President Obama was out on the campaign trail Monday defending himself against Romney's misinterpretation of what President Obama said about businesses in America:
Obama raised the flap Monday while warning his supporters that Republicans would spend unprecedented sums distorting his vision this fall.
“Earlier today Gov. Romney was at it again, knowingly twisting my words around to suggest that I don’t value small businesses,” he said, referring to his opponent's comments at a campaign event in Southern California that morning. “In politics we all tolerate a certain amount of spin. I understand these are the games that get played in political campaigns. But when folks omit entire sentences of what I said -- they start splicing and dicing -- you may have gone a little over the edge.”
Obama said he believed “with all my heart that it is the drive and the ingenuity of Americans who start businesses that lead to their success.”
“I always have, and I always will,” he emphasized.
Obama says Romney twisted his comments about American business
Meanwhile, the Obama Truth Team is out with its rebuttals of the Romney nefarious twisting of President Obama's words. A new ad has been posted (transcript and links to sources of quotes below).
Transcript
Narrator: Seen this ad?
On Screen: Shows portion of Romney ad quoting two sentences of what President Obama said ("If you've got a business, you didn't build that.")
Narrator: Wait a minute. Romney deliberately altered the meaning of the president's words.
On Screen: "Mitt Romney's misleading attack ad" The Washington Post - July 19, 2012
Narrator: Actually, he was talking about building infrastructure and education.
On Screen: "...infrastructure and education..." The Washington Post - July 20, 2012
Narrator: Not that individuals don't build their businesses.
On Screen: "...not that individuals don't build their businesses..." The Washington Post - July 20, 2012
Narrator: Romney's been caught doing this before
On Screen: "Misleading Romney Ad Draws Criticism For Distorting Obama's Words" - Slate News Channel November 22, 2011
Narrator: Another attack ad was called a blatant fast one for manipulating video of the president.
On Screen: "Mitt Romney pulls a blatant fast one with the first TV ad of his presidential campaign..." Ad Age November 22, 2011
Narrator: See the whole tape and decide for yourself.
On Screen: www.barackobama.com/build
"Mitt Romney's misleading attack ad" The Washington Post - July 19, 2012 came from this post by Ezra Klein:
I was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” today, and one of the segments led with a Mitt Romney campaign ad quoting President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” remarks. I remember thinking, as I heard the clip, that Obama’s remarks sounded way worse than I’d recalled. Turns out there’s a reason for that. As The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent reports, Romney’s team edited the president’s remarks to make an entirely different, and much more offensive, point than the one Obama actually made.
Mitt Romney’s misleading attack ad
When you click the link to Greg Sargent's report you learn more:
So here’s where this is going. The Romney campaign is out with a new Web video hitting Obama over the “don’t build that” quote. It features a business owner who is angry at Obama for supposedly insulting his hard work. “My hands didn’t build this company?” the man asks. “Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business. Why are you demonizing us for it?”
But the video deceptively edits Obama’s remarks to seamlessly link up two different parts of the speech, removing a chunk in order to make Obama’s remarks seem far worse than they are. Here is how Obama’s speech — which you hear in the background while pictures of the man driving flash on the screen — is represented in the video.
The Morning Plum: Romney video deceptively edits Obama speech to make it sound anti-business
Note: I linked to the ad directly at YouTube instead of the Romney site like Greg Sargent did, because some of the comments at YouTube were interesting like this one (if you have time add your own comments):
Banned for having a different opinion than Romney or criticizing him for his flip-flops. Just go to the facebook page and read posts lol. Many people have been banned for no apparent reason other than questioning his political integrity (or lack thereof)
Just shows Romney isn't pro free speech I guess.
"...infrastructure and education..." and "...not that individuals don't build their businesses..." The Washington Post - July 20, 2012 came from this article by Rachel Weiner:
In the ad, the video jumps from the president saying “If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own” to “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.” In his speech, Obama spoke in between about the infrastructure and education that help, making it more clear that he was saying individuals didn’t build that system, not that individuals don’t build their own businesses.
Jack Gilchrist, a New Hampshire metal plant owner, is featured in both clips. “Through hard work and a little bit of luck, we built this business,” he says “Why are you demonizing us for it? It’s time we had somebody who believes in us.”
In an interview with Fox News Thursday, Gilchrist was more nuanced, saying “There’s truth to what he says” and praising his 11th grade English teacher and the tax-funded transportation system. “But I think it’s a far stretch to infer that the government is the reason I’m here today or my company’s here.”
Romney’s recent spots have focused on Obama’s negative ads; it’s a notable shift for the candidate to punch back instead.
Romney goes on air with ‘You didn’t build that’ attack
When you click on the link in Rachel's story, you are taken to a Media Matters story which shows a clip from Fox News of Gilchrist, the guy in the Romney ad, agreeing with President Obama. (Sorry, I can't figure out how to embed a Media Matters video.)
"Misleading Romney Ad Draws Criticism For Distorting Obama's Words" - Slate News Channel November 22, 2011, is referring to this report:
Mitt Romney is drawing fire over the first commercial of his 2012 presidential campaign, in which he quotes President Obama out of context. The ad uses a sound bite from Obama's 2008 campaign: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."
The only problem with this apparently damning clip: Obama was quoting his Republican opponent John McCain at the time. In response, Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom claims the misleading quote was used intentionally to "show that President Obama is doing exactly what he criticized McCain of doing four years ago."
The Romney ad premiered in New Hampshire, the bellwether swing state that is home of the first primary of the campaign.
"Mitt Romney pulls a blatant fast one with the first TV ad of his presidential campaign..." Ad Age November 22, 2011 refers to this report by Dan Hirschhorn:
Mitt Romney pulls a blatant fast one with the first TV ad of his presidential campaign -- and the fib is probably working from a branding standpoint. It's no wonder regular people -- including general-market ad professionals -- have a low opinion of political ads.
Romney's 60-second spot, running on WMUR in New Hampshire, includes a 2008 clip of then-candidate candidate Barack Obama saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose." The message Romney wants New Hampshire-ites to get: Obama's trying to distract us from what matters.
Only problem? Obama was quoting John McCain. The clip was taken from the closing days of the 2008 campaign, when McCain was flailing and his advisers wanted to change the subject from the economic panic that was dragging their candidate down. Here's what Obama actually said: "Senator McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.'"
So Romney's ad is a pretty clear distortion. Ryan Lizza at The New Yorker, for one, lamented that it's not being covered that way in most mainstream news coverage.
But here's the bottom line: Romney's already won this particular messaging war, and the fib helped him do it. He's trying to brand himself as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, someone who can ignore his GOP rivals (like the surging-in-the-polls Newt Gingrich) and just focus on Obama. The predictable sniping today between his camp and Obama's has elevated him and accomplished just what the deception was supposed to.
Mitt Romney Ad Twists Obama's Words -- and It Works
What was Ryan Lizza at
The New Yorker lamenting about? Well, the title of his article is:
Why Didn’t Reporters Call Romney a Liar?
Finally, when you go the link at the end of The "Tampered" ad, www.barackobama.com/build, this is what you'll see:
Mitt Romney’s Misleading Attack Ads
Once again, Mitt Romney is deliberately editing President Obama's words to launch another false attack on the President's support for small business. Independent fact checkers at the Washington Post and Factcheck.org called out Romney for his calculated distortion. Not only does Mitt Romney get the President’s remarks wrong, he actually thinks that what the President said is right. Take a look at what President Obama actually said and decide for yourself.
That last link takes you to, you guessed it, another ad, which I already wrote a diary about last Thursday, with the transcript:
New Obama Ad Destroys Romney on His Hypocrisy