Misleading Statements Coming From All Sides
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, Partisan NonsenseWhile Justin is keeping us abreast of the lies, misstatements and fudges coming from Republicans, I thought I’d take a moment for a little site balancing and remind everyone that obfuscation is congenital not to any particular party but to the entire species known as politicians. Unsurprisingly, a scan of PoliFact reveals some recent dodges, weaves and misdirections from not just McCain/Palin but from Barack Obama as well.
Following are quotes directly snipped from the Obama fact-checking pages of the non-partisan PoliFact. You can read full entries here.
Claim: “Joe Biden brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass the 1994 crime bill, putting 100,000 cops on the streets and starting an eight-year drop in crime across the country.â€
Truth: Several independent analyses concluded the program resulted in far fewer than 100,000 new officers on the street; and that while crime did drop, there were other more significant reasons. The effect of the COPS program was modest.
Claim: “The fact is that although we have had a president who is opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down.”
Truth: Obama’s statement is directly contradicted by statistics that show legal abortions have fallen since the start of the 21st century.
Claim: “I argued for years that we need to move from a ‘Musharraf policy’ to a ‘Pakistan policy.’”
Truth: If Obama had said he has been advocating this position for months, he’d be on solid footing. … But when he says it’s a position he has argued “for years†he is giving himself more credit than even his campaign can confirm.
So, while this post in no way is meant to excuse any shenanigans coming out of the McCain/Palin campaign, if we’re going to get worked up over Palin’s fudging on when exactly she opposed the “Bridge to Nowhere†and McCain’s misstatement on exactly how Palin sold the Alaska governor’s plane, it’s only fair to point out that Obama/Biden are not paragons of accuracy either. Through purposeful exaggeration or plain ignorance of the facts, both campaigns are often less than 100% factual in the way the describe their records and the records of their opponents.
It’s really easy to get upset by the “other side’s†obfuscations. Problem is, all sides distort records and facts to their own advantage. Except in the cases of dangerous lies or when a politician is hiding criminal behavior, I tend to let these things roll off my back. Otherwise, I’d be so cynical I’d be unable to vote for anyone.
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September 6th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I expected more from you’re rebuttal.
Cops Program? How much fewer cops? Is it within rounding distance? I don’t think the implication is that this is the only reason for the drop in the crime rate.
Abortion Rate? What is the teen birth rate? Has this gone up as abortion has gone down? I think the key to this on both sides is to have less pregnant teens, not to have less abortions. I think the Rep VP should want to testify to that. What’s on Trial is his abstinence only program. The rate of teen pregnancy dipped for a bit, but now it’s on the climb after 8yrs of Bush.
Musharraf? Can we get some dates that validate your argument? When did this policy shift happen for OBama?
It’s not enough to answer vague political statements with vague political retorts.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
That’s your rebuttal, not you’re.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:10 am
If this is what you come up with to show “balance”, I think we can safely say that there is a huge gap between Democrats and Republicans in truth telling.
It’s interesting to me that you have to fact check every major speech that McCain (and now Palin) give, yet I never see anything written about Obama blatantly lying in his speeches. That because for Republicans, it’s part of the strategy. Sadly, they get away with it most of the time, but things are changing due to McCain’s decision to challenge the media.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Clearly, both sides spin, distort, and sometimes even lie if they think they can get away with it. That’s politics. I started my blog because I decided that instead of saying “that’s just the way it is”, I want to hold both sides accountable.
The most recent lie from the Obama side is to say that the Republicans “didn’t say a thing” about the struggles of the middle class. I talk about that here. It’s simply a lie.
We wouldn’t tolerate this kind of deception in any other part of our lives. We wouldn’t go to our jobs and deceive and attack our coworkers who disagree with us in order to have our views win out over others. The world of politics needs to become civil again. The media isn’t going to help us with this, as they only report they he-said-she-said, instead of talking about real issues. Politics will only change when the people demand better. I’m tired of the excuse of “well, that’s just politics”. It’s insulting the American people who deserve the truth.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
John, if you follow the link to PoliFact, you’ll see each issue I discuss examined in full. I just snipped from their site. They go into good detail.
Ed, well, balance is in the eye of the beholder. I, for one, don’t see where McCain misstating the way in which Palin sold the jet as any more horrible than Obama misstating the effect of a crime bill.
Mike, I don’t mean to suggest we should just “accept” these obfuscations. Just that we should approach them with a level head. I think sites like factcheck and PoliFact do an excellent job of putting claims in perspective so we can decide the severity of misleading statements for ourselves rather than getting caught up in the shouting matches.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Mike is right, I would rather the two sides stop taking shots at each other and outline detailed solutions to what ever problems they see. Let the public debate the pros and cons of each strategy. Of course that won’t happen, negative campaigning has been with us since day one because, like it or not, it produces results. What I find interesting is that both sides view themselves as so righteous and without blemish, it is always the other side that distorts and lies. And of course the media is part of that distortion because it is “always “controlled by the other side.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Wow. I didn’t think it was humanly possible to drink that much partisan kool-aid. Must be some kind of IV drip.
Well Ed, it is almost impossible not to see stuff written about Obama blatantly lying, just like for McCain or any other political running for president. If you never see anything written about it, not only are you not looking, but you must be covering your eyes and ears to block it out.
Here- let me help: A Newsweek article on his distortions in just the acceptance speech.
My opinion – the two biggest untruths told by any candidate of any party in the election so far were both by Obama. They were the worst because they involved making commitments to his supporters over big issues that were important to his supporters, and he reversed himself for purely political purposes. The first was the explicit commitment to accept public funding for the campaign. The only thing that changed from the time that he made that commitment in November to the time he said “I lied – I’m not taking it” is that he went from losing to winning, and learned he could raise more money than god. The other was when he made a firm explicit commitment to vote against the Telecom Immunity provision of the FISA bill and said he would support Chris Dodd’s filibuster on the Senate floor. Of course that was when he needed to keep the Kos kids on his side in the primaries and stay left of Dodd and Clinton. Once he had the primary locked up, political calculation again took precedence over his explicit commitment to supporters or, in this case, even over protecting the constitution and the privacy rights of Americans. These examples speak directly to the character of Barack Obama. His core political beliefs are formed at the intersection of his ambition and political polls. Nothing more.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Sir,
These examples ARE very weak as they are insignificant nuances about more general truths that back up statements that were made by the Dems.
I’m still surprised by your positive reaction to the tone and tenor of the whole RNC, and more specifically, McCain’s speech. Where was the RED Meat you said you were demanding? He said, ad nausea, ” I’m a maverick… I’m a war hero… Watch out, a change is gonna come… ” Where? How? Why should we believe him? Many of the things McCain did in the Senate he undid or ran exactly AGAINST that ‘maverick’ position he once took.
Illegal Immigration; he’s reversed himself. Agents of Intolerence; took on the christian right but now they’re best buddies. Torture; a speech he gave early in the primary he promised to close Guantanamo, he hasn’t talked about it since! Tax cuts… once opposed, now want to extend them. Was McCain in the Senate the real McCain? Or is the one running for pres the real thing? Do you really care? Because I thought you needed to know all of these things b/4 you gave the thumbs up to his speech the other night!
What really bothers me, though, is the way speaker after speaker childishly mocked Obama’s record on volenteer community service. Palin did it and Gulliani was even more embarrassing. The tone of that criticism was just what the Repubs have been abhorrently doing to win elections, and sadly John McCain has joined that group that he himself fell prey to. I thought it was very pathetic.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I agree with you insofar as Giuliani’s comment. It was mean-spirited, uncalled for, unnecessary, unfunny and reflected poorly on Rudy and the GOP.
But Palin’s comment was a different matter. It was a direct response to Obama disparaging her experience as a mayor in a CNN interview earlier in the week. If he feels it is fair game to poo-poo that experience, it is perfectly acceptable for her to defend herself by comparing her experieince as a mayor of a small town to Obama’s experience as a community organizer. Which is exactly what she did.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
MW,
I see your point about Obama ignoring the Gov experience of Palin and comparing his with only her Mayoral experience, but that’s not disparaging or belittling, or worse yet, mocking her. It was the tone of the whole RNC that was very anoying to me. Felt like the same old, same old.
Here’s a statement from a group of concerned citizens that say it better than I ever could:
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has operated the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, its domestic anti-poverty and social justice program, since 1969. In 1986, the Bishops issued Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the US Economy, which said, “Human dignity can be realized and protected only in community.†Senator Obama worked in several Catholic parishes, supported by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, helping to address severe joblessness and housing needs in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods of Chicago.“Why do Governor Palin and the McCain Campaign sarcastically attack efforts to organize unemployed Catholics and Protestants? Senator Obama has spoken warmly about his experiences as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago,†said Lisa Schare, chair of Catholic Democrats of Ohio. “His work in helping people who were experiencing the real trauma of losing their jobs and livelihoods demonstrates an authentic Christian spirit and the real essence of Catholic Social Teaching, something strikingly absent from Governor Palin’s remarks tonight.â€
As far as your two biggest untruths told by either candidate, I can’t believe you’re serious. The first was a procedural decision to be able to raise his own money to keep up with the RNC bankroll. Nobody cared b/c it made it an even playing field and it was mostly small grass roots donations, and his explanation was honest. Second, he voted against the provision to go after the telecom co’s immunity, not the bill of rights or protecting the constitution. And even if he did swing to the left to win the primary, as McCain obviously did for the same reason, there’s no comparison since then as McCain has gone further to the right with every passing day.
I could see how he would reverse himself on the Immigration law he actually co-sponsored. He wouldn’t have made it this far if he hadn’t. The flip-flop he did on drilling for oil was simply being a pragmatist, and that’s OK. But how he could give in to the Christian ‘Moral Majority’ wing nuts he criticized so well after they helped derail his last try, and now backs the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy he so boldly voted against, I’ll never understand. He’s aligned himself with the past 8 years so profoundly now, especially with the war in Iraq, that his claim of ‘change is gonna come’ is ridiculous. Why you good people that call yourselves conservatives don’t see it is what scares me.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
BenG … to be fair, if you read my remarks on McCain’s speech, I said I should have loved it but I really don’t know which McCain is the real McCain at this point. He has greatly irritated me over the course of the campaign by going against earlier “maverick” positions. I liked the content of the speech but don’t know if I can trust it. Heck, the post even had a question mark in the title, hardly a ringing endorsement.
As for the “insignificant nuances,” I don’t think it’s insignificant that Obama either didn’t know or didn’t care that the abortion rate has gone down — he was more concerned with attacking Bush than being accurate. Nor do I think it’s insignificant that he’s exagerating the accomplishments of his running mate and exagerating the prescience of his judgement on Pakistan.
I don’t think any of that is less significant than McCain being cloudy on the details of the jet sale or Palin trying to portray her eventual opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere as a principled stand.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
“Why you good people that call yourselves conservatives don’t see it is what scares me.”
I think mw and I are better described as “equal opportunity antagonists.”
September 6th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Alan,
I think that mw has taken a hard turn to the Republicans over the last few weeks. Just look at the tenor of his posts in that time frame.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I sometimes think of myself as a Discordian.
But I am lying when I say that.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Fair enough, suppose, but it’s gonna be pretty tough to match – let alone top – misuse of official power.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
It looks to me like that PoliFact Truth-O-Meter is harder on Republicans than Democrats.
[aside to mw: fnord!]
September 7th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Yeah, I noticed the abortion line too when he first said it. I was thinking, “Huh, where’d he get his stats, because I’m pretty sure the opposite is true.”