It’s time to start using the L-word when referring to John McCain and his campaign for the presidency. Misleading doesn’t quite capture the hypocritical use of distortions to make your opponent appear dishonest, as McCain’s latest ad attempts.
The commercial below suggests that FactCheck.org busted Obama for making “completely false” statements, but here’s what the independent watchdog had to say about that: “That’s what we said, but it wasn’t about Obama.”
The Web site went even further, investigating the other quote in the ad, which came from a column in The Wall Street Journal. FactCheck says the quote is distorted, and makes assertions the Obama campaign vehemently denies.
This isn’t the first time Team McCain has mangled a quote or two.
McCain ad:
FactCheck.org:
A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama’s attacks on Palin “absolutely false” and “misleading.” That’s what we said, but it wasn’t about Obama.
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to “dig into her record and background.” The ad quotes the WSJ as saying the team was sent to “dig dirt.”
Update, Sept. 10: Furthermore, the Obama campaign insists that no researchers have been sent to Alaska and that the Journal owes them a correction.
