In his first stunning act of journalism, this morning Chris Wallace called out the McCain campaign on their latest but most egregious (and potentially effective) lies. He began his interview of Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, by playing McCain's scandalously false commercial, which accuses Obama of seeking to raise taxes on the middle class. Of course, Obama's proposed tax cuts for the middle class are almost nine times greater than McCain's, but facts be damned.
Here's Chris Wallace's shocking deviation from the RNC script:
NARRATOR: Life in the spotlight must be grand. But for the rest of us, times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Mr. Davis, especially that last sentence, isn't that misleading?
DAVIS: Nothing misleading about it. Barack Obama voted for a budget resolution that would have increased taxes on people, families, making $42,000. What's misleading about that?
WALLACE: Well, in fact, it only would be single people making $42,000. It would be families making over $60,000. But Obama — as you say, he voted for a non-binding budget resolution that overall talked about doing away with the Bush tax cuts.
In fact, he says, that's not his tax plan, that he supports a middle-class tax cut. And I want to put something up on the screen. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center says someone making $37,000 a year under Obama's plan would get a tax cut of $892. Under McCain's plan, they get a tax cut of $113.
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. What you just read was indeed Chris Wallace exposing McCain's newest lie.
But wait! He doesn't stop there! Watch Rick Davis, clearly expecting a cozier interview, get sandbagged on McCain's 95% pro-Bush voting record:
Courtesy of C&L:
WALLACE: Given that, I want you to respond to this clip from an Obama ad. Take a look.
[video of Obama Campaign ad]
McCain: The President and I agree on most issues. There was a recent study that showed I voted with the President over 90% of the time.
[end video]
WALLACE: In fact, Mr. Davis, Sen. McCain is understating it. Last year, he voted to support Bush legislation 95% of the time. Given that, if the country’s worse off, isn’t both the President and John McCain, aren’t they both responsible?
DAVIS: Well, look, if you want to talk about history, then you can make all the cases you want to make.
WALLACE: You’re talking about history, you’re talking about the last four years.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say Wallace was trying to paint McCain as a fourth Bush term!
Drunk with the power of the first amendment and not content with commiting two acts of journalism in a single interview, Chris Wallace then hits Davis squarely on the chin for his DHL lobby ties:
WALLACE: Finally, the Obama camp, I don't have to tell you, is pounding you for your work as a lobbyist. In 2003, you lobbied Congress, and Senator McCain in his job as chairman of the Commerce Committee helped you to allow the German-owned DHL buy Airborne Express.
You made from this German-owned company about $600,000 in lobbying fees. The Democrats are making a big deal of the fact that DHL is now talking about taking 8,000 jobs out of the state of Ohio.
Are you and Senator McCain going to do anything to try to prevent that?
DAVIS: Well, first of all, let me correct you. Senator McCain did not help me do anything. I represented Airborne, which was the incumbent in that location in Ohio, and they wanted to be bought by DHL. And there were people in Congress who didn't want to have that happen.
John McCain has always believed that foreign investment in this sector is fine, and unless there was something that was inappropriate about the deal it should go forward.
WALLACE: Well, that's how he helped you, is to agree that...
DAVIS: Well, but he didn't help me. He helped the people in Ohio, because those jobs were probably going to be lost if they didn't get taken over because of the competitive nature of this business.
WALLACE: But now DHL is talking about taking...
DAVIS: I haven't represented DHL or any of their entities since 2005 when I completely got out of the lobbying business.
So what you have here — and frankly, a typical situation by the Obama campaign, to try and change the topic.
[Diarist's note: Davis promptly proceeds to change the subject]
{snark}Ouch! Is FOX testing out their post-Bush business model? Come late January, will Murdoch's station become a mouthpiece for the....LEFT?
{/snark}