Crush Liberalism

DNC Dowdifies McCain quote

As many of you know, the act of Dowdifying a quote is a left-wing act of deception and cowardice.  It’s where you omit key words (or, in this case, entire paragraphs) from an original quote in order to change its meaning entirely.  The shameful practice was named after the partisan hack columnist Maureen Dowd of the Old Gray Hag, who dowdified a quote from President Bush thusly:

Busy chasing off Saddam, the president and vice president had told us that Al Qaeda was spent. “Al Qaeda is on the run,” President Bush said last week. “That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated… They’re not a problem anymore.”

The actual quote?

Al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they’re not a problem anymore.

The implication Dowd was making, willfully so, is that Bush was suggesting Al Qaeda was no longer a problem, that Al Qaeda was totally destroyed from top to bottom.  It was clear he was referring to the Al Qaeda leaders who had been jailed or killed, and not the organization as whole.  Deceptive, no?

Anywho, why am I rehashing this?  Because it illustrates how low the left will go to score points, even if they have to dowdify quotes to win.  Dishonesty is the left’s middle name.  Here’s an analysis of a Dem ad, from (of all places) the AP:

SCRIPT: CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?”

McCain: “I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment, low inflation. A lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created … I think we are better off overall.”

KEY IMAGES: A clip of McCain at the Jan. 30 Republican debate in Simi Valley, Calif., sponsored by CNN. A split screen depicts scenes of foreclosure signs, a shuttered plant gate and $4 gas prices as text on the screen states: “Unemployment Up,” “Highest Inflation in 17 years,” “Gas Prices Up 200 Percent” and “1.8 Million Jobs Lost.” The ad ends with two text questions: “Do you feel better off?” and “Is John McCain the Right Choice for America’s Future?”

The problem? They omitted a ton of “yeah, but” quotes from Juanny Mac, the omitted quotes being emphasized:

Here is McCain’s full response to Cooper’s question at the debate:

Cooper: “Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?”

McCain: “I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.

“But let’s have some straight talk. Things are tough right now. Americans are uncertain about this housing crisis. Americans are uncertain about the economy, as we see the stock market bounce up and down, but more importantly, the economy particularly in some parts of the country, state of Michigan, Governor Romney and I campaigned, not to my success, I might add, and other parts of the country are probably better off.

“But I think what we’re trying to do to fix this economy is important. We’ve got to address the housing, subprime housing problem. We need to, obviously, have this package go through the Congress as quickly as possible.

“We need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which I voted for twice to do so. I think we need to eliminate the alternate minimum tax that sits out there and challenges 25 million American families.

Cooper: “It sounds like you’re saying we’re not better off.”

McCain: “I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.

“What I’m trying to emphasize, Anderson, that we are in a very serious challenge right now, with a lot of Americans very uncertain about their future, and we’ve got to give them some comfort.

“We’ve got to give them some stimulus. We’ve got to give them some tax relief. We’ve got to stop this outrageous squandering spending that causes us to have to borrow money from China, and we’ve got to get our fiscal house in order.

“I think we went on a spending spree that, frankly, betrayed Ronald Reagan’s principles about tax cuts and restraint of spending.”

Shameless, aren’t they? That’s enough to make MoDo herself blush!

April 22, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | McCain, shameful