Friday, July 20, 2012

Obama Ad Accuses Romney of 'Launching a False Attack' for Quoting Obama

The Weekly Standard
1:46 PM, Jul 19, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER
President Obama's reelection campaign accuses Mitt Romney of distorting the president's words, by showing a side by side comparison of the Obama's words and Romney's quotation of those words:

"Mitt Romney is launching a false attack," the ad's text states. But the weird thing is: The Obama campaign is purposefully trying to make it sound like Romney is misquoting the president, when the official White House transcript backs up Romney's quotation.
In the ad, Romney says that Obama revealed his thoughts on business when he said this, "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."
And, in fact, according to official White House transcript that's precisely what Obama said on July 13, 2012 in Roanoke, Virginia.

Nevertheless, the Obama campaign, in the ad, says it's not true. "The only problem?," the ad text reads. "That's not what he said." It then turns to Obama, from the same Roanoke campaign speech, who said, "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life."
Which is true. Obama did say that. But he also said the line that Romney says he said-- "If you’ve got a business --you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."
And, in fact, later in the ad the Obama campaign actually plays the clip that Romney quotes of Obama, at about :40 second spot.
"Mitt Romney will say anything," the ad concludes. It turns out, he'll even say Obama's words when quoting him.

1 comment:

  1. Al,

    The only way to sort out the conflicting accusations in this case is to figure out what Obama meant when he used the word "that." A close look at the full context of Obama's speech makes it clear.

    When Obama says "If you've got a business, you didn't build that," the word "that" refers to government infrastructure, i.e., teachers, roads, bridges, and the internet. Obama is not saying that the person who has a business did not build the business.

    Mitt Romney, The Weekly Standard, and you, Al, are engaging in defamation, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church has something to say about that.

    CCC 2497:
    "By the very nature of their profession, journalists have an obligation to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information. They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals. They should not stoop to defamation."

    Be careful, fella. God is watching you.

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