Republican Lie Machine: How A Sore Becomes More

11:46 am EST May 13th, 2008 | Republicans | 10 Comments

Jeffrey Goldberg on minority leader Boehner and the twisting of the truth.

A press release from House Republican leader John Boehner asserts that Barack Obama told me that Israel is a “constant sore” that infects American foreign policy. “Israel is a critical American ally and a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, not a `constant sore’ as Barack Obama claims,” Boehner’s statement reads.

Mr. Boehner, I’m sure, is a terribly busy man, with many burdensome responsibilities, so I have to assume that he simply didn’t have time to read the entire Obama interview, or even the entire paragraph, or even a single clause. If he had, of course, he would have seen that Obama was clearly calling the Middle East conflict, and not Israel, a sore. Why, there’s no one who would disagree that the Middle East conflict is a “sore,” is there?

I have no doubt that Mr. Boehner will issue a correction to his press release in which he states the obvious, which is that Obama expressed — in twelve different ways — his support for Israel to me.

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10 Responses to “Republican Lie Machine: How A Sore Becomes More”

  1. Rheinhard says:
    May 13, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Shall we begin counting down until Jay expresses outrage at the terrible and disingenuous quote mining of Obama to mean something other than what Obama meant?

  2. midderpidge says:
    May 13, 2008 at 11:56 am

    At least Obama doesn’t consider his mother to be a constant sore to the nation.

  3. MacDaddy says:
    May 13, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Lie machine is right. One of the problems with the continued so-called contest between Sens. Obama and Clinton is that it distracts Obama and his staff from dealing with major issues and letting voters know where he stands on the issues. At the same time, it opens the door to all kinds of speculation not based in fact. Blessings.

  4. SaveFarris says:
    May 13, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    MacDaddy, the fact that he and his staff is easily distracted isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of your guy.

  5. JWG says:
    May 13, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    All of a sudden, quoting a candidates own words is a lie!

    JG: Do you think that Israel is a drag on America’s reputation overseas?
    BO: No, no, no. But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy.

    Now if we continue with the rest of his statements, we see that he is not referring to Israel as the “sore,” but, hey…as long as his own words are quoted after the question, we don’t have to show everything. It should be OK according to Oliver logic.

  6. Rheinhard says:
    May 13, 2008 at 1:14 pm

    So, that would be about 47 minutes, by my estimation! All righty then!

  7. White Whale says:
    May 13, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    Note to self: File this under useless and false “gotcha!” moments.

  8. Indianadem says:
    May 13, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    John Boehner is a crybaby asshole. Lord, I can’t stand that man.

  9. SpiderJ says:
    May 13, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    Well, Indy, you’d be a cry-baby too if you grew up, as he must have, getting called “Boner” all the time.

  10. Haplo9 says:
    May 15, 2008 at 10:56 am

    ROFL! I missed this little gem. Oliver complaining about Obama’s words being taken out of context. While clearly correct, Oliver, you have exactly zero credibility when it comes to this. Here’s an idea – exercise some intellectual honesty when it comes to your political opponents. Not that I think you will. Too funny.