Count the Lies #107: McCain ''Blatantly Distorts'' Obama Comment on Military

The Democratic National Committee today updated the Count the Lies counter after the Washington Post reported that John McCain's ad "blatantly distorts Barack Obama's words in an effort to paint him as callous about the role of the U.S. military." In reality, Barack Obama said "the opposite of what is portrayed in this spot."

Since John McCain locked up his party's nomination and promised to run a respectful campaign in February, at least 107 independent, non-partisan fact checks have to debunked McCain campaign lies. Visit www.democrats.org/CountTheLies to see the updated Count the Lies counter.

Washington Post: McCain Spot Distorts Obama Comment About Military. "This John McCain ad blatantly distorts Barack Obama's words in an effort to paint him as callous about the role of the U.S. military. The commercial truncates a comment that Obama made to a voter in New Hampshire in August 2007. According to the Associated Press, the senator from Illinois brought up Afghanistan when asked whether he would withdraw troops from Iraq to fight terrorism elsewhere: 'We've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.' In short, Obama was saying he wanted to avoid just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, not that this was all that American troops were doing. His meaning was the opposite of what is portrayed in this spot." [Washington Post, 10/7/08: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/06/AR2008100603082_pf.html]