Brown slams ‘misinformation’ campaign: ‘Some believe there are death panels’

CLEVELAND — Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday that he thinks Democrats are closing the enthusiasm gap ahead of Tuesday, but slammed the “misinformation” he said has been promulgated by Republican candidates this cycle.

“For the first 18 months, Democrats were governing and the Republicans were campaigning and I think that cost us,” Brown said. “Look at the healthcare bill. Some people still believe that there are death panels.”

Brown said the GOP’s immediate shift into campaign mode hurt his party and since Democrats were slow to respond, “there’s all that kind of misinformation still, because we were governing and they were campaigning.”

Campaigning in Canton, Ohio on Saturday, former President Bill Clinton sounded a similar note, telling a crowd of supporters that 2010 has been “the most fact-free election” he’s ever been a part of.

The senator also repeated a claim that has been made frequently by Republicans that President Obama promised the stimulus would keep unemployment at 8 percent or less.

“The president made a mistake by saying [the stimulus] would get below 8 percent unemployment,” said Brown. “I don’t know in what context he said that. That’s what’s been reported. I assume he said it. But any reasonable economist that’s not in the thrall of the either the oil industry or the Chamber of Commerce, or the Republican Party says that without the stimulus, 3 million people who are working now would not be working. So clearly it’s made a huge difference.”

Back in January of 2009, the administration’s projection was that with passage of the stimulus, unemployment would peak at just under 8 percent. But, according to Politifact, no administration official made that proclamation verbally.