McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds calls Sen. Obama “recklessly dishonest” for quoting McCain’s own words at a rally in Erie.
Make your own judgment.
What Obama said …
“John McCain went on television and said that there has been quote “great progress economically over the last seven and a half years,” Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd. “John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush. Now, how could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, PA, say we’ve made great progress?”
What McCain said …
Interviewer: I’m going to ask you a version of the Ronald Reagan question. You think if Americans were asked, are you better off today than you were before George Bush took office more than seven years ago, what answer would they give?
SEN. MCCAIN: Certainly, in this time, we are in very challenging times. We all recognize that. Families are sitting around the kitchen table this evening and figuring out whether they’re going to be able to keep their home or not. They’re figuring out whether they’re – why it is that suddenly and recently someone in their family or their neighbor has lost their job. There’s no doubt that we are in enormous difficulties.
I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time. But that’s no comfort. That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges.
The McCain message is that if you don’t spin McCain’s statements for him you’re recklessly dishonest.
Late Update: ABC actually swallowed this one from the McCain Camp hook, line and sinker. It’s a tour de force of special pleading, and not even by the McCain campaign but by ABC. You’ve got to read it.
