In the last couple of weeks, two of the most high profile Republicans — Mitt Romney and Rick Perry — unveiled scathing attack ads aimed squarely at President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
The TV spots represent sharp-edged, take-no-prisoners indictments of Mr. Obama and his record on the economy.<\/p>\n
Perry, the governor of Texas, describes Mr. Obama statements about American workers as “pathetic” and describes the administration’s policies as “socialist.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, claims point-blank that Mr. Obama has “failed” to salvage the American economy after it began to teeter in 2007.<\/p>\n
The ads focus on what, clearly, is Barack Obama’s big weakness:\u00a0 an economy that continues to sputter along three years after he took office, with unemployment stuck around 9 percent.<\/p>\n
And this is, clearly, the right debate to have.<\/p>\n
What could Mr. Obama have done differently to help Americans facing a foreclosure crisis and chronic unemployment?\u00a0 What policies might have been more effective at shoring up the middle class?<\/p>\n
What role should government play in restoring prosperity, if any?<\/p>\n
Which is why it’s so bizarre that Mr. Romney and Mr. Perry chose to base their new ads not on policy ideas, or on fact-based criticism of Mr. Obama, but on unambiguously, demonstrably false bits of doctored video.<\/p>\n
Mr. Perry’s advertisement, which you can see here<\/a>, includes a clip of Mr. Obama purportedly saying, “We’ve been a little bit lazy I think the last couple of decades.”<\/p>\n “Can you believe that?” Gov. Perry responds indignantly. “That’s what our President thinks wrong with America? That Americans are lazy?<\/p>\n The problem, of course, is that Mr. Obama didn’t say that.\u00a0 At all.\u00a0 Again, this isn’t shades of gray stuff.<\/p>\n In fact, Mr. Obama was talking to a group of corporate executives about the need for American officials and corporations to work harder to attract foreign investment.\u00a0 Here are his comments in full<\/a>:<\/p>\n “I think it\u2019s important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity — our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture. \tBut we\u2019ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We\u2019ve kind of taken for granted — well, people will want to come here and we aren\u2019t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Washington Post’s “FactChecker” column<\/a> gave Perry’s ad its lowest “four Pinocchio” rating — which means the ad contained “whoppers.”<\/p>\n Perry and Romney have ripped Obama\u2019s remarks completely out of context, similar to Romney\u2019s ridiculous Four-Pinocchio claim<\/a> that Obama \u201capologized\u201d for America overseas.<\/p>\n In both cases, the candidates are trying to feed into a subterranean narrative that Obama is not quite American, or certainly not proud to be an American. But, frankly, it\u2019s just lazy politicking on their part.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n