This article in which the folks at SpinSanity really annoyed me because it was the latest in a trend that has happened ever since SpinSanity reached an agreement with Salon.Com — it’s been engaging in the same spinning that it criticizes politicians for.
George W. Bush has been pointing out that during the campaign he said he would never tolerate a budget deficit except for war, national emergency or recession. The problem is that no one has been able to find out where he said it. From that, SpinSanity jumped to the conclusion that Bush was intentionally inventing a false anecdote,
As the New Republic’s Jonathan Chait first reported and we, among others, also wrote about, Bush’s claim that he listed three exceptions under which he would run deficits during a 2000 Chicago campaign stop — war, national emergency or recession — is blatantly false. No one has found any evidence that Bush made such a statement, and the White House has pointedly failed to provide any.
But that conclusion does not logically follow at all. Just because the White House had not presented a specific reference (it does have a few other things going on at the moment after all) does not mean that it was “blatantly false.” Spinsanity concluded that, “For now, Bush appears to think it is politically expedient to repeat this story to defend his budget plans. But the record doesn’t lie — and neither should the president.”
But, in fact, Bush did make statements like this on the campaign trail. An Associated Press account reported on a January 2000 Republican debate this way,
“This is not only no new taxes, this is tax cuts, so help me God,” Bush said, brushing away the prospect that national emergencies, such as war, might get in the way. Such developments would be “extreme hypotheticals,” he said.
“If I ever commit troops, I’m going to do so with one thing in mind, and that’s to win,” Bush said.
“And spend what it takes? Even if it means deficits?” asked the moderator, NBC’s Tim Russert.
“Absolutely,” Bush replied, “if we go to war.”
Even if Bush hadn’t said things like this, it was absurd for Spinsanity to suggest that he was necessarily fabricating it. Human memory is a tricky thing.
But as it is, Spinsanity is both factually and logically erroneous. It will be interest to see how they spin this.
[Ben Domenech was the first to dig up the AP story].