Blogs For Victory

…and now the RNC is demanding networks pull it.

The Republican National Committee demanded Monday that television networks stop running a television ad by the Democratic Party that falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.

The ad says President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years, then plays a clip of McCain saying, “Maybe 100. That’d be fine with me.”

The announcer then says: “If all he offers is more of the same, is John McCain the right choice for America’s future?”

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said the ad deliberately distorts what McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, said.

The committee’s chief counsel, Sean Cairncross, said he sent letters Monday to NBC, CNN and MSNBC insisting that they stop airing the commercial.

At issue is McCain’s answer, in January, to a question about Bush’s theory that troops could be in Iraq for 50 years.

[…]

Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said “there’s nothing false” about the ad.

“We deliberately used John McCain’s words. This isn’t some ominous consultant’s voice from Washington. This is John McCain’s own words. And we’ve been very upfront about everything that he’s said.”

The ad put out by the DNC does use McCain’s words, but cuts out a portion of his remarks to alter the meaning. Below is McCain’s full quote, with the portions used in the ad highlighted in blue.

Maybe 100. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that’d be fine with me, and I hope it would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting, equipping and motivating people every single day.

What’s really ironic about this is how Howard Dean argues that since the ad uses McCain’s words that there’s no deception… yet, ever since the Jeremiah Wright sermons were exposed in the media, we’ve been hearing his supporters claim that Wright’s racist, anti-American, anti-Semitic comments aren’t so horrible when you consider the context of his sermon. So portions of Wriht’s sermons saying “God damn America” are apparently taken out of context, but editing John McCain’s comments by taking out 14 words form the middle of it is apparently on the level?

Considering the blatant deception going on here, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should immediately call upon his party to kill the ad. But don’t count on it… they both have been using the “100-year-war” canard on stump — and FactCheck.org has specifically called Obama out on his deliberate distortion back in early February. So he’s as bad a liar Howard Dean.