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'Lying' About Being Liberal?

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Obama: They're not telling the truth. You know, I mean, it's — I think we've all gotten accustomed to being able to spin things in politics. But when you've got somebody who was for a project being presented as being against it, then that, you know, stretches the bounds of spin into new areas.

We agree with Obama about that ad. We called it "old bunk" in an item on the FactCheck Wire on Sept. 9. Palin's misleading claim about the bridge is something we've noted on more than one occasion.

"Infanticide"
The second Obama quote comes from an interview that he did with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and it was not directed at either the McCain campaign or the National Journal. Obama was attempting to clarify his position on "born alive" legislation in Illinois. This is how that part of the conversation went:

David Brody, CBN News (Aug. 16): Real quick, the born alive infant protection act. I gotta tell you that's the one thing I get a lot of emails about and it's just not just from Evangelicals, it about Catholics, Protestants, main — they're trying to understand it because there was some literature put out by the National Right to Life Committee. And they're basically saying they felt like you misrepresented your position on that bill.

Obama: Let me clarify this right now.

Brody: Because it's getting a lot of play.

Obama: Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported—which was to say—that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born—even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion.

For the record, we wrote about the back and forth between the National Right to Life Committee and Obama, regarding his votes against "born alive" legislation during his time in the Illinois state Senate.

More Misrepresentation
The McCain-Palin press release announcing the TV spot is wrong, too. It claims that "the ad highlights Barack Obama's defense of his extreme liberal voting record by accusing others of lying," which is untrue. Obama and his campaign have disputed the National Journal's 2007 rating by saying that he missed too many votes while campaigning for the rating to be representative, and that some of the votes (particularly one in favor of stricter ethics rules) should not properly be seen as either liberal or conservative. But he has never said the Journal was "lying" or "not telling the truth."

For the record, the National Journal did not offer a rating of McCain's votes for 2007, because he missed more than half the votes that would have figured into the rating, even more than Obama missed.

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Member Comments

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??..
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.
Posted By: Nins @ 10/15/2008 5:01:55 PM

You're right, Nowforthetruth usually fills his blogs with lies. However, he is right about Jesse Jackson making anti-Semitic remarks. But he is wrong in assuming that Jesse Jackson somehow represents Obama.