Creation of a Lie

In the political arena, exaggerations and distortions are to be expected, I suppose. And perhaps given the urgency of the issues we face today it shouldn't come as a surprise that we're seeing more outright lying in this presidential race than we have in any election that I can recall.

Like many of you, I noticed the escalation in the "attack-ads" several weeks ago. I became especially concerned when former Bush advisor Karl Rove told FOX news

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far...and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

When the Master of Dirty Tricks says things have gone too far, it should tell you something. So an alarm went off when I saw a recent McCain ad.

Obviously embarrassed by McCain's insistence that the economy is "fundamentally strong," the McCain campaign released an ad claiming that Obama has said much the same thing, claiming Obama "attacked first," and even going so far as to say Obama is a "hypocrite."

The ad shows a clip of Obama saying "We’ve got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows.” Take a look and decide who's the hypocrite:



Now here's what Obama actually said:

"We don’t just need a plan for bankers and investors, we need a plan for autoworkers and teachers and small business owners. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: we need to pass, after this immediate crisis is over, an economic stimulus plan. Right now. For working families – a plan that will help folks cope with rising food and gas prices, that can save one million jobs by rebuilding our schools and our roads, and help states and cities avoid budget cuts and tax increases. A plan that would extend expiring unemployment benefits. For those Americans who have lost their jobs and have been working hard to find a new one, but haven’t found one yet. That’s part of the change we need.

"And then after this immediate problem, we’ve got the long-term fundamentals that will really make sure this economy grows."

Obama's statement that we'll have a sound economy after his changes are put in place is not at all the same as McCain's claim that we have one today. Just the opposite.

This is more than taking Obama's sentence out of context. The ad actually removes part of the sentence to change the meaning. As Karl Rove said, "one step too far."

It's ironic that in an age when so much information is readily accessible on the internet, we have distortions and so many ads that include blatant lies. Political "strategists" are counting on the fact that most people take ads on face value and form opinions based on 15 second sound bites.

Don't let them get away with it.