Well, President Barack Hussein Obama has finally begun his disingenuous/dishonest/outright lying campaign of television advertisements that tell part of the truth; just enough to fool Kool-Aid drinkers. In a campaign ad that is currently running in Virginia, he claims that his policies have promoted clean energy jobs and reduced the nation's dependence on foreign oil while enduring unfounded attacks from the energy industry. He even has the chutzpah to promote his ethics record. And all of this in only 30 seconds! The ad is also running in Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Here is a link if you have a strong stomach and want to see the ad for yourself.
So let's examine what Obama claims in the ad. Then I will provide what the late, great Paul Harvey used to call "the rest of the story."
Claim: Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama The Rest of the Story: The oil & gas industry in general, and the Koch brothers in particular, have been anything but secretive in their attacks on President Obama.
Claim: Implication that President Obama has created 2.7 million "clean energy industry" jobs The Rest of the Story: While the number 2.7 million may be true, the ad cites a report from the Brookings Institute (page 4). That report says, "The clean economy, which employs some 2.7 million workers, encompasses a significant number of jobs in establishments spread across a diverse group of industries... Most clean economy jobs reside in mature segments that cover a wide swath of activities, including manufacturing and the provision of public services such as wastewater and mass transit. A smaller portion of the clean economy encompasses newer segments that respond to energy-related challenges. These include the solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, fuel cell, smart grid, biofuel, and battery industries." The report says that the "clean economy establishments added half a million jobs between 2003 and 2010." Let's see, Obama was inaugurated in January, 2009, so his claim to any job created before he was inaugurated is an outright lie! Further, the report refers to "clean economy" jobs, not "clean energy" jobs. The great majority of the clean economy jobs are not in the clean energy industry. But as we have seen, Obama is quite adept at comparing apples and oranges.
Bottom line: any job, regardless of its nature, is claimed to belong to the clean energy industry.
Claim: Implication that Obama played a role in the increase in US domestic oil production The Rest of the Story: Most domestic oil production growth was worked up, leased, drilled and plumbed-up for production over the last decade or more, long before he was inaugurated. His policies have actually done just the opposite: they have reduced production. Increases in production have come from two sources: Fracking of shale in the Baaken field: despite the EPA's efforts to stop fracking, the Baaken field continues to produce Gulf of Mexico: deepwater discoveries in the gulf that have been brought on line over the last three years were discovered years before Obama was inaugurated.
Claim: The US dependence on foreign oil is now below 50 percent The Rest of the Story: While his claim may be true, the ad fails to explain why it is true: oil consumption is down because we remain in an economic recession/depression, something he promised to end if elected.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
So how is this better or worse than any other campaign ad by any other politician?
2 - Dan(Miller)
But shouldn't we expect better from the most transparent president in history?
3 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
Dan, I think if Obama changed his name to George Washington and started behaving thusly it wouldn't make any difference to Warren.
4 - Dan(Miller)
Nevertheless, I think he should try, but only after mature consideration and only in the fullness of time; perhaps when he has the Democrat nomination locked up and his current name is on all ballots.
5 - Glenn Hussein Contrarian
(1) On the Koch brothers attacking, how long did it take for them to admit they were bankrolling the supposedly-grassroots Tea Party? Those really big, really nice looking new buses are like nothing I'd ever seen from any real grassroots campaign I've ever heard of!
(2) Why is it that earthquakes with close-by epicenters started when the fracking started, and stopped when the fracking stopped? Care to address that, Warren?
(3) Seeing as how we're now a net oil exporter - in other words, we export more oil than we import - we should be able to say we're free from foreign oil, right? And how are we supposed to get to what the Republicans claim is the best way to energy independence - "drill, baby, drill" - if we export more oil than we import? Would you care to address that one either, Warren? Didn't think so.
(4) 'Ethics'? Hm. Where's your outrage against outright treason by Dick Cheney, and covered by Dubya? Where's your outrage against Bush firing attorneys general for refusing to prosecute politicians for various types of voting fraud even though the judges pointed out there was ZERO evidence to do so? Where's your outrage against Iran-Contra? Obama hasn't been perfect by any means, but anything he's done wrong is truly small potatoes compared to those three fiascoes!
(5) And where's your outrage for thousands of our troops - and over a hundred thousand innocent Iraqi men, women, and children - being killed in an invasion that Bush was already planning ten days after he took the oath of office (and eight months before 9/11)...and carried out even though he was being told that the Iraqis didn't have nukes?
Warren, EVERY president all the way back to George Hussein Washington and Abraham Hussein Lincoln had dirty laundry...but when you focus only on the one you hate, it blinds you to what your own do that is sometimes much, much worse, and you lose all sense of perspective.
6 - Glenn Hussein Contrarian
Doc -
Good idea, and please take my imitation as the flattery it is.
7 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
The new handle suits you, Glenn. Interestingly enough, there is a (now retired) soccer player of that name who used to play for Liverpool.
Of course, he's Swedish and spells his name Hysen, but still.
8 - Warren Beatty
Re: comments # 1, 3, 5, and 6, Dr. Hussein Deadful and Glenn Hussein Contranian, In the "can't refute the argument so try to change the subject" department, y'all are exposing prejudices!
Dan Miller is correct.
9 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
Dan Miller may be correct, but the bottom line is that Obama is a politician. Making empty promises is part of the job description.
With that in mind, I look forward to your equally nitpicky articles during the next Republican administration.
10 - Clavos
I think if Obama changed his name to George Washington and started behaving thusly it wouldn't make any difference to Warren.
Nor should it. He'd still be the same liberal Democrat.
And what was so great about Washington as president anyway? He had to be drafted into the job, and then he did nothing.
11 - Dan(Miller)
I find the meme "my guy is no more dirty than your guy" rather depressing, having been told, repeatedly, that we would have "change" for the better. Now I hear that President Obama is a politician. Making empty promises is part of the job description.
Dear me. How and when does the transition from politician to president to statesman occur? Soon after death or is there a waiting period?
12 - Warren Beatty
Re: comment #11, Dan, very good comment and observation. I anxiously await Doc's and Glenn's responses.
13 - Glenn Contrarian
Hm. Let me see here. One guy has a campaign ad that is at worst questionable, and the other guy invades a nation on false pretenses and leaves over 100,000 dead men, women, and children.
No, I'm not saying "my politician is no worse than your politician". I'm saying my politician is a damn sight BETTER than your politician who SHOULD be standing in front of the Hague on war crimes charges!
14 - Dan(Miller)
Glen, you respond,
One guy has a campaign ad that is at worst questionable, and the other guy invades a nation on false pretenses and leaves over 100,000 dead men, women, and children.
I hadn't been aware that former President Bush was again seeking office. As to your apparent view that invading a nation on false pretenses and leaves over 100,000 dead men, women, and children was duplicitous, that argument has been and will continue to be made and disputed. As I recall, he had substantial bipartisan support for the invasion. In any event, I fail to see how it supports this defense:
the bottom line is that Obama is a politician. Making empty promises is part of the job description.
15 - Dr Hussein Dreadful
Dan (and Warren): Obama is not "my guy". I'm not American, remember.
But I do know bullshit when I see it.
16 - Warren Beatty
Re: comment #15, Dr Hussein Dreadful, What is, as you say, bullshit? Is it Obama's campaign ad, or Dan's and my comments, and my article?
BTW, adding "Hussein" to your comment name is quite humorous.
17 - Deano
Gosh, a political ad that spins and skews facts....I've never heard of such a thing!
I must retire to my salon, I am having an attack of the vapours.....
18 - Glenn Contrarian
Dan -
No, you cannot blame the Iraq invasion on anyone but Bush - remember that they fed knowingly false information even to Colin Powell that he presented to the U.N., and he was furious about it.
And no, Bush isn't running for office now...but the point is that y'all are SO insistent on focusing on what Obama may or may not be doing wrong, but where were y'all when Bush was doing stuff that was immeasurably worse? Where were y'all when Bush was allowing Cheney to literally get away with treason? Where were y'all?
No, since Bush/Cheney was on YOUR side with that (R) behind their names, you might gripe about it a little bit, but did you rise up in righteous anger after finding out how greatly you'd been deceived? Of course not. But if Obama doesn't wear a flag pin, well, THAT's unforgivable.
The hypocrisy of the Republican party is epic.
19 - Dan(Miller)
Glen, you complain,
y'all are SO insistent on focusing on what Obama may or may not be doing wrong, but where were y'all when Bush was doing stuff that was immeasurably worse? Where were y'all when Bush was allowing Cheney to literally get away with treason? Where were y'all?
Unfortunately, we have to live in the present and thereby try to make the future better. It's fine to look to President Bush as a bad example for the future should you want to do so, but to use what you consider as his malfeasance to excuse whatever President Obama may do makes little sense. President Obama is seeking reelection; former President Bush is not.
As to where was I when President Bush was doing all those things you consider bad? The invasion of Iraq began in March of 2003. My wife and I were then in Panama, establishing our lives here. Back then, I had little interest in what was going on internationally. Now that I have the leisure to write, I am quite interested -- more so in the present and the future than in the past.
20 - Zingzing
how convenient. and a mountain might be a molehill if you've never seen a mountain.
21 - Dan(Miller)
Zingzing,
Even a "molehill" obstructing our path forward can present more serious difficulties than does a "mountain" seen by looking over our shoulders in another direction.
"Mountain" man, former President Bush, is behind us for better or worse. "Molehill" man, President and candidate Obama, is before us. Hopefully, he will soon be behind us as well.
22 - El Bicho
Since so many here on the right are concerned about politicians telling the complete truth, I can't wait for the articles detailing the lies Republican candidates told during last night's debate.
23 - Dan(Miller)
Re #22 -- Only those on the right? That's probably correct but nevertheless unfortunate. In any event, you need only read what the omniscient major media have to say. Then, if it's not too much trouble, you might consider whether the media are correct. Or, if that's too much trouble, just look at what Gingrich and Romney have to say about each other.
24 - El Bicho
Nice job passing the buck. What a surprise your concern for the truth turned out to be one-sided and disingenuous. You should create campaign ads.
25 - Dan(Miller)
Re # 24 -- "Passing the Buck" -- where do you imagine it is supposed to stop? Remember the sign briefly displayed on former President Truman's desk? I rather liked it even though he (as distinguished from President Obama but like former President Bush) is not currently running for reelection.
"Disingenuous." That's a good word. Do you know what it means? Is our President immune to that label? Perhaps he is. Perhaps you might enjoy explaining why he should be.