President Obama saying words the Republican party will try to turn against him.

President Obama saying words the Republican party will try to turn against him.

In what should be an especially bizarre strategy if Mitt Romney is the Republican presidential nominee, the Republican party is unveiling a new toy for putting together attacks on President Obama: a video database of basically everything Obama has ever said, to be used basically to blame him for having tried to accomplish anything:

“We’re in a unique place this cycle, unlike any other cycle, because Obama made very specific promises in very specific locations,” Spicer said. “A lot of times candidates speak in platitudes, and you can argue those facts back and forth all day long. But Obama has said very specific stuff on the campaign trail and in office.”

So because Obama didn't speak entirely in platitudes, yet also didn't accomplish every single thing he planned to accomplish, his words are now the Republicans' big weapon against him:

One example from the RNC’s trove: Obama’s 2009 comment that the Recovery Act would help bring 2 million Americans out of poverty. The file cites census data suggesting more than 6 million Americans joined the ranks of the poor since 2009, instead.

We're not supposed to consider the possibility that the Recovery Act actually did keep 2 million Americans from poverty, and that without it, 8 million Americans, rather than 6 million, would have joined the ranks of the poor. Or possibly more, since the CBO estimated that the stimulus had created 3.6 million jobs. We're certainly not supposed to remember that Republicans tried to keep the stimulus too small to make much difference and have systematically worked against creating jobs and for the destruction of the safety net that keeps people out of poverty or helps them survive it.

No, instead let's just blame Obama for having tried to make things better than they are.