Plain Dealer's biased "fact check" on Bush/McCain economy ad...

The Plain Dealer's Openers does an article analyzing a liberal 527's ad comparing John McCain's out-of-touch comments about the economy to President Bush's out-of-touch comments about the economy.  Normally, newspapers provide such analysis as objective fact-checkers, but after watching the spot, I don't think this is an objective analysis of the ad.  In fact, some of the comments practically scream that the article is anything but objective.

First, see the ad:

And here's the "analysis" by the Plain Dealer's V. David Sartin:

Let's give lots of points for being clever and doggedly searching what must have been piles of video to find random points when Bush and McCain uttered the same words.

But, really now. With enough time in the video booth, we could patch together random clips of Madonna and Marian Anderson and they still wouldn't be the same singers.

It's completely unfair to simply cast McCain and Bush as from exactly the same mold. But, that's becoming a tired theme of some Democrats.

...

We say this ad stretches the truth.

I don't know who "we" is that Sartin is referring to.  His article is called "Democratic-leaning group airs unfair ad attacking McCain."

Now, the sole basis of the criticism is that taking "random" clips from Bush and McCain is no different than patching clips of Madonna and Marian Anderson and saying they're the same singers.  That would be a valid criticism if there was any evidence that any of the comments by McCain were taking out of context or made in a different context than when Bush is portrayed as making the exact same comments about the economy.

Then, there's Sartin's complaining that the ad is hitting a tired theme of Democrats: that McCain is the same as Bush.  Given that McCain has only been the Republican presumptive nominee for a month, the Democrats are largely still focused on their own nomination battle, and this is the first real ad against McCain, how the hell is this already a tired theme?

Boy, Sartin is really going to be annoyed come August then.  My main complaint of Sartin's sham of analysis is that he claims the ad stretches the truth without ever actually pointing out where the ad departs from the truth.

• Is McCain's economic plan to make Bush's tax cuts permanent (tax cuts McCain opposed in Congress)?  Answer: Yes.
• Does McCain share the President's views on interational "free trade" deals?  Yes.
• Does McCain support reforming Social Security to permit private savings accounts?  Yes.
• Does McCain differ with Bush on anything on the economy?  I'm not aware of anything substantive, and Sartin doesn't bother to provide his readers with a single example of one, either.

It really wouldn't have taken much to find Bush and McCain talking the same about the economy.  And the fact that some 527 has spliced it together doesn't change the fact that Sartin wants everyone to gloss over: that McCain and Bush, in fact, have used the exact same terminology in downplaying the poor state of the economy.

I find the Plain Dealer's analysis stretches the truth and is misleading.  Welcome to the new media.