Politics

DNC video lambasts Republican candidates at New Hampshire debate

Jeff Winkler Contributor
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The Democratic National Committee’s “rapid response” team lived up to its name today, with a morning-after video of the Republican debate in New Hampshire.

And nothing makes Republican politicians look dumber than splicing together 30 seconds of footage from a two-hour debate, unless some of footage is taken completely out of context that is.

(No Mitt Romney feeding frenzy; Pawlenty refuses to attack)

“The Republicans met to talk about the most pressing issues facing our country …” begins the video. What follows is quick footage of Herman Cain saying “I do not believe in Sharia law in American courts.” Cain was trying to clarify his previous statements on Muslims and Sharia law. Cain doesn’t help himself by continuing with the fringe claim that Muslims may be trying to hijack entire states, either.

WATCH:

Next on the hit list is former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who said, “I support a constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and woman.” It’s a Republican primary so this answer shouldn’t be too surprising. But it comes after the accusation that the phrase “middle class” was never used. But it would seem Republicans don’t believe in class-ism the way Democrats do. Rick Santorum prefers the phrase “middle of America,” which he used three times. And the issue of lower-middle-class jobs did in fact come up a lot (“jobs” was uttered by the candidates about 40 times); odd, since there haven’t really been any in a few years.

Pawlenty got hit again with footage of him calling Sarah Palin a “remarkable leader.” Taken in context, however, — she was being compared to Geronimo Joe Biden — that’s not an incredible statement.

Mitt Romney got called out for saying he would repeal “ObamaCare,” though he was defending himself against Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who not only had an amazing performance but more surprisingly wasn’t featured in the video, despite being a favorite target of Democrats.

The cruelest — and least honest — swipe came at the expense of Newt Gingrich and his campaign of one.

“But at least one candidate had a vision of the future …” flashed on the screen before Gingrich appeared to be caught giving away the plot of James Bond’s Moonraker.

” … we would today probably have a permanent station on the moon, three or four permanent stations in space, a new generation of lift vehicles.”

What’s lost is the context of the sentence’s previous clause: “If you take all the money we’ve spent at NASA since we landed on the moon and you had applied that money for incentives to the private sector …”

The massive money black hole that is NASA has been well documented for years, while modern-day Howard Hughes are ready to rock and roll with commercial space flights have been grounded thanks to bureaucratic regulations and general lethargy.

Meanwhile, Gary Johnson was spared any ridicule as he was not even allowed at the debate.

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