A lying campaign slogan is a terrible thing to lose, stuff

Posted by William A. Jacobson Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 04:30pm 17 Comments

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As you know, I’m wary of PolitiFact, particularly the inconsistency with which the various participating newspapers apply ratings.

But hey, when it works for us, why not use it, Lie of the Year 2011: ‘Republicans voted to end Medicare’. The timing could not be better. Paul Krugman says PolitiFact is dead to him. Matt Yglsesias calls Politifact’s story the Lie of the Year.

Some other stuff:

I had breakfast this morning with Barry Hinckley, the likely Republican nominee challenging Sheldon Whitehouse for Senate in Rhode Island. I was very impressed. I’ll have more, probably next week. Consider a donation now if you are in a giving mood.
A lot of people want me to write about Holder playing the race card. Give me time, like until Saturday night. (I know it’s Christmas eve, would it be sacrilegious to run a Saturday Night Card Game on Christmas Eve?)
House rejects Senate 2-month FICA holiday. Senators should get their rear ends back to D.C. and Obama should cancel his vacation.
Ron Paul no longer is useful as a Newt foil, so attack!
Mitt Romney speaks out against the evil of SuperPACS (you mean like the one running millions of dollars in attack ads against Newt?) He says he can’t coordinate and so can’t tell them to stop (which I think is true) but he can express his displeasure and denounce what they are doing. But that would be, shall we say, not helpful to his campaign.
If Syria isn’t already in civil war, it’s pretty close.
Meghan McCain is going after Calista Gingrich. Maybe she should be going after her mother, instead: “Cindy McCain began dating Sen. McCain in 1979, nearly a year before he filed for divorce from his first wife, Carol McCain.” Would that be mean?
Who coulda seen this coming:

Update: Finally –

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17 Comments

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DINORightMarie | December 20, 2011 at 4:50 pm

Meghan McCain is going after Calista Gingrich. Maybe she should be going after her mother, instead: “Cindy McCain began dating Sen. McCain in 1979, nearly a year before he filed for divorce from his first wife, Carol McCain.” Would that be mean?

Yes, that would be mean. But it is the truth. And, if Ms. McCain is going to go there, then she should be ready for the logical, truthful reply.

BannedbytheGuardian | December 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm

Woohooooo.

Meggy vs Callista. Callista will knock her sox off & then punch her out with a Tiffany’s Vintage Diamond cluster . (the 70s range are lethal ).

It won’t do much for Meggymac’s love life. For 3 years her dates have consisted of answering questions on Sarah Palin . Now that more men will spot Callista -Meggy’s future is domed.

Callista has that Scandinavian blonde look that becomes Ice Queen in a woman of certain age. They always reign supreme.

BurkeanBadger | December 20, 2011 at 5:23 pm

Quite honestly, who cares what Meghan McCain says about anything or anyone? Not I.

The PolitiFact story is awesome though. Not just the actual story, but the initial reactions by the liberal chattering class (and I’m sure there will be many more). The left is so used to a sympathetic MSM assuring the hoi polloi that all of the conclusions of progressives are based on indisputable fact and empirical evidence that when that same MSM actually points out that *gasp* liberals do lie and twist facts sometimes (just, you know, very, very occasionally), all hell breaks lose.

Funny

janitor | December 20, 2011 at 5:27 pm

Forgive if you’ve seen this before. Allen West on Holder’s racism claims: http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/19/west-holder%E2%80%99s-race-card-is-the-%E2%80%98last-card-in-the-deck%E2%80%99/

Aarradin | December 20, 2011 at 6:12 pm

The real “lie of the year” is Politifact’s own mission statement.

I clicked the link to their poll for “lie of the year” – of the 10 choices listed, 4 were objective statements of fact that Politifact’s analysis had to thoroughly and deliberately misinterpret in order to label as “lies”. All four were by Republicians.

Politifact was founded by leftwing journalists from the St Petersburg Times. They exist to delegitimize conservative thought.

Aarradin | December 20, 2011 at 6:16 pm

No one takes Meghan McCain seriously. Every time she opens her mouth, stupid falls out. How is this news?

If you feel you must mention her, why not just say, “Meghan McCain said something stupid. Again.” and refrain from including any links?

Henry Hawkins in reply to Aarradin. | December 20, 2011 at 7:32 pm

Agreed. Citing what she has to say on anything is like announcing that Michael Jackson is still dead.

Sherlock | December 20, 2011 at 7:56 pm

Professor, Happy Hanukah!

William A. Jacobson in reply to Sherlock. | December 20, 2011 at 8:07 pm

Thanks

windbag | December 20, 2011 at 9:40 pm

My teenage kids can offer more relevant commentary on the election than that blond brat can. They just don’t have a famous dad to jump from.

Midwest Rhino | December 20, 2011 at 10:04 pm

Gingrich was just on O’Reilly about his judges thing … sounded strong to me, as well about the onslaught of negative superpac (dishonest) ads.

Newt said he wouldn’t vote for the guy they (superpacs) are portraying. Things it will blow over in a week … challenged mitt to challenge the Superpacs to use his positive attributes … win on mitt, not anti-Newt.

Taxpayer1234 | December 20, 2011 at 11:12 pm

“I know it’s Christmas eve, would it be sacrilegious to run a Saturday Night Card Game on Christmas Eve?”

Not for our favorite Jewish blogger, it’s not :). I’ll look forward to your post.

lgstarr in reply to Taxpayer1234. | December 21, 2011 at 12:11 am

As a Catholic convert (from another Christian denomination) who married a (non-practicing) Jew, I must say that I do agree with you, Taxpayer1234! Of all the “sacrilegious” stuff that we all (sadly) know will actually happen somewhere-in-time on Christmas Eve, a nice and informative blog post from Prof. Jacobson is the least of our worries. (Not to mention that we can “tivo” it for later

Interesting that the bulk of the comments centered around the chick fight…

Taxpayer1234 in reply to lgstarr. | December 21, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Exactly.

PolitiJim | December 20, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Conservatives are eating their own. All have forgotten the story “the boy who cried wolf.” Michelle Bachmann is a case in point: http://www.politijim.com/2011/12/conservatives-crying-wolf.html

Neo | December 20, 2011 at 11:52 pm

This whole adventure with “Politifact” somehow reminds me of the “Funniest Religion Joke Ever” …

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!”
Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

This feels like a “Die heretic!” moment.

Taxpayer1234 in reply to Neo. | December 21, 2011 at 12:01 pm

I used to live in a part of the country dominated by Dutch Christian Reform. There were quite a few churches in town, some literally titled “First Christian Reform,” “Second Christian Reform,” etc. A central tenet of the CRC was sola scriptura, so disagreement on Bible interpretation almost always resulted in a splintering.

Not surprisingly, the local joke was: “One Dutchman, one Christian Reform Church. Two Dutchmen, two Christian Reform churches….”

A lying campaign slogan is a terrible thing to lose, stuff

A lying campaign slogan is a terrible thing to lose, stuff

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