Hint: I’m really REALLY not.
Via the AP (by way of Bob Cesca)
CLINTON: “Their campaign pollster said, ‘We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.’ Now that is true. I couldn’t have said it better myself — I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad.”
THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,” Clinton told television viewers. Later, after he was forced to testify to a grand jury, Clinton said his statements were “legally accurate” but also allowed that he “misled people, including even my wife.”
Yes, I often compare a man lying about his personal life to a politician who has told 533 demonstrable lies in just 30 weeks. Anyone who claims that these are not exactly the same is obviously in the tank for Obama.
Here’s another obviously in-the-tank liberal pointing out the sheer gall of the “both sides” meme
Don’t take my word for it. Take his (Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s political “Fact Checker” columnist). Paul Ryan’s convention speech from Tampa—which even former Bush consultant Matthew Dowd admitted repeatedly “stretched the truth”—was explicitly given a pass by Kessler beneath the headline: “The truth? C’mon, this is a political convention.”
Kessler’s column demonstrates much of what is wrong with the MSM at their most elite level. In his defense of Ryan’s now well-documented distortions, for instance, Kessler writes, “The whole point is for the party to put its best foot forward to the American people. By its very nature, that means downplaying unpleasant facts, highlighting the positive and knocking down the opposing team.” Kessler never explains why this is impossible to do without, say, offering a deliberately dishonest timeline regarding the closing of a GM factory. It’s as if the entire notion of “truth” is some quaint and outdated notion with which sophisticates like the Washington Post’s “fact-checker” can no longer be bothered.
“The truth? C’mon, this is a political convention.” as the TITLE of a fact-checking blog. Holy Jumping Jehoshaphat! And here’s how Kessler ended the column:
Both political parties will stretch the truth if they believe it will advance their political interests. It’s been a rough campaign so far, but the GOP convention that just ended was strictly in the mainstream for such party celebrations.
WOW! Both political parties will stretch the truth! No kidding! How about you tell us if both parties stretch the truth as much as each other? This is the worst kind of bullshit cop-outs. My favorite analogy to show just how bullshit it is, is comparing a man who has lost his pinkie toe to one who has had both legs blown off. Sure, they’re both amputees but the qualitative difference is inescapable. Just saying “both sides do it” is the easy and lazy route to take when telling the whole story exposes one party as pathological liars. Can’t have that, though, it might seem “biased.”
You might like this article based on Politifact’s work. Republicans do indeed tell more Pants on Fire lies (and falsehoods in general) than Democrats. Scary thing is they didn’t include Bachmann while doing their tallying. They also compare right-wing and left-wing pundits to see how they fare (Glenn vs Rachel, for e.g.). Right-wing once again wins the falsehood side of things.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/06/08/politifact-republicans-more-dishonest-than-democrats/