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Thinkprogress.org caught lying about John Mccain and the price of gas
Today, progressive blog Thinkprogress.org claimed that McCain said it does not matter "that I don't know the price of gas."
But this is false. McCain was not asked about the current price of gas. He was asked whether or not he remembered the last time he personally pumped his own gas, which could have been 30 years ago, for all we know. McCain had, after all, his right arm repeatedly fractured by captors in Vietnam. His legs were both fractured as well.
At any rate, this is the exchange Thinkprogress is citing:
WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?
MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.
Moreover, McCain said this to an interviewer on June 18th, less than two weeks ago.
“The price of a gallon of gas in America stands at more than four dollars. Yesterday, a barrel of oil cost about 134 dollarsm” said McCain.Andrew Sullivan and John Cole have both reluctantly issued corrections to the story. Thinkprogress' article maintains the false version unchanged.
link.
Let's attack McCain on his tax debt, his flip-flops, etc. Not based on made-up slip-ups.
Comments (6)
I guess I am slow but I read the ThinkProgress item - not blog summaries of it - and don't quite get how the quote that you cite from the ORIGINAL is evidence that they "lied" in the orginal.
Moroever, I don't even see how these two bloggers have "retracted" anything, not that there was anything to retract in the first place
Garbage
June 29, 2008 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
How could you say there was nothing to rectract?
And are you blind? The lie by Thinkprogress is in the headline. You didn't even have to read past it.
The headline reads: “McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas”
That is an implicit way to tell the reader McCain doesn't know the CURRENT price of gas.
If I told you that I don't know the price of gas, would you believe I'm talking about years ago?
Here's the exchange between the reporter and McCain:
WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?
MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters
June 29, 2008 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree there are easier ways to paint McCain as out of touch. Try mentioning that he and his wife own about fifteen properties, and tells people that they should "skip a vacation" in order to help with the credit crunch etc.
The quote can stand by itself - he should have just responded with the current price of gas, the average price for a tank of gas - but he didn't. Which made him look kinda stupid. Obviously not stupid enough for thinkprogress...
I think the most insulting thing he said was, (paraphrasing) "I understand that families right now are sitting around the kitchen table and taking a good hard look at their finances". No you don't! You've never had to "sit at the kitchen table"! This is just a line fed to you by your communications goons.
June 29, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you really believe that the Clintons knew what it meant when Hillary used similar lines this campaign?
If we start holding all politicians to that kind of line, the last "honest" politician would probably be Harry Truman. And he made it be being propped up by a boss.
June 30, 2008 3:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?
MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.
McCain said he did not remember when he last pumped gas, and how much it cost; that translates into he did not know how much the gas was that he last pumped, and he did not say during that questioning that he knew what the price of gas was at that point in time. He also said that it did not matter that he did not know what the price was. That is John McCain saying that he did not know what the price of gas was at the pump, and he even went further and said that it did not matter.
That makes the headline accurate, and Andrew Perez completely wrong. No surprise there.
June 30, 2008 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
So?
Go cry to the GOP.
June 30, 2008 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
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