AP fact checkers' bias is showing

A winning team. The AP hates that. Man, there's still some potent media hate for Bill Clinton. Case in point, the Associated Press's Matt Apuzzo and Tom Raum, who were assigned fact checking duty on President Clinton's speech. Maybe it was all the ad libbing that threw them, and they're pissed off that they actually had to listen and couldn't just work off the transcript. Or maybe most of it went over their heads, since it was actually a substantive policy speech. Or maybe they just can't get past the fact that the American people ignored all their best efforts back in the 1990s to vilify the man, and we still love him.

No matter the reason, this fact check is a steaming pile of misdirection and straw men, starting with this.

[W]hen former President Bill Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, he portrayed President Barack Obama as a pragmatic compromiser who has been stymied at every turn by Republicans. There was no mention of the role that the president and the Democrats have played in grinding compromise to a halt on some of the most important issues facing the country.

Oh, really? Well, then, let's look at their examples of Obama's uncompromising actions. First, they say, he brought Rahm Emanuel in as chief of staff, "a man known for his getting his way, not for getting along." What did Emanuel actually do to block compromise with Republicans in his tenure? They don't say. His mere presence was enough to prove Obama's bad will toward Republicans.

Then there's this one, stunning in its obtuseness.

One of the more high-profile examples of a deal that fell apart was the outline of a proposed "grand bargain" budget agreement between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner in 2011. [...]

Boehner couldn't sell the plan to tea party factions in the House or to other conservative activists. And Obama found himself accused of going too far by some Democratic leaders. The deal died before it ever even came up for a vote.

Damn that Barack Obama for fixing it so that Boehner couldn't control his caucus. Maybe he's a hypnotist. Or maybe the authors are full of shit. They also conveniently leave out the fact that the whole grand bargain discussion came as a result of the unprecedented refusal of the Republican House to raise the debt ceiling and the entire manufactured crisis that ensued. But providing that context would have gotten in the way of their Obama/Clinton bashing.

Also, too, they say, Obama walked away from the Catfood Commission recommendations, even though the authors admit "he later incorporated some of the less contentious proposals from the report into legislation he supported." Never mind that enough of the commission members, including Paul Ryan, walked away from the effort and it failed to even produce official recommendations, it's all Obama's fault. Which Clinton totally didn't talk about in his speech.

Then there's a whole bunch of hooey about health care and the economy, in which the authors stretch the bounds of what actually did happen and what actually might happen to refute President Clinton. (Did you know that the economy wasn't as good in the Clinton years as we all remember it? Well it wasn't. Just shut up.) That's all just a lead up to what really has these two in a permanent snit: A blow job. Seriously.

CLINTON: "Their campaign pollster said, `We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself - I just hope you remember that every time you see the ad."

THE FACTS: Clinton, who famously finger-wagged a denial on national television about his sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky and was subsequently impeached in the House on a perjury charge, has had his own uncomfortable moments over telling the truth.

Get over it already, guys. Seriously. You lost that one, years ago. Just let it go. And the next time you're assigned to fact check, well, just don't. You're not doing it right.

There's plenty more discussion in MPociask's diary.