'Lying' About Being Liberal?

factcheck.org

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

SPONSORED BY

Announcer: Mr. Obama, we all know the truth.

Obama: Folks are lying.

Announcer: Not presidential.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Not Telling the Truth
An announcer asserts of Sen. Barack Obama, "the National Journal says he's the Senate's most liberal." The ad then says Obama defended himself by saying, "They're not telling the truth ... [F]olks are lying." The announcer says Obama's response is "not presidential."

The ad is misleading regarding the "most liberal" claim, and simply false in the way it twists Obama's own words.

It is true that the National Journal rated Obama "the most liberal senator" in 2007, based on 99 votes in the Senate that year. But in his previous two years, Obama was rated 10th and 16th most liberal. So his career voting record is far from "most liberal." The McCain ad is misleading about that.

And it is downright false when it implies that Obama accused the McCain campaign of lying about the "most liberal" rating. He did not. He accused Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of "not telling the truth" about the so-called Bridge to Nowhere, and he accused independent, anti-abortion groups of "lying" when they accused him of favoring "infanticide." The ad takes Obama's words completely out of their context.

Bridge to Nowhere
The first comment from Obama quoted in the ad comes from an interview that the senator did for MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann that aired Sept. 8. He was discussing a new ad from the McCain-Palin campaign that claimed Palin "stopped the 'Bridge to Nowhere.' " After video of the ad "Original Mavericks" played on screen, Olbermann noted that Palin had actually supported the project at first, before canceling it long after it became a target of criticism by McCain and others. Here's the exchange:

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's "Countdown" (Sept. 8): What are Senator McCain and Governor Palin doing in this new commercial, do you think?

« Prev Page

Member Comments

- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: drewand @ 09/02/2009 1:34:36 PM

Politicians lying? Say it ain't true! Lawdy de despit.
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: memo2 @ 11/23/2008 7:10:30 AM

One think is for sure we all are lying,or have to not to said the true vecause we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow in general, sample you have a plan for next day but you have to change it cause of unexpected surprising, so you have to improvise then you have to said something is not true.
In fact we don't know if the person said the true or not,and some are very,very good the other thing most people do not like others LYING in some way you feel is something wgrong.is like one person said something and the other is goin to change it in diferent way.
And regarding Mr: Obama I got that same feeling of something was wgrong when he said the he start criticizing Mrs: Clinton at the time of the debates and later Mr:Obama was pretty much in silence doing it with, Mr McCain,or Mrs:Sarah Palin, some way he know who make people loose control and Mr:Obama he know how to control Very well, is a technic what not to many people understand who to manage that skill the rest I'm sure you have the conclusion of the rest of it. no matter what I said I'm not try to change anything you think of what you think, no body is going to change anithing what is done is done and if we are in this situation is because some one make this happen on the past now as you see it happen most of us we never think or we never pay attention because we don't know most of you vote for Mr: Bush 8 years ago so way most people blame him only??..
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Nins @ 10/15/2008 5:02:42 PM

It is normal for campaigns to pay organizations to register and mobilize voters. Both Republicans and Democrats have done this for years. In a campaign that is costing hundreds of millions of dollars, spending $800,000 on a voter registration drive is not in the least bit shocking.

Obama was affiliated with Acorn about 15 years ago in Chicago. Acorn has done excellent work in America, helping to bring disenfranchised poor voters into their legal rights as citizens. We all have the right to vote. Some of us (historically blacks, women and ethnic minorities) have been barred from voting by prejudice. Acorn exists to recitfy these wrongs, and to help people claim their rights as citizens.

It happens to be true that most poor and disadvantaged voters tend to vote Democrat. The Democrats have reached out to this voting block with great success. It's kind of hard for Republicans to say to poor blacks "Vote for us!" when the GOP has so consistently fostered racism in American politics, in ways ranging from blocking civil rights legislation to Rush Limbaugh, et al.

As for allegations of registration fraud at Acorn, it may be true that there are a few specific cases where over-zealous individuals abused the integrity of the Acorn mission. But one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch, and a few inaccurate registrations can not cancel out the altruistic work that Acorn has done for decades. Even more important, Acorn is required by law to submit ALL voter registrations it receives. This law exists to prevent voter registrations groups from dumping registrations of people they object to -- for instance, a GOP registration drive is required to turn in the registrations of everyone, including Democrats who sign up at their table. Sometimes people fill out fake registrations, using names like Donald Duck or giving the planet Mars as their address. For this reason, every registration drive will end up turning in forms that are counted as fraudulent by the elections board. Acorn, like every other voter registration organization, has a percentage of forms that are invalid and labeled "fraudulent". This does not mean that Acorn is committing fraud. But the smear mongers and conspiracy theorists go crazy.

Furthermore, you need to think your way through some of these reports. For instance, the report that the same name and address was registered 72 times. What would this mean for the election? Absolutely nothing, because when you go to vote you show up with your ID, and they mark you off as having already voted. You can not then vote again. And have you considered the fact that Karl Rove operative might have purposely turned in these false registrations, knowing that Acorn was bound by law to give all of them to the Elections Board? Oh, yeah, it might have been a set up. Kind of like the John Kerry Swift Boating.