More truth and lies in politics

Here’s where both presidential campaigns again twisted quotes for their own ends.

 

In a post Monday, I made the point that we expect politicians and their ads to exaggerate, but they they can’t make stuff up.

Here’s a couple of claims in the presidential race that have been debunked, and ought to be retired:

1 – Mitt Romney and allies’ repeated assertion that President Obama was putting down American businesses when he said, “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

As FactCheck.org notes, “there’s no question Obama inartfully phrased those two sentences, but it’s clear from the context what the president was talking about. He spoke of government — including government-funded education, infrastructure and research.”

This is almost as bad as the shameful ad Romney ran with a dishonestly-edited clip from an Obama 2008 campaign speech making it appear Obama was saying that if he kept talking about the economy, he would lose.

2. Then there’s the Obama ad (above) which says Romney opposed abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. PolitiFact concludes that the Obama campaign couldn’t back up the claim.

“In its effort to appeal to women, the Obama campaign has twisted Romney’s position to a ridiculous degree,” PoltiFact concludes.

More News – presidential debates, and local Congressional contests

The Commission on Presidential Debates has negotiated the number and format of the fall smack-downs. There will be three, town hall-style, with the candidates fielding questions from undecided voters.

The first debate will be on October 3rd, the last Oct. 22nd. More details here.

And the New York Times has ranked Congressional contests across the country, concluding that only 80 of the 435 seats are in play. None of the “toss-up” races are in the Philly area, but three suburban Republicans, Jim Gerlach, Mike Fitzpatrick, and Patrick Meehan are listed as at least being competitive. All three are ranked “leaning Republican.”

Read more here.