John Dickerson unspins the RNC "white flag" video

Slate's John Dickerson exposes two misleading quotations in the RNC's demagogic "white flag" web video:

It goes almost without saying that some of the quotes from Democrats are taken out of context in a way that completely distorts their meanings. In the statement excerpted in the video, Kerry was not accusing U.S. soldiers of war crimes in Iraq. He was saying local police and military -- not American forces -- should be doing the difficult work of going into Iraqi homes in the dead of night, which is also the president's wish. This is the sentence Kerry uttered after the one the RNC uses: "Whether you like it or not, Iraqis should be doing that." Kerry likes to make his own selective criticisms of the president, but this libel is especially vicious in light of the insinuations that Kerry made unjustified accusations about American atrocities in Vietnam.

The video's treatment of Barbara Boxer is just bizarre. "So there's no specific time frame," they quote her as saying, "but I would say the withdrawal ought to start now, right after the elections December 15th." The liberal California senator has surely said something more incendiary somewhere, but that quote is simply stating administration policy. Here's what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said two weeks before Boxer's remarks, when he answered a question on Face the Nation about whether troops would withdraw: "No question. I mean, we went up for the referendum in October 15th and we went from 138,000 to 160,000. We're now at 159,000. We're going to stay that size roughly through the December 15th election. We're clearly going to go back down to 138,000 after the election."

Dickerson also exposes a shot in the ad showing a soldier watching the Democratic soundbites as manipulated stock footage of a soldier watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Here's a picture of the original:

Comments

[Your #27 Fan]

I'd say Dickerson is about half-right on Kerry -- although he elides over the fact that at the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier meeting, that's exactly what he was doing. In this instance, he just put it badly.

As for Boxer, it may be bizarre that the RNC didn't choose a more striking quote, but it's wrong to equate Boxer's statement with Rumsfeld. She said "withdrawal" had to begin post-election, Rumsfeld only said they were going back to an earlier troop level -- not beginning the full withdrawal there.

And I don't see what the big deal about the Grinch picture is, except that he was able to find the original. If it wasn't taken from that shot, it would have been produced for the spot (some would surely call it "staged"). Pointing out its origination does not change the fact that American soldiers may be discouraged by defeatist comments by Dean or Pelosi.

Or even Kerry -- the RNC may have taken his line out of context, but a reasonable person could well hear that and think, 'did he just call our boys terrorists'? Surely intent is not the only measuring stick; effect matters as well. And the RNC was far from the first to take it this way.

C'mon, Brendan, let's see a Spinsanitized take on the Dickerson piece!