Still More 'Distortion,' 'Rank Falsehood,' 'Seriously Misleading' Statements and 'Outright Lying' From Obama

CHAPTER III

Here he goes again.

Barack Obama, after being beat up by numerous factcheckers for grossly misrepresenting Senator McCain's "100 Years" comment, finally dropped that distortion from his stump speech. Obama stopped using that line because it became obvious to all, even the admittedly Obamamania infected main stream media, that Obama's misrepresentation of McCain's comment was a "serious distortion to the point of rank falsehood."

Now Obama is distorting Senator McCain’s remarks about the economy. At a speech in Erie, Barack Obama quoted John McCain as saying, "I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over that period of time." Unfortunately, in his distorting way, Obama did not recite the second part of the statement where McCain said, "But that's no comfort. That's no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges."

Watch the following video, which shows that Obama once again grossly misrepresented McCain's comments:

At MSNBC’s First Read Blog, Domenico Montanaro reports that Obama continued this latest distortion yesterday:

Obama didn't let go of his attack on McCain in Williamsport yesterday afternoon, continuing to criticize the Republican nominee for a comment that he made about the economy making progress under George W. Bush.

[. . .]

"Now, that's what's going on here, but I don't need to tell you this, it’s going on all across the country. John McCain yesterday said that we are, that, that during George Bush's tenure, the economy actually made great progress. That's his quote," Obama said.

However, the attack, like the one earlier today parsed McCain's comments, quoting him on saying that the economy had grown but not including the fact that McCain acknowledged job losses and had said that the economic statistics brought "no comfort" to those suffering the most from the recent downturn.

Obama's misrepresentation of McCain's economic comments is extremely disingenuous. Obama, himself, acknowledges that the economy made progress:

"Our economy actually expanded over the last seven years, that's true," he said, before going on to talk about how the expansion was unprecedented because wages had not increased along with the rise in GDP.

The McCain campaign is pushing back:

The McCain camp, though pushed back hard against this yesterday, sending along this response: “American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest. It is clear that Barack Obama is intentionally twisting John McCain’s words completely out of context. Obama is guilty of deliberately distorting John McCain’s comments for pure political gain, which is exactly what Senator Obama was complaining about just yesterday.”

McCain's actual quote while speaking on Bloomberg TV, per the McCain camp was: "I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time. But that’s no comfort. That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges."

You would think Obama would be more careful after already being pummeled by factcheckers for misrepresenting what Senator McCain actually said abut Iraq, and only a week after Obama proved he was out of touch with small town America with his demeaning "clinging" remarks:

[T]hey cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

The media is no longer giving Obama a free ride when he misrepresents what Senator McCain actually says:

ABC News:

Who says Barack Obama doesn't know how to "twist the knife"? … Although Obama gets substantial mileage out of running against politics as usual, he provided a reminder on Friday that he knows how to twist with the best of them. … Obama did not tell his audience, however, that McCain's Thursday reference to economic progress was quickly followed by him adding that such progress is "no comfort" to struggling families.

Wall Street Journal:

While Obama sharply attacked free trade deals today in Erie for manufacturing job losses, just four days ago he touted the benefits of free trade in Pittsburgh, where he acknowledged that many jobs had been lost not only because of free trade deals, but because of technological advancements.

Washington Post:

The McCain campaign accused Obama of "intentionally twisting" the Arizona Republican's words. "Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds shot back in a statement. The Republican National Committee circulated video of Obama acknowledging earlier in his Erie speech that "our economy actually expanded

FOX News:

Obama did not quote McCain's addendum, but minutes before hitting the Republican for saying there was economic progress, Obama himself admitted, "Our economy actually expanded over the last seven years, that's true."

At the Chicago Tribune's The Swamp blog:

But Obama only partially quoted McCain, who also acknowledged the struggles people are facing in a down economy. … Not surprisingly, that triggered a response from McCain's campaign.

CNN:

The McCain campaign has long argued Obama has a habit of twisting the presumptive Republican nominee's words. Referencing McCain's comments earlier this year when he said he'd be okay with some troop presence in Iraq for 100 years, Obama has said the Arizona senator "wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as 100 years." The non-partisan factcheck.org later called that characterization a "rank falsehood."

Let’s see how long it takes before Obama drops this hypocritical and distorted attack from his stump speech.

The more I see of Obama's so-called new politics, the more it seems exactly like the old kind.

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that voters are “tired of distortion, name-calling, and sound bite solutions to complicated problems.” This is exactly the opposite of what Obama is doing with his continuing distortions and misrepresentations about what Senator McCain actually said.

Obama promised better. As I've said before, Obama should apologize to McCain, and the nation, for his blatant dishonesty, and join Senator McCain in his call for tolerance and respect. If Obama does, perhaps we can engage in a new, civil form of politics.

Also posted at Right Side Politics and RedState.