Our friends over at Media Matters picked up on this meme earlier this week and it was repeated over and over again this weekend on the Sunday talk shows as illustrated in the clip above. If the Super Committee fails to reach an agreement, it will because of the hands off approach or lack of President's Obama's direct involvement.

Right-Wing Media Lay Groundwork To Blame Obama If Super Committee Does Not Reach A Deal:

The right wing media have claimed that President Obama is deliberately sabotaging the super committee's negotiations to reach a deal to decrease the deficit in an attempt to strengthen his re-election prospects. But Obama has repeatedly urged the super committee to come to a compromise, while the Republicans on the super committee have refused to compromise, instead proposing massive tax giveaways for the richest Americans and even more massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs Americans rely on. Read on...

Personally I think there are worse things than that committee failing, like Democrats agreeing to cuts to Social Security and Medicare and then rightfully being punished by the electorate if they did. That said, it's absolutely ridiculous to claim that Republicans were ever going to agree to any tax increases whether President Obama was directly involved in the talks or not.