More bullshit from the Clinton Campaign [View All]

Ledgermain From The Clinton Campaign

Hillary Clinton's first negative contrast ad against Barack Obama in South Carolina is a masterful example of creative ledgermain.

The claim that Barack Obama praised Republican ideas or, in Clinton's words, found them "better" than Democratic ideas -- that is, the ideas themselves -- is false. Obama, in a meeting with a Reno editorial board, said that Republicans pushed new ideas to the the fore while Democrats were largely silent. That is, he praised Republicans for coming up new ideas. Nowhere did he say he preferred those ideas.

Now, it's perfectly plausible to contest the claim that Republicans came up with new ideas while Democrats didn't. But that's not the direction the Clinton campaign wanted to go.

The Clinton campaign knows it that if they repeated the claim that Obama just loved those ol' Republican ideas, they'd be lying.

So here is the script of their new radio ad:





The ad implies -- but does not say -- that Obama valued the ideas themselves. It implies, but does not say -- that he was praising Republican solutions. In doing so, the ad distorts the context of what Obama said without explicitly repeating the falsehood itself.

Criss Angel would admire the sleight of hand...