A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama

FactCheck.org analyses A Bogus Tax Attack Against Obama from Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS.

"The ad — titled ‘Obama’s Promise’ — lists several pledges that it claims the president has broken. The worst distortion it contains — one we haven’t addressed in this campaign — is an almost entirely groundless assertion that he broke his often-repeated promise not to raise taxes on persons making less than $200,000 a year, or couples making less than $250,000.

The ad shows Obama saying in a 2008 campaign speech, ‘If you are a family making less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes go up.’ Then, to the sound of shattering glass, the narrator says, ‘Broken! Obamacare raises 18 different taxes.’

But that’s dishonest nonsense. Only a few of the tax changes in the new health care law will fall on families making under $250,000 a year, or individuals making less than $200,000 for that matter. And they make up only a small part of the $503 billion figure that appears on screen. That 10-year total falls overwhelmingly on individuals who are above those income thresholds — just as Obama promised — or on corporations. Money to be collected from individuals regardless of income would come mostly from taxes (or penalties) that are not yet in effect."

So I haven't seen any of the ads (the benefits of living in MA), and I haven't followed much of the campaign online (it's too soon). I have some issues with Citizens United but agree with the conservatives that political speech needs to be protected. My question here is, when does libel law come into play? If an ad is just false (shocker!), what's the penalty? Is there time to sue? For an ad run in the weeks before a campaign, obviously not, but for an ad run 6 months before, I would think the obvious answer is to sue for libel or slander.

Update: Factcheck did more work on debunking the ad.