I've become increasingly concerned about the embellishments, the falsely slanted re-writings of newspaper accounts, and the smears coming from Barack Obama and his campaign.
Here's Annenberg Political Fact Check.org on "Obama's Creative Clippings: Selective, embellished and out-of-context quotes from newspapers pump up Obama's health plan."
Obama's ad touting his health care plan quotes phrases from newspaper articles and an editorial, but makes them sound more laudatory and authoritative than they actually are.
- It attributes to The Washington Post a line saying Obama's plan would save families about $2,500. But the Post was citing the estimate of the Obama campaign and didn't analyze the purported savings independently.
- It claims that "experts" say Obama's plan is "the best." "Experts" turn out to be editorial writers at the Iowa City Press-Citizen – who, for all their talents, aren't actual experts in the field.
- It quotes yet another newspaper saying Obama's plan "guarantees coverage for all Americans," neglecting to mention that, as the article makes clear, it's only Clinton's and Edwards' plans that would require coverage for everyone, while Obama's would allow individuals to buy in if they wanted to.
Check out the Analysis section subheadings: "Obama Writes His Own Reviews" ... "Obama Strengthens His Own Reviews" ... "Obama Edits His Own Reviews." The accumulation of accounts of Sen. Obama's self-aggrandizement worries me more and more, particularly because those "in awe" voters probably don't know, and need to know. I was heartened to read Elizabeth Edwards' dismissal of the misleading radio ad that Obama is running in Iowa. Elizabeth Edwards tells it like it is! In "A Paucity of Hope (A 'Mendacity of Hope'?)," I noted:
In "A Paucity of Hope (A 'Mendacity of Hope'?, I quoted a New Republic piece, "The Delusional Style in American Punditry," that exposed the "delusional" Boston Globe endorsement of Obama:
The Boston Globe, in an ideal specimen of the delusional style, ran an editorial that endorsed Obama because he is biracial and grew up in "multi-ethnic cultures"--adequate substitutes, by the editorial's lights, for serious background and expertise in foreign affairs. Obama, according to the Globe, has engaged in "a search for identity" and taken "a roots pilgrimage to Kenya," all of which supposedly displays a "level of introspection, honesty, and maturity" that the newspaper longs for in a president. "Obama's story is America's story," the Globe intoned--a sentence that comes as close as any distinguished newspaper ever has to perfect emptiness.
Let us hold aside that the book the Globe relied on in discovering these singular Obamaesque virtues, Dreams From My Father, contains composite characters and other fictionalized elements--not exactly a portrait of sterling honesty or authenticity. What is especially delusional is the Globe's confidence that its own projections about Obama's character and personality, as well as the mystical conclusions it draws from his ethnicity, are serious grounds for endorsing any candidate for any office, much less the presidency. ... (From "The Delusional Style in American Punditry.")
Then there's JedReport's diary at Daily Kos in which he uses Paul Krugman's even-handed critique of the deficiencies in Obama's health plan, and how Obama is distorting the truth about Edwards' and Clinton's health plans: "Obama goes Harry and Louise: The audio."
Taylor Marsh wrote up a extensively-researched, disturbing list of Obama's embellishments and self-aggrandizements on Dec. 26, "Obama Iowa Win Biggest News in World History!." From that list:
"Then there is Mr. Obama's force of, well, himself, according to who else, Barack Obama...," writes Taylor, then listing:
SLATE'S JOHN DICKERSON on OBAMA's "Song of Myself": "Obama's reliance on his anti-war position invites stories that question whether he is inflating his courage. This creates a double risk: résumé inflation suggests both dishonesty and a lack of anything else to boast about…Self-confidence is now a warning sign for myopia, insulation, and the inability to accurately assess the world around you. In a speech containing 80 uses of the first-person pronoun, Obama did have one line of quasi-humility: "I am not a perfect man and I won't be a perfect president." [John Dickerson, "Song of Myself: How Much Room Does Obama Have to Boast?" 10/4/07]
OBAMA FALSELY CLAIMED THAT HE WAS A LAW PROFESSOR: In 2004, the Sun-Times reported that, “Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter.” In 2007, Obama was quoted in the AP saying, “‘I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution.” Obama is listed as a “Senior Lecturer in Law (on leave of absence)," not a law professor, on the University of Chicago law school web site. [Chicago Daily Herald, 3/8/04; Chicago Sun-Times, 8/8/04; AP, 3/30/07; law.uchicago.edu]
OBAMA MAY HAVE CLAIMED TOO MUCH CREDIT IN COMMUNITY EFFORT TO REMOVE ASBESTOS FROM PUBLIC HOUSING: "Obama says he initiated and led efforts that thrust Altgeld's asbestos problem into the headlines, pushing city officials to call hearings and a reluctant housing authority to start a cleanup… But others tell the story much differently. They say Obama did not play the singular role in the asbestos episode that he portrays in the best-selling memoir 'Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.' Credit for pushing officials to deal with the cancer-causing substance, according to interviews and news accounts from that period, also goes to a well-known preexisting group at Altgeld Gardens and to a local newspaper called the Chicago Reporter. Obama does not mention either one in his book." [Los Angeles Times, 2/19/07]
The accumulative effect of the "audacity" of Sen. Obama's embellishments is a "tell" about what the man is made of.