First Barack Obama made misquoting John McCain’s remark on how long the U.S. could have a presence in Iraq a recurring part of his stump speech. Then he went on to quote half of a McCain statement on the economy, as David Freddoso dissects here.

Now it’s the DNC ad, which so obviously mangles a McCain debate answer that the AP headlines their story, “New Democratic Party ad edits McCain’s response on economy.”

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.

I would note, this selective quoting has become commonplace among the Democrats. McCain hasn’t run a negative ad yet, and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think he’s quoted either of his opponents on the campaign trail. (If someone remembers McCain offering a similar half-quote of Obama, let me know*.)

Is this the way they’re going to play it? They can’t score points on what McCain actually argues, so they have to take part of his answer, cut off the rest, and hope nobody notices?

You know, the funny thing is, conservatives have their gripes with McCain. We know he has flaws. It’s not like we run around telling others in religious tones how we “came to” him. We could put together some pretty tough attack ads hitting him from a different angle. But from Howard Dean and Co., between this one and the “John McCain is so old” — it’s giving off a whiff of desperation, isn’t it? A feeling that they’re throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks?

Because if using half a quote is the way they want to play it, fine. But let’s never hear Obama again complain that Jeremiah Wright is being judged on “snippets” or that his words in San Francisco were “mangled.”

UPDATE: One reader argues this is what McCain did when he suggested Romney opposed the surge. I think it’s safe to say that Team Obama has nothing to complain about (yet) compared to Romney.