in place for Fannie and Freddie.
You hit the points very effectively... And I do hope that they hammer the two points... basically, the first is about DAVIS' HIGH position in the McCain camp, the second is the EXTENT to which he lobbied against regulation.
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