Obama Admits to Going ‘Overboard,’ Making Mistakes in Campaign Ads


On Sunday Mitt Romney told reporters that he's trailing in some swing states because President Obama has been running "inaccurate" attack ads that mischaracterize his positions. Coincidentally, just a few hours later CBS released a video in which Obama acknowledges that his campaign ads aren't always entirely accurate. Surprisingly, Steve Kroft's question about false advertising didn't make it into the 60 Minutes broadcast, but it was posted as an online extra. "Do we see sometimes us going overboard in our campaign — mistakes that are made or areas where there's no doubt that somebody could dispute how we are presenting things?" says Obama. "You know, that happens in politics."

Obama adds, "The truth of the matter is most of the time we're having a vigorous debate about a vision for the country and there's a lot at stake in this election. So is it going to be sharp sometimes? Absolutely."

Though Kroft notes that "fact checkers have had problems with the ads on both sides," we don't get to hear Romney's answer to the question. The other eleven videos focus on topics one would expect to see relegated to web extras, like green jobs and the importance of the debates (Romney says they could decide the election, or have no effect).

So, to be clear, Obama knows that Romney didn't really kill a woman — though either way he gets a pass on that infamously misleading spot since it was put out by a pro-Obama super-PAC.