Barack Obama: A big Ted Koppel fan?
EmailABC News’ Jonathan Greenberger reports: Answering a question in Davenport, Ia., today about reports that President Bush will announce a drawdown on Thursday of about 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer, Obama said such a drawdown would be meaningless because it would only bring troop levels back to where they were before the troop surge began earlier this year.
To elucidate his point, Obama offered an unusual analogy.
“It’s a little like that situation, you know what, where you see a store that advertises a sale, except that they jacked up the prices before the sale,” said Obama. “So they raised prices 25 percent, and then they say we’re going to slash prices by 25 percent. And you start thinking you got a real bargain on your hands. Until you realize that they pulled a fast one on you. That’s basically what the plan is, and that’s what the president is going to be talking about tomorrow.”
Obama’s metaphor is strikingly similar – right down to the size of the store’s price hike – to language former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel used 24 hours earlier on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, in a commentary about the possible drawdown of troops in Iraq.
“We are a nation of shoppers and, oh, how we love a bargain,” said Koppel. “We don’t even particularly care that the price may have been jacked up before it was slashed. There’s something about a 25 percent-off sale that sets our pulses pounding. Thirty thousand U.S. troops out of Iraq by next summer. What a deal. Isn’t that roughly the same number of troops that made up last winter’s surge? Aren’t they just taking out the additional troops they put in?”
So is Obama a Koppel fan? Or do great minds just think alike? The Obama campaign wouldn’t say where Obama came up with the analogy, except to say they doubted it was borrowed from Koppel.
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Obama won’t be hurt by this. Unless, of course, he starts copping material from Joe Biden.
Posted by: Mike Bates | September 13, 2007, 8:48 am 8:48 am
Actually I think Obama said the same thing a while back on Daily Show or Moyers on Now?? — it doesn’t take too much to realize that Bush is trying to do it again; only most people don’t find him crediable anymore; some hardnose GOP and the pundits who think it’s still in to try to figure Bush out. I am glad that people are speaking out on it and glad that Obama and Koppel said it and hope a lot of people repeat it.
Posted by: Paulet | September 13, 2007, 11:41 am 11:41 am
Can you people ever do a story that is not negatively slanted towards Barack Obama? I know you all are in Hillary’s camp but at least try to sound unbiased.
Posted by: zbob | September 13, 2007, 12:34 pm 12:34 pm
Um, I hate to say this, because I like Ted, but others used that analogy before either Ted or Obama; it’s not terribly original or inventive; and the analogy fits the situation so well, it’s not likely to be a coincidence that more than one person would use it.
Posted by: Fred723 | September 13, 2007, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
Im not an obama fan bc we disgree on social issues but honestly i cant imagine a news agency like ABC becoming so biased against senator Obama
1.Obama: Will he or won’t he support compromise?
2.Barack Obama: A big Ted Koppel fan?
3.Obama Slams Clinton on Iraq
4.Romney: “Thank Heavens Barack Obama Wasn’t President
5.Obama X, Obama Y, Obama Z all negatives.
Then take a look at Hilary subtiltes
1. Clinton returns cash of Hsu, making a terrible blunder looks positive
and when obama leads they title it small edge what a disgrace to media fairness
Posted by: elison | September 13, 2007, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
Sorry Ted Koppel but you drank the koolaid of the neo cons like all the other news hounds did because you fawned upon access and connections to the whitewash house. I had a running joke with myself about Ted Koppel and Sam Donaldson and the power of the TV by wishing that these 2 men had to take off their toupees’ and see how long they stayed on TV. Sorry we could not have enjoyed that test…
Posted by: daddy | September 13, 2007, 1:42 pm 1:42 pm
I find this analogy amusing, especially coming from a presidential candidate. Please think before you speak!
Take an item that costs $100. A 25% increase makes it cost $125. Slash the new price by 25% and you get $93.75.
That’s a 6.25% decrease from the original price! You are only “pulling a fast one” on yourself if you don’t take the offer.
One more sign of America’s dire need of a proper education.
Posted by: Andy | September 13, 2007, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
Leave it to a bushie to take a 6.25% decrease and fall for an ad that says 25%. It looks like you voted us a moron in and now cover for him. Karl rover is gone and you might apply for the position…good at fooling people sounds like you.
Posted by: daddy | September 13, 2007, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
Obama has some good handlers. He has a great veneer. We really need to get the debates to be debates so we can see how these candidates think and act without their scripts.
Posted by: lorax_mbell | September 13, 2007, 6:27 pm 6:27 pm
I think it is a shame that a national news agency like ABC News is biased against Senator Obama. This is not an isolated news slanted against the presidential candidate, but one is a pattern.
I had great respect for ABC news, but it is becoming more and more clear that it is also one of the partisan media.
I hope ABC news becomes more fair towards Senator Obama, instead of picking only on him!!
Posted by: Rach | September 13, 2007, 11:33 pm 11:33 pm
Each candidate has some media outlet or group committed to demonizing them. And other media is just looking for the sensationalism. Any successful candidate will have to have thick skin, focus on the relevant, and won’t need to rely upon handlers like Rove or promoters with celebrity status.
Posted by: lorax_mbell | September 14, 2007, 1:00 am 1:00 am
I fully agree with Paulet, “Can you people ever do a story that is not negatively slanted towards Barack Obama? I know you all are in Hillary’s camp but at least try to sound unbiased”
I want to add to the fact that people can see through the dark with the light of Obama… I was never into politics until Obama came on the scene, by far he’s the most honest candidate and the truth is coming to light… Bright up the world Obama 08…..
Posted by: still-hope | September 14, 2007, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
I also agree fully with Paulet. If you
could only hear your self talk, then you could hear what I hear. Everything Senator Obama says there is a negative response.
Has Senator Hillary Clinton taken the African America Vote for granted? Is it because her husband was ” the first black president?” Senator Obama is not naive nor inexperienced. None of the Democratic hopefuls have the expericence of being a president so why is Senator Obama being judge differently.
Posted by: carolyn rosebud | September 26, 2007, 12:31 pm 12:31 pm