New Democratic Party ad edits McCain's response on economy

TITLE: "Better Off?"

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: Nationally on cable.

SCRIPT: CNN's Anderson Cooper: "Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?"

McCain: "I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment, low inflation. A lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created ... I think we are better off overall."

KEY IMAGES: A clip of McCain at the Jan. 30 Republican debate in Simi Valley, Calif., sponsored by CNN. A split screen depicts scenes of foreclosure signs, a shuttered plant gate and $4 gas prices as text on the screen states: "Unemployment Up," "Highest Inflation in 17 years," "Gas Prices Up 200 Percent" and "1.8 Million Jobs Lost." The ad ends with two text questions: "Do you feel better off?" and "Is John McCain the Right Choice for America's Future?"

THE SPIN: This is the Democratic National Committee's first ad against McCain. It seeks to capitalize on the public's anxiety over the economy. Democrats have been trying to link McCain to President Bush's economic policies and cast him as out of touch with the nation's financial fears.

ANALYSIS: The video of McCain's response is edited to exclude the remainder of his answer, where he acknowledged that "things are tough right now." This type of selective quoting has become commonplace. Obama, in criticizing McCain on the economy last week, used only a portion of a McCain answer to Bloomberg Television.

Here is McCain's full response to Cooper's question at the debate:

Cooper: "Senator McCain, are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?"

McCain: "I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created.

"But let's have some straight talk. Things are tough right now. Americans are uncertain about this housing crisis. Americans are uncertain about the economy, as we see the stock market bounce up and down, but more importantly, the economy particularly in some parts of the country, state of Michigan, Governor Romney and I campaigned, not to my success, I might add, and other parts of the country are probably better off.

"But I think what we're trying to do to fix this economy is important. We've got to address the housing, subprime housing problem. We need to, obviously, have this package go through the Congress as quickly as possible.

"We need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which I voted for twice to do so. I think we need to eliminate the alternate minimum tax that sits out there and challenges 25 million American families.

Cooper: "It sounds like you're saying we're not better off."

McCain: "I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.

"What I'm trying to emphasize, Anderson, that we are in a very serious challenge right now, with a lot of Americans very uncertain about their future, and we've got to give them some comfort.

"We've got to give them some stimulus. We've got to give them some tax relief. We've got to stop this outrageous squandering spending that causes us to have to borrow money from China, and we've got to get our fiscal house in order.

"I think we went on a spending spree that, frankly, betrayed Ronald Reagan's principles about tax cuts and restraint of spending."

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Analysis by Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn