FactCheck: Barry Oh! embellishes his resume in first general election ad

Why, I can’t believe he’d do something like this!

Obama has released his first post-primary ad, a 60-second spot that’s airing in 18 battleground states. In effect, “Country I Love” is Obama’s first ad of the general election campaign, and as such it invites scrutiny. (FactCheck will address McCain’s first general election ads in a separate article.) We don’t find this ad egregiously misleading, but it paints a picture of Obama’s accomplishments that could leave viewers with a misimpression or two.

His description of his upbringing and work history are accurate. He describes the “strong values” he says he learned from his mother and her parents. But when Obama discusses his legislative accomplishments, he leaves out some important context.

The ad talks about laws that Obama “passed,” but in fact, he sponsored only one of the three bills mentioned and cosponsored another. The third included provisions from some bills he’d sponsored earlier, but his name wasn’t attached to the one that passed. And two of the three laws were accomplishments of the Illinois Legislature, not the U.S. Senate.

Here’s the vid:

Now, of course, most politicians do the same thing Obama did in this vid – they carefully exaggerate/embellish their past accomplishments because they want to be liked, shown as “leaders” who “get things done” and who will “reach across the aisle” in the “spirit of bipartisanhip.”

But …

Obama’s supposed to be A Different Kind of PoliticianΓ’β€žΒ’, right?

Right? :-?

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