Try Honesty

Conn Carroll / October 31, 2008

Just last week, Heritage analyst Rea Hederman published a paper comparing John McCain and Barack Obama on taxes, concluding: “Senator McCain’s plan is substantially better at spurring economic growth than Senator Obama’s. This is not surprising, since Senator McCain focuses on economic growth and job creation while Senator Obama focuses on the redistribution of income.”

So imagine his surprise when he started receiving emails early this week informing him that Obama had a television ad up claiming the opposite. At National Review Online, Hederman describes what he did next:

Intrigued, I searched the web for a video of the ad. There it was, under the nifty title of “Try This.” A quick click and, sure enough, they’re playing my name. According to the announcer, I believe the middle class would be better off under the Obama tax plan. …

Moving quickly to the Obama campaign website, I found the same claim in print. Here, words which never passed my lips appeared in quotation marks. Suddenly, it clicked. I know those words! But two and a half months earlier, a reporter at the New York Sun wrote a story quoting me. They were his words, not mine.

Yet, the words seemed somehow incomplete. Wasn’t there, perhaps, something more in that sentence? Something that might, you know, accurately portray my views?

A little more Googling to find the original story and, yep, there was more. Though the ad ended the non-quote with a period, it should have used an ellipsis. Oddly enough, the rest of the sentence which the ad “disappeared” criticized the Obama tax plan. The article’s very next sentence — which actually contains a quote from me! — presented a very helpful suggestion as how to Sen. Obama could fix his tax plan.

Heritage has since sent a letter to Obama demanding his campaign retract its dishonest ad. Heritage’s attorney has also sent letters to TV stations asking them to stop airing Obama’s lies. If you see this dishonest ad on TV, please let us know in the comments below so we can take appropriate action.