Turning and turning

It's not getting any easier for President Obama.

Item: The Washington Post fact-checker gives a recent Obama campaign ad, which refers to Mitt Romney as a "corporate raider," 4 Pinocchios:

The Obama campaign fails to make its case. On just about every level, this ad is misleading, unfair and untrue, from the use of “corporate raider” to its examples of alleged outsourcing.  Simply repeating the same debunked claims won’t make them any more correct.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Art Jay Carney is having trouble remembering the most basic details:

First, Carney couldn’t say if the documents that Obama is refusing to let Congress see actually involve the White House corresponding with the Justice Department about the false claim that law enforcement did not allow any guns to be smuggled into Mexico. “I don’t have a way to characterize the documents in question here,” Carney said.

Next, Carney was forced to back off his attempt to pin Fast and Furious on the Bush Administration. “It originated in a field office during the previous administration.  It was ended under this administration, by this Attorney General,” Carney said. ABC’s Jake Tapper quickly observed that “The operation began in fall 2009.”

Carney wasn't done, though:

As Carney continued to field questions, he appeared to forget the family name of border patrol agent Brian Terry, who was death ignited the investigation after he was killed by drug smugglers armed with weapons obtained through Operation Fast and Furious.

“We have provided Congress every document that pertains to the operation itself that is at issue here when you talk about the family that you referred to,” Carney said. When Tapper provided him the name, he repeated it — “the Terry family.”

And when Carney said that Obama’s decision to assert executive privilege over documents subpoenaed by Congress was “entirely about principle,” reporters openly laughed.

And on the banking front, Moody's has more bad news:

Moody's had announced earlier this year that it planned to review its rating rationale for global banks in the wake of the financial crisis, and had already downgraded two other banks before Thursday.

The Swiss bank Credit Suisse was downgraded three notches by Moody's, while Morgan Stanley and UBS each saw their ratings drop two levels.

As rumors of the downgrades spread among financial markets Thursday afternoon, stocks took a steep turn for the worse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average close the day down 250 points or nearly two percent, its second worst day of the year.

It's one thing when the falcon cannot hear the falconer. It's quite another when the falcon decides not to listen any more. Among other things, it's evident that the president is having trouble controlling the news cycle. This isn't surprising, because the news media are now scrambling to avoid losing any further credibility. It's likely too late for a lot of these outfits, though, because the internet is forever. We are a long, long way from 2008.