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Sep 4, 2008 3:40 pm US/Eastern
Obama Strategist Calls Palin Address 'Dishonest'
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) ―
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At a Pennsylvania campaign event on energy Thursday, Obama said he didn't want to get "too political," but he did offer a brief explanation of his feeling about the tenor of the Republican convention Wednesday.
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Barack Obama's top strategist is firing back at Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
David Axelrod says Palin's prime-time convention address last night was dishonest about Obama's record.
Palin and other Republican speakers sought to define Obama as untested and inexperienced, making light of his past work as a community organizer in Chicago. But Axelrod says "for everyday people," that "seems like real work."
Axelrod says the Republicans squandered an opportunity to promote their own candidate by focusing on Obama. He went on to say "There wasn't one thing that she said about Obama or what he's proposing that is true."
And of Palin's attacks, he says "for someone who makes the point that she's not from Washington, she looked very much like she would fit in very well there."
Obama mostly stayed out of the fray. At a Pennsylvania campaign event on energy Thursday, he said he didn't want to get "too political," but he did offer a brief explanation of his feeling about the tenor of the Republican convention Wednesday.
"You're hearing a lot about John McCain, and an awful lot about me -- most of which is not true -- what you're not hearing a lot about is about you," Obama said. "You haven't heard one word about how we're going to get serious about alternative energy, about how we're going to get serious about creating new jobs.
"You haven't heard a word about how we're going to strengthen unions or strengthen the economy," he continued. "The thing that I'm insisting on in this election is that we can't keep on attacking one other. We can't get anything done that way.."
Palin, the self-described "hockey mom," came out slashing Wednesday night, her first address in front of a national audience. Palin told delegates at the Republican National Convention that she's an outsider ready to join John McCain in helping to bring real change to Washington.
But Palin, unleashed a smiling attack on Obama, accused him of wanting to forfeit the victory in Iraq that "is finally in sight."
Palin said that "Al Qaeda terrorists" want to cause "catastrophic harm on America," and that Obama is "worried that someone won't read them their rights."
Palin was joined after the speech by her family and John McCain. He asked roaring delegates, "Don't you think we made the right choice" for vice president?
It was an apparent reference to the convention-week controversy that has greeted Palin, including the disclosure that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
