Ledgermain From The Clinton Campaign

Hillary Clinton's first negative contrast ad against Barack Obama in South Carolina is a masterful example of creative ledgermain.

The claim that Barack Obama praised Republican ideas or, in Clinton's words, found them "better" than Democratic ideas -- that is, the ideas themselves -- is false. Obama, in a meeting with a Reno editorial board, said that Republicans pushed new ideas to the the fore while Democrats were largely silent. That is, he praised Republicans for coming up new ideas. Nowhere did he say he preferred those ideas.

Now, it's perfectly plausible to contest the claim that Republicans came up with new ideas while Democrats didn't. But that's not the direction the Clinton campaign wanted to go.

The Clinton campaign knows it that if they repeated the claim that Obama just loved those ol' Republican ideas, they'd be lying.

So here is the script of their new radio ad:

VO: “Listen to Barack Obama last week talking about Republicans.

BO: “The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years.”

VO: “Really? Aren’t those the ideas that got us into the economic mess we’re in today? Ideas like special tax breaks for Wall Street. Running up a $9 trillion debt. Refusing to raise the minimum wage or deal with the housing crisis. Are those the ideas Barack Obama’s talking about?”

BO: “The Republicans were the party of ideas.”

VO: Hillary Clinton thinks this election is about replacing disastrous Republican ideas with new ones, like jumpstarting the economy. Putting an immediate freeze on foreclosures and mortgages. Cutting taxes for the middle class. and creating millions of new jobs. With the economy in crisis, we need a president with the ideas, the solutions that get america working for all of us. Hillary Clinton. Solutions for America.

The ad implies -- but does not say -- that Obama valued the ideas themselves. It implies, but does not say -- that he was praising Republican solutions. In doing so, the ad distorts the context of what Obama said without explicitly repeating the falsehood itself.

Criss Angel would admire the sleight of hand...