The DNC's first general election ad hits John McCain on the economy.
Misleading? Haven't the Democrats been truncating McCain's comments to Bloomberg News all week? Well, the DNC doesn't refer to the Bloomberg interview. Instead, they refer to McCain's comments during a January 2008 debate on CNN. Here's the full McCain answer:
McCain: "I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created. But let's have some straight talk. Things are tough right now. Americans are uncertain about this housing crisis. Americans are uncertain about the economy, as we see the stock market bounce up and down, but more importantly, the economy particularly in some parts of the country, state of Michigan, Governor Romney and I campaigned, not to my success, I might add, and other parts of the country are probably better off. But I think what we're trying to do to fix this economy is important. We've got to address the housing, subprime housing problem. We need to, obviously, have this package go through the Congress as quickly as possible. We need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which I voted for twice to do so. I think we need to eliminate the alternate minimum tax that sits out there and challenges 25 million American families.Cooper: "It sounds like you're saying we're not better off."
McCain: "I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.
The DNC's ad doesn't take McCain out of context.
