Ad Watch
Partial Quote Alert!
Romney rally, Panama City, FL, Jan. 24
It is an old advertising trick: select a few words from an article by a recognized media outlet and use them to promote your product and denigrate your opponent. Ruthlessly eliminate anything in the article that is at odds with the line that you are peddling. Use the quote to make it appear that the media outlet has endorsed your point of view.
The art of the partial or distorted quote is alive and well in the 2008 presidential campaign. I would like to make "Partial Quote Alert" a regular feature of the Fact Checker blog. To get us going, here are some recent examples of the genre from the campaign trail, complete with omitted words (in italics) that provide a rather different spin on the candidate. If you come across more examples, please pass them along, and I will add them to the collection.
From a TV advertisement for Mitt Romney:
"Romney was at his best in crisis mode."
--The Boston Globe, June 30, 2007.
Full quote:
"Many other observers say Romney was at his best in crisis mode, taking charge of an issue and seeing it through to resolution. At other times, though, Romney seemed conscious of little other than political image.
From a TV advertisement for Barack Obama:
"Obama offers universal health care plan."
--Associated Press, May 29, 2007.
The phrase about universal health care was used in a headline to an Associated Press story. The AP later issued a clarification saying that the news story "did not represent Obama's plan as universal health care."
Full quote:
"Obama's first promise as a presidential candidate was that he would sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of his first term in the White House. But there is some dispute over whether his plan would provide universal care - it's aimed at lowering costs so all Americans can afford insurance, but does not guarantee everyone would buy it."
"It's not totally clear that it would result in universal coverage," said Ron Pollack, executive director of the advocacy group Families USA.
From a TV advertisement for Barack Obama:
"Obama opposed Iraq war from the start."
--Associated Press, Oct. 2, 2007.
Nobody can dispute that Barack Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start and, with striking prescience, he predicted U.S. troops would be mired in a costly conflict that fanned "the flames of the Middle East."
But nobody should accept at face value the Illinois senator's claim that he was a "courageous leader" who opposed the war at great political risk.
The truth is that while Obama showed foreign policy savvy and an ability to keenly analyze both sides of an issue in his October 2002 warnings on Iraq, the political upside of his position rivaled any risk.
And, once elected to the U.S. Senate two years later, Obama waited months to show national leadership on Iraq.
From a web advertisement titled "Experience" for John McCain:
"Mitt Romney says the next president doesn't need foreign policy experience. John McCain for president."
--Quoting Romney on Fox TV program Hannity & Colmes, Dec. 29, 2007.
Full quote:
"If we want somebody who has a lot of experience in foreign policy, we can simply go to the State Department and pluck out one of the tens of thousands of people who work there."
Posted on January 29, 2008 at 6:00 AM ET
| Category:
Ad Watch, Barack Obama, Candidate Record, John McCain, Mitt Romney
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Posted by: Chris | January 29, 2008 10:00 AM
Mr. Dobbs, with respect the Democratic campaign, perhaps you should employ your skills checking the partial quotes, factual inaccuracies, distortions, historical revisions, fictional inventions and other flights of fancy and fairy tale put forth like by the Clinton campaign. Rumpelstiltskin as played by Bill Clinton.
If Obama's Universal Health Plan is good enough to earn the support of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy -- who really has more than "35 years of experience working for change" unlike the former First Lady -- then it's time to stop beating that horse. No one, in no way, can dispute that Sen. Obama has been against the war from before its inception. That -- like Republican and Democratic senators alike -- he voted to continue to fund the troops, to provide up-armored HumVees, body armor and other necessary equipment -- does not negate his unwavering support for the war.
I notice you delivered no Pinocchios to Sen. Clinton, nor to her husband for their "opposition" -- oh, that's right... they were FOR the WAR before they were FOR the war.
Posted by: jade_7243 | January 29, 2008 10:06 AM
I count three accurate quotes and one completely inaccurate one (first one from Romney).
Maybe you should go back to fact-checking anonymous emails.
Posted by: Fran | January 29, 2008 10:44 AM
4 Pinocchio's for Romney, for using a sub-quote that implies the opposite of what the actual quote was trying to convey.
2 Pinocchio's for Obama for using a quote out of context
1 Pinocchio for McCain for slight paraphrasing.
Posted by: Paul S | January 29, 2008 11:11 AM
Well, well, what do we see ? All important liemericans together. Anything to explain about building 7 ladies and gentlemen ? Anything to say about using 9 barrels and finding only 1 new barrel ? Keepin up the good news then, cheerio. I whish PRESIDENT OBAMA a lot of wisdom.
Posted by: jwholtkamp | January 29, 2008 7:39 PM
While almost every campaign has (and sadly, will continue) dealing in half-truths such as these...
I must say, Romney and Clinton tend to do it the most, and the worst.
Obama's first misused quote does make it sound better than it was, but is still very similar.
His second... i'm sorry, but there's nothing wrong with saying he's against the war from the getgo. He was. As you admit.
Now, may i ask why there are no Clinton 'quotes' here? Perhaps any of her false claims of experience, or supporting those in need, maybe?
I don't like the way you're spinning this article by stretching Obama's section and ignoring Clinton's more egregious one.
Or by stretching McCain's, and skipping over Romney. What about Giuliani, too? (even though he's now out of the race)
Posted by: Anon | January 30, 2008 3:45 AM
Fact Checker is a joke.
Posted by: Tom S | January 30, 2008 8:07 AM
Mitt Romney and I agree -- anyone from the State Department would make a better president than he.
Posted by: Senjata | January 31, 2008 8:41 AM
This stands as a worthy addendum to Fact Checker, irrespective of the introductory examples. To condemn it on those grounds is to look a gift Fact Checker in the mouth.
Posted by: jhbyer | February 4, 2008 10:52 PM
The Obama-Iraq War "fact-checker" bit was useless. The commercial doesn't say that he opposed the war at great political risk. It just said that he opposed the war from the beginning. Which he did. For some reason, people like Hillary and McCain didn't. Duh.
The other point on Obama was good, though.
Still, should someone "fact check" the Fact Checker?
Posted by: merrilyiroll | February 9, 2008 11:18 PM
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It's interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else's point of view... makes you think more.
So please keep up the great work. Greetings.
Posted by: Natural Male Enhancement | March 7, 2008 5:56 AM
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This is really strained and feeble.