Pants (suit) on fire

Here's what Hillary Rodham Clinton said at the debate tonight.

The facts are that [Obama] said in the last week that he really liked the ideas of the Republicans over the last 10 to 15 years, and we can give you the exact quote.

That is a lie.

If anyone can provide the "exact quote" in which Obama said "he really liked the ideas of the Republicans," I will write a $1000 check to the Clinton for President campaign. Otherwise, I think we can safely assume that the Senator from New York forcefully stated the opposite of the truth.

More on the debate here.

Update A reader supplies the "exact quote":

We're bogged down in the same arguments that we've been having, and they're not useful. And, you know, the Republican approach, I think, has played itself out. I think it's fair to say the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last ten, fifteen years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom. Now, you've heard it all before. You look at the economic policies when they're being debated among the Presidential candidates and it's all tax cuts. Well, you know, we've done that, we tried it.

So the Republican approach is "played out" and the most central Republican idea -- cutting taxes -- is something that has been tried and didn't work. Not a word about "really liking" Republican ideas. I'd say my $1000 was safe.

I'm sorry to see from the comments that some of HRC's supporters share her standards of veracity. At no point did Obama, or anyone on the campaign, charge that HRC's historically tone-deaf comment about MLK and LBJ was "racist." The comment was, of course, silly: as LBJ understood perfectly well, without the movement led by King (among others) he would have had nothing to work with on Capitol Hill.

Comments

[Zanti]

Obama's statements (about Reagan and about the GOP) sure do sound like compliments in context. If they weren't meant to be so, then why the heck did he utter them? Unless Obama is communicat­ion-challe­nged in the extreme, he ought to be able to convey whether or not he approves of the actions and ideas in question, unless he honestly thought no one would call him on these items. (If so, what is someone that naive doing in politics?) For instance, he could have pointed out that the GOP, though its ideas have proven to be destructive, knew what the public wanted much moreso than did the Dems, and were thus better able to enlist their votes. We're only talking one or two qualifiers, after which no one would be asking what he meant, let alone jumping to negative conclusions. Yet, it never occurred to him to insert a word or phrase of clarification? Brilliant.

I strongly suspect Obama was making a swipe at the Clintons. That is, whose was the "conventional wisdom" in question? Bill and Hill's, of course. And Reagan--unlike Bill, we can presume--was a proactive leader. Get it?

A plan of attack so inept that even his supporters aren't sure what he was trying to do. That's sad. Let me suggest that the man is in way over his head. He's smart and capable, but he needs experience. And he needs fewer people holding him up.

[altohone]

Both Clintons lied on the record in the last two weeks.

Love the very apt title for the post.


As for the LBJ quote, the gist was that Hillary could pass legislation like LBJ which Obama could not.

Not only was her wording tone-deaf, the underlying claim is false, and her theoretical situation using fictional legislation has no modern relevance.

The genius of the Clinton machine seems lacking when this series of gaffes is taken into account.

[RDixon]

Well, that would depend on what the definition of lie is.

[BigBen]

If he did not say that then he is someone who admired something they did not like. We are back to it depends what is is.They had the best ideas but they were wrong.
I think I understand what he meant. He does not like them but they are good.Right?
I got it now.They are bad but they are good.

[afgail]

If the Obama campaign can fraudulently bootstrap Hillary's comment about LBJ and the Voting Rights Act into a racist remark, I guess it is fair game to bootstrap his comments about Reagan into the GOP being the party of ideas. He started it and she is finishing it.