Obama Talks About Commitment To Israel While Pointing To Imaginary Accomplishments

The New York Times has the transcript of Obama's speech while at Sderot. At one point, he reacts to a question about his flip-flop on Jerusalem. Note the example that Obama gives as proof of the strength of his commitments:

First of all, I didn't change my statement.

I continued to say that Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel. And I have said that before and I will say it again. And I also have said that it is important that we don't simply slice the city in half. But I've also said that that's a final status issue. That's an issue that has to be dealt with with the parties involved, the Palestinians and the Israelis. And it's not the job of the United States to dictate the form in which that will take, but rather to support the efforts that are being made right now to resolve these very difficult issues that have a long history.

Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon. [emphasis added]

But as Powerline points out, it is not so easy to look at Obama's deeds as there is a fundamental problem with the example Obama provides--it is not true:

But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds."

The question is whether this is an example of the kinds of silly errors Obama has made in the past, such as saying there are 57 states in the US or more recently claiming he'll be president for the 8 to 10 years--or is this another example of Obama taking credit for something he did not do.

In Would You Hire a President Who Padded His Resume? Jennifer Rubin refers to Factcheck.org which notes more discrepancies:

Obama's latest ad repeats an often-stated claim, saying he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." We know Obama took out loans to get himself through school. But the campaign provided information on just two jobs Obama had in those years, and they were both in the summer.

The ad also says he "passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by 80 percent." Actually, the Illinois law was a required follow-up to the 1996 federal welfare reform law worked out by President Clinton and the Republican Congress. Welfare rolls did go down by nearly as much as the ad says, but Obama can't claim sole credit.

...The ad begins with the announcer telling us that Obama "worked his way through college and Harvard Law." Actually, Obama took out loans to get himself through college, as we heard in a 60-second ad his campaign began running last month. We don't know how much assistance his family provided.

But "worked his way" through college and law school? The only back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" having to do with a construction job he had one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm.

...As in his last ad, this one touts three bills that Obama "passed," and once again we're not told whether the bills were products of the Illinois Senate or the U.S. Senate. We'll fill you in: In this ad, all three pieces of legislation mentioned were passed in the Illinois Senate.

The continual flow of discrepancies in Obama's claims are a big enough issue--even if the media plays them down or ignores them. However, when Obama points to imaginary accomplishments as evidence of the strength of his commitment and ability to support Israel--that should be cause for concern.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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