How to Lie While Telling The Truth

February 24, 2012 | Filed under 2012 Presidential Race,Media,Media Whores | Posted by

A new poll came out that was devastating for Obama.

It showed that not only did people favor spending cuts almost 2:1 over taxing millionaires, but that approval of the Democrats was roughly the same as after the midterms when they got slaughtered at the ballot box.

Or it would be devastating for Obama if he didn’t have “Team AP” on his side.  Notice how the whole story is shifted to made it all good news for Obama when in reality the numbers are awful.

Poll: Millionaire tax popular, spending cuts too

By ALAN FRAM
WASHINGTON (AP) – Most people like President Barack Obama’s proposal to make millionaires pay a significant share of their incomes in taxes. Yet they’d still rather cut spending than boost taxes to balance the federal budget, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows, giving Republicans an edge over Democrats in their core ideological dispute over the nation’s fiscal ills. …

Sixty-five percent of the people in the AP-GfK poll favor Obama’s plan to require people making $1 million or more pay taxes equal to at least 30 percent of their income. Just 26 percent opposed Obama’s idea.

Yet by 56 percent to 31 percent, more embraced cuts in government services than higher taxes as the best medicine for the budget, according to the survey, which was conducted Feb. 16 to 20. That response has changed only modestly since it was first asked in the AP-GfK poll last March. The question on Obama’s tax on the rich was not asked previously.

The poll showed that overall, more people have a positive view of Democrats than Republicans, a ray of hope for Obama and his fellow Democrats with the approach of November’s presidential and congressional elections. Fifty-four percent in the poll gave Democrats favorable ratings compared to 46 percent for Republicans, similar to results in January 2011, at the start of the newly elected Congress in which Republicans have run the House and Democrats wield a slender Senate majority.

For all of his demagoging of the issues, Obama has not moved the meter. The poll shows that people still prefer spending cuts over tax increases by almost a two to one margin and that the Democrats are no more popular now than they were at the midterms… And we all know how that turned out.

It did not matter what the numbers said. AP’s Alan Fram was going with the narrative that it was good news for Obama and the Democrats, even as his own poll numbers told a different story. It takes a certain talent to lie while telling the truth.

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Posted by on February 24, 2012.
Filed under 2012 Presidential Race, Media, Media Whores.


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  • 914

    “Obama has not moved the meter.”

    No, but he move’s his lips..And that is all the people need to know..

  • TomInCali

    Funny how you call the AP article a lie, without identifying a single lie. The only assessment of “good news” was “giving Republicans an edge over Democrats”, which you conveniently didn’t bother bolding.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W6UJJOM4PP4XLSBG6N4LROVSQE Retired Military

      I believe he was referring to the overall cheerful tone of the newstory towards Obama.

      To give you a correlation.  Say Obama was Captain of the Titanic (not too far fetched considering the state of our economy).  The newspaper article written by this reporter would go along the lines of   “CPT Obama and crew offered passengers free icecubes in their drinks after the iceberg leaped into the path of the ship.”

      • TomInCali

        Very clever*, but just a distraction. The article didn’t state anything that wasn’t true and backed by a citation.

        *Not really.

  • http://www.wizbangblog.com Maggie Whitton

    Anything based on fraud, including lying, means everything forward based on that fraud is also fraudulent.

  • ackwired

    Would you like some cheese with that whine?

  • Brucehenry

    People want spending cuts (except those cuts that would affect them personally) AND they want higher taxes on zillionaires. There’s no conflict.

    • Evil Otto

      Well, Brucie, what they’re going to get are cuts that affect them personally and higher taxes on EVERYONE.

      • Brucehenry

        Yes, that’s true, especially if Republicans win big this fall. Everyone except those who already get all the breaks, that is.

        But what I was pointing out is that people SAY they want smaller government, but don’t really want anything cut. Even (or,especially) Tea Party types telling Obama to get his damn government hands off’n their Medicare. When you ask what programs need to be cut, they’ll mention some silly study or some such nonsense. But don’t touch THEIR Social Security, their EITC, their disability check or VA benefits. And they want federal funds for their roads, their schools, their infrastructure.

        Not to mention that many people reflexively, uncritically, unthinkingly support exorbitant and unnecessary military spending so that we can be “Number One – Fuck Yeah!”

        People don’t like spending cuts. They like the IDEA of spending cuts.

        And lots of folks, despite deluding themselves that someday they too will be rich if they just work a little harder and longer for less money and benefits, want to see the richest pay more.

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W6UJJOM4PP4XLSBG6N4LROVSQE Retired Military

          I actually have to agree with most of your post.

  • GarandFan

    When I see the AP byline, what follows is taken with a grain of salt, absent other evidence.  If AP where to tell me it’s raining outside, I’d go look.