Fact Checker in the Washington Post:
President Obama: “When my mom got cancer, she wasn’t a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all her resources”
Michelle Obama: “She developed ovarian cancer, never really had good, consistent insurance. That’s a tough thing to deal with, watching your mother die of something that could have been prevented. I don’t think he wants to see anyone go through that.”
Hanks: “And he remembered the millions of families like of his who feel the pressure of rising costs and the fear of being denied or dropped from coverage.”
—series of statements with images of Obama and his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, in the Obama campaign film “The Road We’ve Traveled”
“The Road We’ve Traveled” is a very slick and impressively produced campaign film—sheer catnip for Obama fans. There are a number of facts and figures that could be challenged, but for now we are going to focus on this sequence. The series of words and images is an excellent example of how such films can create a misleading impression, while skirting as close as possible to the edge of falsehood.
The sequence, in fact, evokes a famous story that candidate Obama told during the 2008 campaign—that his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, fought with her insurer over whether her cancer was a pre-existing condition that disqualified her from coverage.
But the story was later called into question by Dunham’s biographer. The fact that Obama’s initial claim is not directly repeated suggests the filmmakers knew there was a problem with the campaign story, but they clearly wanted to keep some version of it in the film.
Read the rest for this ‘story’ that they continue to repeat after it’s been long debunked, the shameless liars. Good fisking, but we think this deserves more than 3 Pinocchii.
https://twitter.com/#!/retortusers/status/181856793834688512
https://twitter.com/#!/loudrightvoices/status/180851363595554816
https://twitter.com/#!/greglgaines/status/181903530691543040
Maybe it’s time to update your lie-ographies, Mr. President.
Update: Shocked! Shocked!
https://twitter.com/#!/JosephAGallant/status/182091873291210752
The Obama 2012 campaign has released a short film called “The Road We’ve Traveled,” detailing the challenges faced by President Barack Obama’s administration from day one through the start of the campaign.
But it’s not all roses for team Obama: part of the film contains a gross inaccuracy. Specifically, it claims that General Motors (GM) has fully repaid its federal bailout loan. It has not — meaning the documentary contains a $25 billion error.
Of the nearly $50 billion given to GM, just under half has been repaid to the government. Officials still argue the auto bailouts were a good investment due to the hundreds of thousands of jobs saved by that decision, and it is accurate to say that GM has returned to record profits — as have all the other major American automakers.
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