RNC Web video uses Obama quote out of context

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A Republican National Committee video that is part of an attack on President Obama used the president's words, but took them out of context, a review indicated.

Attacking Obama as being reliant on negative campaigning to hide a record of economic failure, the RNC-underwritten ad posted on www.ottack2012.com, has Obama saying of his 2008 presidential campaign against Republican John McCain:

"That's how you play the game in Washington. If you can't beat your opponent's ideas, you distort those ideas and maybe make some up. If you don't have a record to run on, you paint your opponent as someone people should run away from."

What isn't in the Web video -- filled with black-and-white images of commentators speaking about Obama's use of negative campaign tactics -- is the previous sentence Obama uttered during a Des Moines, Iowa, in November 2008, as quoted by the New York Times, The Hill reported.

"He has spent the last few weeks of the campaign calling me every name in the book. That's how you play the game in Washington," Obama says, referring to McCain.

It isn't the first time in this election cycle that Republicans took Obama's words out of context to bite him.

In November, when GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney aired his first television, he used another remark Obama made during the same speech in Des Moines.

"Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, 'If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose,'" the original phrasing from Obama read.

But it became "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose," in the Romney ad.

The Hill said the RNC and Romney ads make it difficult for Republicans to cry foul if Democrats opt to use the same tactic.

When front-runner Romney criticized Republican rivals in New Hampshire last week for distorting his remark about liking to be able to fire people, critics pounced back, saying he was hypocritical for criticizing his opponents while engaging in the same practice against Obama.