Democracy Has Prevailed.

June 19, 2008

Fact Checking Lil Ricky

Lordy, lordy Rick Santorum's got another column out today!

Another opportunity for him to spin and mangle the historical record. Another opportunity for me to fact-check.

Ain't life grand?

It's good to see that Lil Ricky is trying to do something constructive with his time. I wonder how he fared with his interest-only mortgage? A half-mil was due this past November.

Back to his column. The general point of the column is Senator Obama's so-called "Israel problem." As evidence he cuts and pastes quotes from the record. Let's go take a look. The vote:
In Pennsylvania, Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Obama by 10 points but won the Jewish vote by 24. It was as bad, if not worse, in other states with sizable Jewish populations. In November, polls indicate he will run 20 to 30 points behind the typical Democratic presidential candidate among Jewish voters.
He goes back to November (by my count more than 7 months ago) to bring up that last point. Perhaps he should have looked at some more recent data. Here's Gallup from April:
Barack Obama is faring better than might be expected among Jewish voters, beating John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily general-election matchups and trailing Hillary Clinton only slightly in Jewish Democrats' preferences for the Democratic nomination.
And:
In terms of the general election, Jewish voters nationwide are nearly as likely to say they would vote for Obama if he were the Democratic nominee running against the Republican McCain (61%), as to say they would vote for Clinton (66%).
And this is might be why Rick didn't want to reference this Gallup data:

Rather than declining between March and April, support for Obama versus McCain among Jewish voters has increased slightly, from a 23-point margin in favor of Obama (58% to 35%) to a 29-point margin (61% to 32%).

The results are similar for Clinton, who received 66% of the vote from Jewish Democrats in April, compared with 27% for McCain -- a 39-point lead. Clinton led McCain by 29 points in March, 61% to 32%.

Somehow I don't think that of the two of them Senator Obama should be as worried about the Jewish vote as Senator McCain.

Back to Rick:
In September, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution, by a vote of 76-22, that labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Obama didn't make the vote, but he trashed the resolution and used Clinton's support of it to drive a wedge between her and the antiwar crowd. At the same time, Obama famously announced that he would meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "without precondition" and declared that Iran was merely a "tiny threat."
This one will take a little work. Let's start at the end and move our way backward. Here's where the "tiny threat" line comes from:

And a transcript of the "tiny threat" part:
Strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khruschev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviets posed a serious threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union.
Please note the comparison. Iran is a tiny country compared to the former Soviet Union (true). It's military might is tiny in comparison to the former Soviet Union (also true). The Soviet Union was a serious threat to National Security (true, again) and so Iran doesn't pose as serious a threat the way the Soviets did (again and again true). And yet to Ricky, he spins it into saying that Senator Obama says that Iran is a "tiny threat."

Not true, Rick. Not even a good try.

I've written on the meeting without "without condition" stuff before (go look for it, it's not bad).

Now onto the first part of Lil Ricky's paragraph. Rick is using it, I suppose, to imply that Senator Obama doesn't think that the Revolutionary Guard should be designated as a terrorist organization.

From the Obama website:
Obama Cosponsored The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, Which Would Designate The Iranian Revolutionary Guard As A Terrorist Organ, Prohibit Trade With Iran, Freeze Iranian Officials' Assets, Help Combat Terrorist Financing.
And about that resolution vote. Rick seems to be making hay about the fact that Senator Obama missed the vote. Actually there were TWO Senators who missed that vote. Obama was one.

Senator John McCain was the other.

Rick ties up the column with your standard guilt-by-association argument. He goes after Obama for his connections to Jeremiah Wright (already denounced by Obama) on account of Wright's associations. Staggering. Take a look:
Then there's the company Obama keeps. The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.'s anti-American sound bites are tame in comparison to his anti-Zionist diatribes. Everyone knows Wright honored the anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan with an award. Less known is that the bulletin of Obama's former church once featured an open letter from Palestinian Ali Baghdadi. "I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the white supremacists of South Africa," he wrote. "Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs."
Rick doesn't say what, if anything, Obama had to do with any of that. Or what he could do about it - other than leaving the church. Hey, he has!

Hey, speaking of associations, did you know that Rick Santorum is scheduled to speak at Reverend Hagee's Christians United for Israel summit this July?

Lil Ricky will be speaking TWICE on Monday, July 21. The topic of discussion is "Radical Islam: In Their Own Words" and I hope Rick does a better job quoting there than he does here.

Rick's associated with the same Reverend Hagee who famously said the Catholic Church was the "whore of Babylon" (and backpedalled just as famously when it wasn't politically expedient), he's also said that the Anti-Christ is "partially Jewish, as was Adolph Hitler."

Oh, Hagee also said the Anti-Christ is gay. That must explain Rick's "man on dog" comment.

Or maybe it doesn't. Who knows when dealing with Lil Ricky Santorum?

16 comments:

Schultz said...

The McCain campaign is quickly turning int a train wreck. In order to win McCain needs to win over more Democrats and he needs to win a majority of the Independent voters. By trotting out people like Rudy Guliani, Joe Liebermann, and by having the likes of Rick Santorum in his corner he is going to see a contiued erosion of support from both Democrats and Independents.

If McCain stuck to playing up his "Maverick" label then maybe he would have a chance - but since he was so weak with the right he now has to solidify his support with them, but that ruins his chances with the middle. His proposal for lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling was an even bigger gaffe than the gas tax holiday. He will now lose the state of Florida, which means he doesn't have a chance in November.

Anonymous said...

I suspected that the Santorum-with-Hagee story was a hoax . . . until I followed the link.

Is Mr. Santorum aware of Rev. Hagee's virulently anti-Catholic record? Or does Mr. Santorum no longer care about his church (or even appearances) consequent to the end of his political career?

Sen. Lieberman is speaking on a panel with Rev. Hagee.

I would pay to be the one who gets to inform Sen. Lieberman of his new status in the Senate on Nov. 5.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

santorum was on fox last night so i knew he was up to no good.

Anonymous said...

I'm posting this twice because I want to know how it can be defended.

At 5:45 AM, Anonymous said...
When s a flip flop "change" and not a lie? When Obama does it.

This news from Newsmax: Analysis: Obama Chose Winning Over His Word

Thursday, June 19, 2008 4:00 PM


Obama, a record-shattering fundraiser, reversed course Thursday and decided to forgo more than $80 million so he could raise unlimited amounts of money and spend as much as he wants.

Let's build the first general election campaign that's truly funded by the American people," Obama said _ ignoring the fact that the system he's opting out of is paid for by taxpayers who donate $3 to the fund when they file their tax returns.

Obama blamed his decision in part on McCain and "the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups." But he failed to mention that the only outside groups running ads in earnest so far are those aligned with Obama _ and running commercials against McCain.

So much for being a straight shooter.

Anonymous said...

John K. says: Speaking of the above post, I did think it was hilarious how Olbermouth spun that. Trying to tell us Obama never said what he said and then trying to tell us Obama is being bold. The NY Times is reporting that Obama benefits more from 527 ads than the Repubicans. Like I said, you can always spot a liberal. They are the ones with hypocrite written on their forehead. LOL

Anonymous said...

Obama's phenomenal fundraising, much of which came from small donations by average people, has indeed (in a large part) been financed by "the American people." And will continue to be so.

And if McCain's nasty proxies in the 527 underground aren't yet running spots targeting Obama, they soon will. He knows that and he is preparing for it, just like any good executive or commander would.

What Obama and other progressives are hoping for is to take the White House in November and to build an insurmountable lead in Congress. THEN, we can get down to reforming campaign finance and about a million other Bush-era policies which have poisoned our country. But we have to get there first...and being ready for the swift-boaters is just being smart.

Pilt

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:50:

There's misstatements, there's lies, there's spam lies, then there's anonymous spam lies.

cathcatz said...

all of mccain's 527's are busy reworking their attacks to go after obama since rushbo's operation chaos failed so miserably.

given them time. the swiftboats will soon be headed obama's way, only now, he'll have the financial means to fight back, along with the money to continue to get his message out to all of the 50 states.

Anonymous said...

spin, spin, you spin we all spin. So much for "change"..the only change we are going to see is in skin color. This is the ultimate affirmative action. The white guys are putting the black guy out front, but the real job is not his. I don't think it matters who the next president is, but don't feed me anymore hypocracy of unity and change. Call it what it is same old boys making lots and lots of money. The common people would do better to put their hundred dollar contributions in their gas tanks. Fooled again!!!!

Oh yeah---Shmuck, who are you? Can I know who you really are? Is that your real name?

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah---Shmuck, who are you? Can I know who you really are? Is that your real name?

You COULD know who I am if you were willing to put in 10 minutes of work to find out and had the tiniest level of cleverness.

So the answer is, "No, you will never know who I am." Sorry.

Talk about spinning! Watch the Wingnuts explain what McCain REALLY meant when he said, "I never loved America." It's hilarious! Should I say LMAO? LOL? Naw, that would be crude.

Anonymous said...

Shmuck, I don't think hiding behind a rock makes you any more recognizable than any other anon poster. Turning over rocks usually turns up a snake or other vermin. I'll get by without knowing you.
You make no better arguments than any other poster. Get the Cheetos out of your ears!

Anonymous said...

You completely miss the point in this argument, Anon, just as you always do.

In the first place, as I said, you could discover my real name if you wanted to, but of course you're wa-a-a-a-y too lazy for that.

But the problem with posting anonymously is that you don't give the community an opportunity to associate you with your point of view. We always know, for example, what John K is about, or Sherry, or Mein Heir. But anonymous??? There might be one of you, or 500. It's not fair, but Wingnuts don't care about fairness so never mind.

I am indeed a snake, a rat, a cockroach. I just thank the Powers that Be everyday that I am not a conservative.

Do I make better arguments than other posters? Who cares? As long as I can annoy people like you.

I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am!

Anonymous said...

You completely miss the point in this argument, Anon, just as you always do.

I miss your point because you post in a fog of self-delusion,Shmuck.

But, I really am having fun. Don't get out much, ya know.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're having fun, Anon. Please keep playing and keeping us amused. We love ya!

I just love my fog of self-delusion.

BTW, if you learn how to spell, it'll be even more fun to make you look bad.

Anonymous said...

Oh Shmuck, now that you are checking spelling again, you have placed yourself under a great burden. Not only will you have to try and spin your points, youll have to make sure you spell em corekly. no fast comebaks now.
I'm happy!

Anonymous said...

Happiness is a warm idiot.