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"Serial liar" added to McCain's resume

by dunkelberg | September 15, 2008 at 03:52 pm

521 views | 16 Recommendations | 4 comments

More and more the spotlight is not falling favorably on John McCain and his campaign.

The grit and commitment of John McCain's near martyrdom as a POW in Hanoi 40 years ago were admirable, as have been his occasional apostasies from partisan orthodoxy and his willingness at times to join ad hoc bipartisan efforts to push Congress out of this or that stalemate.

But, as a presidential candidate, McCain has become a liar, a serial liar at that, and not through any inadvertence but quite deliberately.

While Obama has had his own problems with 100% truth, McCain more than outdoes Obama.

Barack Obama has had his falls from grace, too, as when he twisted a comment of McCain's to make it seem McCain was up for a hundred years of war in Iraq. Nor was that Obama's sole lapse.

But McCain's lies overwhelm in their number, calculation and cynicism. Lately he has been on a rampage of untruths.

No, Obama does not intend to tax everyone. He would limit any income tax increase to households with incomes of more than $250,000. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center finds that Obama's tax plan would cut taxes for 81 percent of all households, 95 percent of households with kids.

No, as an Illinois state legislator Obama did not push for "comprehensive sex education" for kindergarteners. He supported a proposal for age appropriate sex education -- which, for kindergarteners, would have meant only making them aware of the possibility of sex abuse and teaching them means to counter it.

No, Obama did not compare Sarah Palin to a pig. He used an old saw -- if you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig -- to scoff at McCain's recent reinvention of himself as a candidate of change. McCain has often used the pig quip himself.

No, Obama didn't, sexist-like, "dismiss" Palin as just "good-looking." Obama's running mate Joe Biden used the term but only in amused self-deprecation, as one of several ways the vice-presidential candidates differ from one another.

No, it is not true that Obama "doesn't want to drill offshore." He has supported offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy plan that would include conservation, development support for non-fossil fuels and, if safety concerns are satisfied, nuclear energy.

No, Obama wouldn't "force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat would stand between you and your doctor." Obama's plan would create a voluntary public option for the uninsured. Others would keep their current insurance.

The list unfortunately goes on. And -- unfortunately again -- not surprisingly. This is the third election in a row in which Republican candidates, their campaigns and their surrogates have relied heavily on overweening smears for success.

Even McCain was a victim of that same kind of character assassination he now embraces.

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master_jim2008

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:48 on September 15th, 2008

dunkelberg, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Least we not forget that McCain has a nasty temper and we don't want that temper anywhere near the nuclear trigger, and that McCain's major flip flop is that at first he was saying he'll basically stay the course, in other words, 4 more years of Bush policy, and now he too says he's an advocate for change, promising to change this or that, just to appeal voters away from Obama. McCain is sounding like a Democrat in Republican $3000.00 designer suits and $500 loafers. Once he's in, if he ever got that lucky, he'll turn his back on most Americans just like his buddy GWB has.

Emilio Lizardo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:28 on September 15th, 2008

Commentary: 2008 campaign attack ads hit an all-time low
4:13 p.m. EDT, Mon September 15, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Negative attacks are as American as apple pie. Since the early days of the republic, candidates attacked with a vigor that contemporary strategists would admire.

In the 1800 presidential election, for example, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams criticized one another with a stunning ferocity on everything from foreign and domestic policy to private character and personal behavior.

Despite these historical precedents, the 2008 campaign has reached all-time lows in the use of misleading and inaccurate political appeals. Even Karl Rove, the architect of negative ads in previous campaigns, has complained about the tenor of this year's campaign.

With all the factual inaccuracies that have taken place, voters need to protect themselves from efforts at political manipulation. Non-partisan Web sites such as www.factcheck.org represent one source of unbiased information. They analyze ads and compile factual information in support of or in opposition to ad claims.

iraqivetwifeforchange

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 21:20 on September 15th, 2008

dunkelberg, I like this story. It's good stuff.

You know it's bad when O'Reilly, Rove, Chris Wallace, and a few others on FOX news say "enough is enough" and call them "smears".

Of course, we all know some of these characters have been central to the origin of these smears and lies. But, it goes to character that even they feel it has gone too far.

politisite

at 09:18 on September 16th, 2008

All I can say here is that Obama's last commercial says that McCain doen't know how to use a computer. He does, with the help of his wife. You know why? His war injuries forbid easy use of his hands. In the words of Hillary Clinton, "Shame on you Barack Obama". Lets talk about sleaze.

Oh here is one for you

President Clinton, who oversaw the 90s tech boom, sent just two emails during his time in office, and doesn’t own a blackberry, according to a nugget in a Vanity Fair article on his wife’s failed presidential bid.