Posts Tagged ‘Obama Liar’

Posted by Erick Erickson

The media keeps showing its rear end. Let me just make that clear. If you are a competent reporter, I’m not sure how you cannot be embarrassed by the majority of those in your profession right now covering politics.

From Mark Halperin, to Jake Tapper, to Chuck Todd, more journalists are actually now admitting just how pliable the media is when it comes to Barack Obama’s spin. All week long, as the economy deteriorates, most every anchor at most every news outlet, most every editorialist in most every paper, and most every “centrist” and liberal pundit has been pointing out the GOP’s extremist abortion position.

Few, if any, have pointed out that Barack Obama’s abortion on demand position is extreme. Few, if any, have pointed out how most Americans favor restrictions on abortion. Few, if any, have pointed out that Mitt Romney’s position is actually more mainstream than Barack Obama’s. Few, if any, have wanted to go beyond Politifact’s ham-handed cover for Obama on infanticide and get into what Barack Obama actually said in 2002. Hear him come out for infanticide yourself right here. Remember, the media is hiding behind the left-leaning Politifact (and yes, it does lean left) to avoid having to deal with this.

They cannot help themselves. But why are they doing it?

They are doing it for the exact same reason Joe Biden is claiming the GOP will put black people back in chains and why Barack Obama would rather talk about uteri than jobs — they all know Barack Obama is losing this thing.

Hysteria creeps into campaigns when the campaigns know they are losing. When George H. W. Bush saw the election slipping away in 1992, he took to referring to Bill Clinton and Al Gore as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. The invective went up as his poll numbers went down.

Barack Obama and the Democrats are going to throw in the towel on the tradition of sitting on the sidelines during their opponent’s political convention. In the past, the parties did this with each other. Not now. The Obama campaign cannot afford to. It is too close and polling is about to shift from registered voters to likely voters, which will generate negative numbers for him. He must surrender another tradition to engage in more hyper partisan mudslinging because he is losing.

More and more polls are showing Mitt Romney trending upwards in swing states. More and more polls are showing Americans growing more pessimistic about the economy. More and more economists are starting to worry about the economy. Gas prices and milk prices are going up while take home pay is going down.

The hysterics we are seeing from the Democrats come as reality hits everyone. Even I have been convinced that Romney was going to blow this thing. The stupid statement about the Soptics not having the fate they had if they were in Massachusetts could have been game over.

But then Paul Ryan became the veep pick. He has now given Romney purpose. He has defined the campaign. He has put Barack Obama on defense. Consider this — the sage voices of the GOP were convinced the GOP could not win the fight on budgetary and entitlement reform. They were convinced Paul Ryan would sink the ticket.

Then the Democrats tried to define Paul Ryan and failed. They have been failing ever since. Their attempts to define Mitt Romney didn’t do enough and they have yet to settle on a narrative to define Paul Ryan. They are grasping at straws. Now they’d even fight the Associated Press style book to try to go after Paul Ryan.

And that gets us back to the media. At what point will they finally start asking if Barack Obama needs a campaign shake up? Because if it was Mitt Romney in the same boat, they sure as hell would. In fact, there have already been two different media cycles about Romney needing a campaign shake up and not one about Barack Obama.

Why? The simple truth remains the vast majority of the media is more sympathetic to and friendly with Team Obama and would hate to ruffle the feathers of friends. It’s one of the greatest thing Mitt Romney has going for him right now.

The Obama campaign has launched a new negative ad against Mitt Romney, arguing that his a heartless, outsourcin,’ greedy “corporate raider:”

The Washington Post’s fact checker is decidedly unimpressed, awarding the spot “four Pinocchios,” its harshest review possible. Why?

The Obama campaign fails to make its case. On just about every level, this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue, from the use of “corporate raider” to its examples of alleged outsourcing. Simply repeating the same debunked claims won’t make them any more correct.

In other words, every single element of this ad is false. Though, in fairness, they did get Mitt Romney’s name right this time. A few more details on other misleading elements within the ad:

On the “corporate raider” label:

In a previous life, The Fact Checker covered renowned corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn and his ilk. We also have closely studied Bain Capital and can find no examples that come close to this situation; its deals were done in close association with management. Indeed, Bain generally held onto its investments for four or five years, in contrast to the quick bust-em-ups of real corporate raiders. So calling Romney a “corporate raider” is a real stretch. So how does the Obama campaign justify this phrase? It cites a single Reuters story from last August, about a campaign stop in New Hampshire, written by a stringer, Jason McLure, who was previously based in Africa. Buried in the article is a reference to Romney as a “former corporate raider.”

On outsourcing:

Regarding the outsourcing claims, we have frowned on these before. The Obama campaign rests its case on three examples of Bain-controlled companies sending jobs overseas. But only one of the examples — involving Holson Burns Group — took place when Romney was actively managing Bain Capital. Regarding the other claims, concerning Canadian electronics maker SMTC Manufacturing and customer service firm Modus Media, the Obama campaign tries to take advantage of a gray area in which Romney had stepped down from Bain — to manage the Salt Lake City Olympics — but had not sold his shares in the firm. We had previously given the Obama campaign Three Pinocchios for such tactics. The Modus Media case is also not an example of shipping jobs overseas. The company closed one plant in California and transferred the jobs to North Carolina, Washington and Utah. At the same time, it opened an unrelated plant in Mexico.

On factual sourcing:

The ad also cites as a source a Boston Globe article from last month that merely reports on an earlier ad making similar charges. That’s highly circular reasoning — and is not fair play.

But aside from all that, this seems like a pretty fair, incisive commercial. Meanwhile, a few new polls are out today: AP shows Obama leading Romney 47-44 overall (down from his eight-point lead in May), and Quinippiac says the president has opened up a small lead in Florida. Rasmussen’s daily tracker has Romney up four, while Gallup’s pegs Romney’s lead at two points. Political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg just made the bold statement that Obama is now a slight underdog heading into the fall, but I’m not sure I agree. The president just endured a punishing month, yet has hung right in there. This is going to be a very tight, challenging election.

UPDATE – Two more data points for you: Gallup shows Obama’s approval rating taking a nose dive to 43/49 — down three points in the three day survey cycle. And yet another poll shows Michigan looking like a pure toss up between Romney and Obama — who carried the state by 16 points in 2008.