In his first TV ad of the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney inserts a voice clip of Obama mocking his 2008 presidential campaign opponent, John McCain, for not wanting to talk about the economy.
What Obama said during an Oct. 16, 2008 speech at a Londonderry, N.H., campaign stop, was this: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.'”
In the Romney TV ad, which President Obama’s reelection campaign calls “a deceitful and dishonest attack,” Obama is heard saying only the part: “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose,” thus intentionally and deceitfully making it sound as if Obama is talking about his own chances in 2012.
Sure, at the very beginning of the 60-second clip there is a brief screen statement referring to the 2008 New Hampshire visit.
Sure, the Romney campaign says that it addresses the issue in a press release and blog post accompanying the TV ad.
But how many people will read the press release; how many will read the blog post? Yet, how many will just view the TV ad intentionally and falsely attributing a 2008 McCain campaign quote to Obama and believe that Obama is talking about the present campaign, because at the end of the ad Romney approves the message — a message that, coming from a presidential candidate, is supposed to be a truthful and honest one.
Watch the full ad:
Romney image: Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com
UPDATE:
The Romney campaign has defended this blatantly dishonest campaign tactic as “not out of bounds.” Thus, ThinkProgress has created this completely in-bounds “advertisement” quoting Romney, in his own words.
There is one huge difference:
Romney’s ad was presented to Americans as the truth. ThinkProgress clearly presents theirs as satire:
