In his first television ad in the wake of the three debates, President Obama unveiled a minute-long spot, highlighting his first-term accomplishments and noting several second-term goals. It's a positive, issue-focused ad, which mentions his opponent only in passing.
In his first television ad in the wake of the three debates, Mitt Romney is going in a different direction.
For those who can't watch clips online, the 30-second spot is yet another attack ad, accusing Obama of having gone on an "apology tour" and failing to visit Israel in his first term.
In some ways, I suppose it's fitting. Romney, before even launching his 2012 presidential campaign, based much of his national ambitions on the "apology tour" -- it was the basis for the title of his 2007 "memoir" -- and he included the falsehood in his kick-off speech in June 2011. It stands to reason, then, that the same lie would provide a bookend, bringing the Republican's ridiculous smear full circle.
But for those who still care about facts and reality, Romney really is lying. Obama has never apologized for America. The Republican knows this, but keeps repeating the claim anyway, hoping voters won't know the difference.
And what about Obama not having visited Israel in his first term?
As we talked about in July, the attack at least has the benefit of being partially accurate -- Obama visited Israel as a candidate, but has not been back during his first term. If Republicans choose to find that outrageous, their complaints are grounded in fact.
The problem, however, is the selective nature of their disgust. George W. Bush didn't visit Israel at any point during his first term, and neither did Bill Clinton. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush didn't travel to Israel during their respective terms in office at all.
Is there any record of Romney ever condemning any of these other presidents for the same reason? Nope.
Moreover, Obama did visit Israel as a candidate, and as he explained last night, he did so the right way.
"You know, if we're going to talk about trips that we've taken, you know, when I was a candidate for office, first trip I took was to visit our troops. And when I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn't take donors, I didn't attend fundraisers, I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.
"And then I went down to the border towns of Sderot, which had experienced missiles raining down from Hamas. And I saw families there who showed me where missiles had come down near their children's bedrooms, and I was reminded of what that would mean if those were my kids, which is why, as president, we funded an Iron Dome program to stop those missiles.
"So that's how I've used my travels when I travel to Israel and when I travel to the region."
When Romney visited Israel over the summer, he brought donors, held a fundraiser, brought his teleprompter, and made every effort to make his trip as campaign-oriented as humanly possible.
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Speaking of "apologies"... its funny how the media is deluging
us with Tagg Romney's on-stage apology to the President, but
where was the OUTRAGE for the suggestion of taking a swing at
the President in the first place? MSNBC, you guys really need to be
more diligent in your reporting...
You and all the other "FACES" at msnbc.com are so racist and biased.....you make me sick.....Obama bin laden has done NOTHING to improve our country over the last 4 years....it's just like baseball or football...when your starter can no longer do the job, you replace him......it's that simple....nothing racist....Obama just can't perform....get rid of him and replace him with someone else....that's how he became President in the first place....he had no experience whatsoever but America just wanted a "change"...now its time for another change....GET HIM OUT OF HERE!
You people are so screwed up............osama obama has done NOTHING to make this country better since he was elected by all of the minorities and dumbasses in 2008...he is a socialist and the MOST DANGEROUS man in the United States...He is a cancer and must be removed.
Chad, you have to realize, this is a column about how Romney "lied" about Obama's "apology tour." in order to believe that in the first place, you have to disbelieve your own eyes and ears, because it's all there on videotape.
so you've got major cognitive dissonance going on among the lefties. but they've found a way to resolve it: the "definition of is" gambit: Obama didn't use the phrase "I apologize for America" so therefore, he never had an apology tour.
fortunately most Americans can see through this.
Only in tea bagged republican land the rest of the world knows that Obama never apologized he just hurt your little feelings because he made you doubt your exceptional beliefs in your never being wrong even though history shows conservatives as always being wrong.
Foreign image is important to Americans. The President has failed us in that respect. The voters will positively enact a change. Historically, divisive, controversial presidents are replaced. Rejection!
When a GOP goes to England and ends up with the English press naming him Mitt the Twit that is all you need to know about what a failure robme is when it comes to foreign policies. Really vote for me to lead you while I follow the president shows that robme is not ready to lead.
Interesting - Mitt Romney based his 2007 "memoir" on an apology tour which is supposed to have happened in 2009?
+10 for being the first person to point this out. it takes the entire article apart and shows how little effort the writer put in to try to make a point. MSNBC, making CNN look centrist.
Can you say pyrrhic victory?
Obama won the battle only to lose the war. This is exactly what happened and you are seeing it play out in the post debate polls. Obama wins the debate but Romney picks up slightly more votes for the effort. The Romney campaign has known all along that a good majority of Americans don't approve of the job Obama has done but liked him as person. His likeability is the thing that has kept him close in the election even with an economy that would have doomed other Presidents. Obama did the Romney camp a huge favor by being overly agressive and looking like a school yard bully or jerk. The polls are now showing Romney leading in likeability and commanding a major advantage on the economy which is the vast majority of Americans primary concern. I was stunned that a President would behave in such a manner and I'm really embarrassed for the office. This is not what a good President looks like. Think about how gracious Jimmy Carter was and has been since loosing to Ronald Reagan. He was a class act and really had America and the office of the President in mind. Obama looks like he will do anything to hold on to power and that is scary.
Folk last night we saw a nasty, sarcastic, arrogant, mean, interrupting, desperate Obama doing his best to turn around a tide of support flowing toward Governor Romney. We also saw a very calm, cool, Presidential Romney ready and able to lead our nation as Commander in Chief. Worse, we saw once again that Obama has no excuse for his failed Presidency, and NO PLAN for 4 more years, except for more UNEMPLOYMENT, DEBT, and FAILURE. Gov Romney showed once again that he has a PLAN to restore GROWTH and JOBS to our nation. The polls today still moved toward Gov Romney, and Intrade which before the debate had Obama at about 63% and Romney at 37, has Obama dropping like a rock to 54% to 46% for Romney, and its still moving in Romney's favor. Obama is done folks. After 4 years of total failure you can stick a fork in him!
Right blame Obama for not fixing GOP failures while stopping Obama from changing GOP policies. Really the only one who has shown anything is robme he is just another village idiot looking for free room and board, just like GWB moron.
It's fatuous to refer to the idea that the President went on an "apology tour" as a lie, inasmuch as it is merely a characterization of what the President did. Did he say "I'm sorry" or "I apologize" at each stop? No, but that kind of literal-mindedness is for eight year olds.
And putting your own definitions into others words is something uneducated back woods morons do. Really not one speech of Obama's was more then the truth about GWB's running rough shod over the rest of the world playing John Wayne. To bad for you righties that you aren't smart enough to understand that the US needs allies, we can't do it by ourselves.
Oh, good point. Uneducated back woods morons put your own definition into others words. Well, did Obama say anything about GWB "running roughshod" over the rest of the world and playing "John Wayne"? Let's check the transcripts...nope. So you're in the uneducated backwoods moron club now, too.
there's so much wrong with this article I don't know what to choose to comment on! I guess I'll go with Obama's foolish "some of my best friends" argument that the one time he went to Israel HE went to Yad Vashem--which he helpfully explained to Romney is the Holocaust memorial--not to a bunch of fundraisers with a bunch of corporate-jet-owning fat-cat rich people.
leaving aside the obvious point that an Obama fundraiser in Israel would be, er, rather sparsely attended, it really showed the shallowness of Obama's view of Israel. remember, in the Cairo speech, he confirmed the Arab world's opinion that Israel *only* exists because of the holocaust. therefore, for Obama, a trip to Israel must be centered around the holocaust museum. Romney, OTOH--who's been to Israel several times and is close friends with its leader--didn't need to provide his Judaic bonafides. his answer to the "planes are on their way" phone call from Israel was excellent; if he's president, we'll know before that.
it's a popular meme that Americans are stupid. I don't believe that, for the most part. I think they're seeing through the Obama "razzle-dazzle" and the lapdog media, and I think Romney's headed for a win.
Hey Kool Aid clowns . There is only one candidate deceiving the American People and that's Mr. Obama. For those of you with amnesia. remember Susan Rice and Benghazi. Yes Mitt Romney did advocate Government intervention after a structured bankruptcy in his op ed piece in 2008 NY Times article "The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk." Obama did push for a troop extension in Iraq, he New York Times reported, however, that “dismayed” top Pentagon officials saw Obama’s remarks “as the president’s putting the best face on a breakdown in tortured negotiations with the Iraqis”, a failure for “negotiators who labored all year to avoid that outcome”. Obama “was willing to support a continued military presence”, as the Times put it, and “was prepared to leave up to 10,000 soldiers to continue training and equipping the Iraqi security forces”, but later “the Americans settled on the 3,000 to 5,000 number”. The Times account continued. Our president who seems to have forgotten the last four years as if were back in 2008 is rewriting history. Yes the terrible last four years did happen under Barrack Obama.
Right because mr I am for everything I'm against robme is such an honest guy. Boy talk about the desperate tea bagged republican, we got a few prime examples right here. Boy crying towel stock is going to sky rocket when robme self deports on the 7th of Nov.
You're the one that's responded (ineptly) to every comment here you don't like and you're calling other people desperate? When people behave like that, it's typically a sign all is not well psychologically.
Just because the phrase "I am sorry" wasn't used does not mean it wasn't an apology tour. Regardless...Americans see it for what it was.
The President of the United States accused his own country of "selectively promoting democracy."
Your right. Its not an apology. Its self-condemnation.
Obama went around the ME and the world claiming what we had been doing up until his gilded rear entered the WH was wrong, bad, etc
It called the "apology tour" because for most American it was disgusting.
Maddow and the CNBC crew are like a group of destroyers throwing up a smoke screen in a vain attempt to hide the fact that Battleship Obama is sinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryc3uhrU1cA
I am a lifelong democrat and am sorry to see my party run over by the far left kooks. I want the clintons back and the normal democrats that know how to govern. The republicans have their tea partiers and we have our crazy kooks. I happily voted for the president last time around, not so this time. Hollow speeches do nothing for me. I donated a lot to Hillary Clintons campaign last time and hope she runs in 2016. I may just stay home.
Let's refresh your memory.... See the speeches again. If it is not apologizing for America than what is it? He may not have used the word, but come on, anyone who speaks English can see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7_mrU2ct5o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdnTqanIMRE
And if you dare to be a real journalist, then show the email from the state department to the White House that says it was a terrorist attach at 6.07 PM on 9/11. So they knew all along it was a terrorist attack and yet chose to play politics, because it did not fit his narrative of Al Qaeda on the run. The state department watched the attack on live camera feed.
So to use your phrase...Not Romney but Obama is really lying.
Get the facts straight. Nothing wrong in supporting your candidate, but don't lie about the facts. He lost my vote this time around.
Another lying tea bagged republican you tube post gee how surprising.
The author uses Glenn Kessler so called fact checker for the WaPo to buttress his case. Unfortunately, Kessler is one of the apologist for the Obama campaign. Not a terribley reliable source. He uses samantics to make his point...yes, Obama did not use the word "apology" in his speeches, but anyone who listens to the full context of the speeches can easily come to the conclusion that Obama is definately apologizing for past American actions and attitudes.
This narrative fits in well with Obama's public positions that everything G.W. Bush believed and was...He (Obama) was the opposite. It's been said by so many even Liberals that Obama thinks of himself as being "the smartest man in the room." He encouraged people to think of him as the "American if not the World's Messiah" during his acceptance speech in Denver in 2008. Remember, "This is the moment the tides will recede and the earth will heal."
Would anyone disagree Obamaism became a religion. People like the author worshipped his very being as well as his words.
The American people have had enough of this "Idol Worship" and that's why the Liberal Media is so out of touch with Middle Class Americans. They will have a rude awakening this coming November 6th....
RR2=Romney/Ryan=Reform Republicans
Oh so because he went to Israel as a Dem candidate and US Senator, it is all good not to visit them during his 4 years as President or refer to Jerusalem as the capital. Steve Bennen, stop telling lies and do some real journalism. He called us arrogant in Paris, look it up on YouTube or AP, he said it. He called the US derisive and that we coerced countries and practiced torture when he visited Cairo. I'd rather be feared than respected and when Reagan was President, oh we were feared.
Are we really debating semantics? Because he doesn't say "sorry" it isn't an apology. So if I tell my wife and kids "I should not have had sex with Aunt Julie while you (they) were at church every Sunday this past year"-this isn't an apology unless I say "sorry," really? So when Bush said Iraq had weapons of mass construction and they didn't, "Bush lied," despite every major intelligence service in the world saying otherwise, but when Obama tells the Europeans we didn't appreciate their role in the world, that isn't an apology. Gimme a break.
Paste this link and read the apologies or opps, we shouldn't have done that.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/06/barack-obamas-top-10-apologies-how-the-president-has-humiliated-a-superpower
Oh when tea bagged republicans whine about nothing you know they are shaking in their shoes because they are realizing that robme doesn't have enough white males to over come the woman and minority votes. I love the smell of tea bagged republican fear in Oct, it smells like victory.
Uninstalling Obama......... ███████████████▒ 95% complete.
As an American living overseas who has contact with many non-Americans - make no mistake about it - it was an apology tour. Maybe he did not use the exact words I am sorry or I apologize- but those are not the only words someone can use to apologize. (you should really go back to school is you do not know that). Nevertheless the fact remains that our President's actions and words were perceived as an apology by many people both at home and abroad - and you can argue semantics all you want but that does not change the fact that it was an apology tour.
What a pretentious lie: "Obama has never apologized for America." Rachael and Chris and all their friends will get plenty of time to quietly nurse their sorrows after Obama is defeated. Imagine the stunned disbelief when they discover that more than half the electorate in the US is impervious to their deceitful drum and drone. The tentacles of their biased influence fell short. The most expensive political campaign in human history flops, even with the sustained efforts of their witty talent and determined and shameless bias.
Obama did in fact make demeaning, weakening statements to other countries. Repeatedly. For example, in April 3, 2009 to France: "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive."
And speaking to Al Arabiya, January 27, 2009: "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."
See Fox article: Journalists come to Obama's aid after Romney's 'apology tour' attack
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/23/journalists-come-to-obama-aid-after-romney-apology-tour-attack/
As mentioned before, see: Barack Obama's Top 10 Apologies: How the President Has Humiliated a Superpower
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/06/barack-obamas-top-10-apologies-how-the-president-has-humiliated-a-superpower
this author is the one who is lying -- NOT romney!
this past evening i watched several clips of obama
using 'apologetic words' for the USA in various speeches he gave shortly
after becoming president (it was on the HANNITY show)
It is not unfair to characterise the POTUS' early trips abroad as involving elements of apology for America's mistakes and errors in the past. Acknowledging wrong doing is the first step towards healing and restoring trust. Obama's willingness to "come clean" and flatter the Europeans as worthy of global leadership was smart politics to elicit more future cooperation. Both the Pres. and his supporters, like me, should make no apologies for this!!!!
Very biased & inaccurate article. The choice this election is very simple - obama has done, at best, a poor job as president with his policies, leadership & results. Why on earth should he be re-elected? Romney is a solid candidate & will do a much better job than obama.
I just don't understand how Obama voters this time around can simply not see the obvious. Obama's "apology tour" statements are well documented. I don't even know if I believe the things he said are that bad - is it always wrong to apologize? But regardless of that, he DID apologize, over and over again:
http://tinyurl.com/8zwas4h
That's a FB photo someone posted openly that collected all the quotes in one place - I checked every one. Whether or not these were the right things to say can be debatded ad infinitum, but how do you claim these are not apologies? If not, what are they? Don't belittle your own intelligence by some kind of semantics game, please!
It's the same mind-boggling double-thing that you liberals keep using to arrive at 2+2=5 when you are SHOWN by economist after economist that Obama is destroying our economy and the dollar's collapse is imminent.
And this from a man who stood before the Senate in 2006 and said "increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally."
It astounds me.
You're very right. Last night, a replay of an Obama campaign speech was played where he talked about Iran being a tiny little country (he was talking overall about whether we "talk" to our enemies) and couldn't be a threat to us, that if they tried, they quote, "wouldn't stand a chance". Four years later, they're within about 6 months of having capability to put together a nuclear weapon. The first part is all from a publicly available campaign speech anyone can look up if they're interested. The second is from Netanyahu himself in his U.N. speech.
The problem is that most of these folks are emotionally invested. There are huge feelings of not only guilt that they would be casting out our first black president, but also they'd have to admit they were wrong, much as many conservatives didn't, and would never, admit that GWB was not the best president America ever had.