Newest McCain-Palin Ad “Misleading” and “Downright False”

The answer to "Who Is Barack Obama?" in a new McCain-Palin ad is "simply false", according to Factcheck.org.

The non-partisan web site Factcheck.org analyzes the newest television ad released last week by the McCain campaign attacking Senator Obama with what the site calls "misleading" and "simply false" information in the "Who Is Barack Obama?" spot. 

The ad highlights Obama’s "most liberal member of Senate" label and Factcheck.org focuses on the ad’s use of Obama’s defense to those claims. In the ad, Senator Obama is quoted as saying, in response to the most-liberal label: "They’re not telling the truth" and "I hate to say that people are lying, but here’s a situation where folks are lying."

Factcheck.org clearly explains where the first response comes from – not even remotely connected to the "most liberal label."  In fact, while the headine featured in the ad comes from The National Journal, the Journal itself has a fascinating explanation of how it came up with the most-liberal status here

The second quote ("I hate to say that people are lying…") is also unrelated to the question of his status as a liberal senator. Rather, it comes from an interview with David Brody at CBN when asked to defend himself against attacks from the National Right to Life Committee about the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Obama was responding to the NRLC’s false claim (also debunked clearly by Factcheck.org and Rewire) that he misrepresented his position on the "born alive" bill.

As Sarah Palin ramps up her attacks on Obama’s record on abortion access for women, columnists like Bill Kistol are asking Senator McCain to curb the television and internet ads and return to televised town-hall style appearances to re-ignite his campaign. 

To watch the ad: