The Pinocchio Test
Obama has distorted McCain's position on Social Security, just as McCain has twisted Obama's position on taxes. (The McCain camp falsely claims that Obama wants to raise taxes across the board.) As the presidential election campaign enters its final phase, both candidates have resorted to scare tactics and a barrage of misleading, sometimes false, statistics to drum up votes.
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"The New York Times charges that McCain-Palin 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis was paid by Freddie Mac until last month, contrary to previous reporting, as well as statements by this campaign and by Mr. Davis himself. In fact, the allegation is demonstrably false. "
--
McCain campaign blog, September 24, 2008.
The New York Times "is an organization that is completely, totally, 150 percent, in the tank for the Democratic candidate."
--McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt,
conference call, Sept. 22, 2008.
The McCain camp is furious with the New York Times for its reporting on the relationship between McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that are at the center of the current financial crisis. McCain spokesmen have tried to discredit the newspaper's reporting with the argument that it is "in the tank" for Obama, a charge that it frequently uses against journalists who cross the campaign. The attacks fail to address the substantive points raised by the Times and other news organizations.
The Facts
The "guilt by association" war heated up last week when John McCain
approved an ad accusing his rival, Barack Obama, of accepting advice on housing issues from the former chief executive of Fannie Mae, a claim denied by the Obama campaign. The McCain attacks backfired after the
New York Times reported that Davis had received nearly $2 million over a period of five years (between 2000 and 2005) as president of an advocacy group established by the two mortgage giants as part of their campaign against stricter regulation.
The McCain campaign did not contest the central points in the Times article. Instead it
pointed out that Davis had taken an unpaid leave of absence from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006, and had never served as "a registered lobbyist" for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The campaign says that Davis has not served as a registered lobbyist since 2005.
On Wednesday,
the Times reported that Freddie Mac had paid Davis's firm, Davis Manafort, a monthly retainer free of $15,000 from the end of 2005 through August 2008. Similar reports appeared in
The Washington Post, the
Associated Press,
Roll Call, and
Newsweek.
The McCain campaign responded to the latest batch of reports with a classic non-denial denial: It furiously rebutted something that was never alleged. A
McCain blog entry by spokesman Michael Goldfarb said that the New York Times had made a "demonstrably false" allegation, charging that "Davis was paid by Freddie Mac until last month."
In fact, the newspaper reports pointed out that the payments were to Davis's firm, rather than Davis himself, and that Davis is not receiving a salary from his company while working for McCain. The reports also noted that Davis remains a partner in Davis Manafort and stands to benefit over the long term from its success. Davis's close ties with McCain were cited as the primary reason for payment of the retainer by Freddie Mac to Davis Manafort.
Even as it attacks the New York Times as "an Obama advocacy organization," the McCain campaign frequently e-mails reporters with articles from the paper that critically examine the record of the Democratic presidential candidate.
The Pinocchio Test
Rather than discuss Davis's relationship with the failed mortgage giants, the McCain campaign is relying on the tried-and-tested campaign technique known as "working the refs." The McCain camp has accused the Times of a "willful disregard for the truth," but has been unable to demonstrate factual errors in the newspaper's reporting of the Davis-Freddie Mac relationship.
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Posted on September 24, 2008 at 6:10 PM ET | Category:
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