Okay, first of all, let me be clear about one thing: I don't think you should feel any sympathy for Rick Perry over the video in this post. But maybe he (or some of his supporters) might finally understand what we mean when we say that Fox News is fixed news.
So with that said, check this video out:
KILMEADE: Rick Perry’s Republican rivals ganging up on the governor for his attacks on Social Security, but he’s fighting back.
PERRY: I would suggest to you that people are tired of spending money we don’t have on programs we don’t want.
KILMEADE: More from last night’s tea party debate, [Perry] clearly happy with that answer.
Fair and balanced, right? Perry is under attack for Social Security, so Fox plays a clip of him defending his position, and points out that he's happy with his answer. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Well, here's what's wrong: The clip that Fox played of Rick Perry, the one they said was him responding to critics on Social Security, that clip had nothing to do with Social Security at all. Perry wasn't talking about Social Security, he was talking about the American Jobs Act.
If you didn't know that, if you'd watched the clip but not the debate, you'd have figured that Rick Perry was talking about Social Security, and that he was describing it as one of the "programs that we don't want." You'd have figured he had just said he was "tired of spending money" on it. Those things may be what he really believes, but it's not at all what he was actually saying. In fact, he wasn't even talking to any of his debate rivals. He was talking to Wolf Blitzer ... about why he opposes President Obama's jobs bill!
It was a totally dishonest edit, pure propaganda from Fox designed to help their favorite candidate, Mitt Romney.
To those of us in the Democratic Party, there's nothing new about what Fox did. We see it over and over and over. But Rick Perry probably isn't used to it. And it's kind of sweet seeing him get a dose of his own party's bitter medicine. Hopefully he learns a thing or two from it, but probably he won't.