CNN's Crowley cropped Obama quote, omitting his assertion that "[w]e're going to have to fight" every day until election

Written by Tom Allison

Published

On Anderson Cooper 360, Candy Crowley asserted: “The polls nationwide and in the battlegrounds suggest if the election were held today, Barack Obama would win. They feel it in the crowds, and he feels it, too.” Crowley then aired a clip of Obama stating, “I feel like we've got a righteous wind at our backs.” But Crowley left out the rest of Obama's statement: "[B]ut we're going to have to work. We're going to have to struggle. We're going to have to fight for every single one of those 13 days to move this country in a new direction."

During the October 22 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, correspondent Candy Crowley asserted: “The polls nationwide and in the battlegrounds suggest if the election were held today, Barack Obama would win. They feel it in the crowds, and he feels it, too.” Then, purporting to support her claim that Obama thinks he would win, Crowley aired a clip of Obama in Leesburg, Virginia, stating, “I feel like we've got a righteous wind at our backs.” But Crowley left out the rest of Obama's comments, which undermine her suggestion that Obama was giving any thought to a hypothetical election to be held that day or that he was assuming victory. As Media Matters for America noted in pointing out The Washington Post's omission of Obama's further comments, Obama followed his “righteous wind” comment by saying, "[B]ut we're going to have to work. We're going to have to struggle. We're going to have to fight for every single one of those 13 days to move this country in a new direction."

Here is what Obama actually said (compiled from a Breitbart.tv video clip of the first part of Obama's remarks and an MSNBC video clip of the second part):

And in 13 days, if you'll stand with me, then I know that we can win Virginia and we can win this election and we can finally bring the change we need to Washington. Now, that's the good news. I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here, but we're going to have to work. We're going to have to struggle. We're going to have to fight for every single one of those 13 days to move this country in a new direction.

From the October 22 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:

CROWLEY: The polls nationwide and in the battlegrounds suggest if the election were held today, Barack Obama would win. They feel it in the crowds, and he feels it, too.

OBAMA: I feel like we've got a righteous wind at our backs.

CROWLEY: Still, nobody knows better than John McCain that politics can surprise. He returned to New Hampshire this morning, the state that resurrected his primary campaign.