Do you read FactCheck.org? I get their email alerts and read the summaries...
For all the talk about how Obama is different, I am a bit alarmed by the number of alerts like this one:
Distorting McCain's Remarks
August 19, 2008
An Obama ad uses dated and out of context quotes to portray McCain as clueless on the economy.
Summary
Obama's campaign is running a TV ad in Indiana that asks the question: "How can John McCain fix the economy, when he doesn't think it's broken?" But the ad uses quotes from McCain that are old and taken out of context:
The ad shows McCain saying, "I don't believe we're headed into a recession." But McCain said that in January, and he also acknowledged at the time that the American economy was in "a rough patch."The ad then shows McCain saying in April, "[T]here's been great progress economically." But the quote is lifted from a much longer response; McCain went on to say that the "progress" made during Bush's tenure still wouldn't console American families who are facing "tremendous economic challenges."
The third quote from McCain, "[W]e have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment," also comes from January. In his full response, McCain went on to say "things are tough right now."
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I thought misleading and/or smear ads were a symbol of old politics not the bright new world we were creating in this election. Disappointing. More so because it appears that there are more of these alerts about Obama than McCain.
