New Obama Campaign Video Employs Some "Republican" Truth Stretching

A recent campaign video out from the Obama White House has already come under fire for misrepresenting the truth, particularly as it pertains to the auto bailout of 2009. Republican opponents and conservative pundits have blasted the video for insulting voters’ intelligence and trying to mislead voters about the economic reality today. The video’s message is fundamentally true; things are better than they were several years ago. However, it does seem to exaggerate how much better, and definitely overstates the amount to which the auto makers have paid back the auto stimulus. Of course, Republicans are calling the kettle black without wanting their voters to notice. I suppose the GOP campaign strategy, much like Gingrich trying to criticize Romney for being rich, is if you hurl blame long enough and loud enough the public won’t notice you’re just as guilty.

Rick Santorum has accused Obama on many occasions of spurring rising gas prices by intentionally holding up drilling permits. In fact, most recently, speaking in Lafayette, Louisiana, he accused Obama of “putting the town under” with his moratorium after the Gulf oil spill in 2010, and of making delays in drilling, “worse and worse, and worse.” The truth is that there are, under the Obama administration, most active oil wells than during any other presidency in history. It’s true that there was a 6-month moratorium after the Gulf oil spill, but once that was lifted, and despite much tougher regulations for oil drilling, the permit approval process is only about two weeks longer than they were before the oil spill; definitely not the kind of thing that would create a market fluctuation in anything, including gas prices.

Newt Gingrich has attempted to refute every media outlet, includi9ng the conservative ones, but preaching form the stump that his campaign is drive by “small donors”. The truth is that about 63% of Gingrich’s total fundraising efforts are from smaller donors, but that his campaign is not depending on its own funds nearly as much as they are on the campaigns supporting Super PAC, “Winning Our Future”. That Super PAC is almost entirely funded, $10 million out of $13 million, by just one couple; Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife.

Mitt Romney has accused Obama of not pushing policies that will make the country energy secure, particularly with his drilling policies in both the Gulf and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In truth, as mentioned above, Obama has actually increased drilling to rates not seen since 2003, and aside from that oil production, energy production from renewable resources is higher than it ever has been in history. In truth, the U.S. is more energy secure now than it ever has been, despite a catastrophic oil spill, a 9 month moratorium, and tougher drilling regulations. Romney has also insinuated in the past that President Obama’s policies were what cause the economic recession in the first place, despite the fact that he wasn’t even in office until almost a year later.