During a speech this morning in which he castigated Republicans for not passing a bill that had not previously existed, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden tried to paint a Republican aide as hopelessly partisan: 

There are some in Washington who’d rather settle our differences through politics and the elections than try to resolve them now. In fact, Joe and I, as we were walking out here, we were looking at one of the Washington newspapers and it was quoting a Republican aide saying, “I don’t know why* we’d want to cooperate with Obama right now. It’s not good for our politics.” That was very explicit. 

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It was.

But in the article he was referencing (written by Marin Cogan and Jake Sherman in Politico), the aide said something quite different: 

“Obama is on the ropes; why do we appear ready to hand him a win?” said one senior House Republican aide who requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely. “I just don’t want to co-own the economy by having to tout that we passed a jobs bill that won’t work or at least won’t do enough.” [Emphasis added.]

In other words, Obama implied that the Republican admitted he opposed the bill even though he thought it would work. The reality is the opposite: he said he didn’t want the bill to pass because it wouldn’t work. 

So, whose quote is cynically partisan?