Distorting McCain's Remarks

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.

McCain was making a case for what he believed were positive economic developments during Bush's time in office. However, the fuller quote shows McCain was saying that whatever progress had been made, it wouldn't be enough to comfort families "facing these tremendous economic challenges." His comments overall are pessimistic; he cites "challenging times" and "enormous difficulties." The Obama campaign distorts his views by using just a snippet of his remarks.

In the third quote in the ad, the Obama camp also uses something positive McCain said about Bush's tenure but leaves out his not-so-rosy comments about the economy. The video is of McCain at a CNN Republican debate in late January saying: "[W]e have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment." But that's not all he said:

CNN's Anderson Cooper, Jan. 30: Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?

McCain: I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.

But let's have some straight talk. Things are tough right now. Americans are uncertain about this housing crisis. Americans are uncertain about the economy, as we see the stock market bounce up and down, but more importantly, the economy particularly in some parts of the country, state of Michigan, Governor Romney and I campaigned, not to my success, I might add, and other parts of the country are probably better off.

But I think what we're trying to do to fix this economy is important. We've got to address the housing, subprime housing problem. We need to, obviously, have this package go through the Congress as quickly as possible.

Following McCain's response, Cooper responded: "It sounds like that we're not better off is what you're saying." To which McCain replied: "I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera." McCain added, "What I'm trying to emphasize, Anderson, that we are in a very serious challenge right now, with a lot of Americans very uncertain about their future, and we've got to give them some comfort."

As for McCain's comment that there was low unemployment at the time, he was technically right. The 5.0 percent unemployment rate in December 2007 was still below the 5.6 percent average for all months since the late 1940s. The rate has since climbed to just above that average. McCain was wrong about inflation, however: Two weeks before McCain spoke the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the Consumer Price Index had risen 4.1 percent in 2007 alone; it was the fastest increase in prices since 1990.

For Better or for Worse
The economy has worsened since McCain's debate comments back in January, and so has his public assessment. This month McCain's campaign released an ad that begins with these words from an announcer: "Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago."

Nevertheless, Obama's ad ends by asking: "How can John McCain fix the economy, when he doesn't think it's broken?"

By using months-old quotes and selective editing, the Obama ad distorts McCain's assessment of the economy.