The Lying Game

It has become painfully obvious, that John McCain has gone beyond stretching the truth in his ads. Factcheck.org, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Associated Press and many more news agencies and independent groups have proven facts that explain where and when he has lied. What's more offensive about this, is that even when confronted with lies, both Palin and McCain refuse to acknowledge them as being lies. They continue to use the same lines. Does the McCain campaign think the American people are stupid?

This leads to the further question, do we really want a team of people whose path to the White House is paved by deceiving the public? If it were just a reasonable stretch of the truth, I could deal with it. I use the example of Obama's claim that John McCain would leave 100 million Americans without a tax cut. The actual number is closer to 90 million depending on your math, and I don't see a big deal with just saying 90 instead of 100. It is still a large number that should effectively get the point across. McCain has been destroying the truth


1. Obama called Palin a pig. No, he used the "lipstick on a pig" phrase as a description of his policies and how they compare to the policies of the last 8 years.

2. Palin runs a state where she controls 20% of the US domestic production of energy, this gives her great insight into everything from global warming to national security. No, her state produces 14% of all the oil wells in the US and and 1.9% of natural gas. Alaska produces 3.5% of all domestic energy production. Not 20% by even a stretch of the imagination.

3. Palin is the anti-earmark Governor, has never taken earmarks as Governor. She's against them now, but she asked for almost $300 per citizen of Alaska in federal earmarks this year, more than any other state per capita. She has reduced Alaska's requests for earmarks, but still has way more than 0. She also hired a lobbyist that allowed her to get $27 million for a 9000 person town that she was mayor of.

4. The Obama campaign is responsible for many of the negative rumors surrounding the GOP's VP pick. Factcheck.org was particularly miffed at this one. McCain used their banner and quoted their article to make this claim. There was a small problem, the article said exactly the opposite. The article stated that Obama had nothing to do with various internet rumors, just as McCain was not responsible for rumors about Obama.

5. Obama wanted to teach 5 yearolds about sex. Nope, not even close. Obama voted in support of a bill that would offer "age appropriate sex education" for various age groups. For the kindergartners this would amount to small discussion on inappropriate touching and being careful of strangers and potential predators. Several of McCain's managers have viciously tried to spread this lie, even while being confronted with the truth. This bill it might be added, never was passed into law.

6. Palin was always against the "bridge to nowhere." Not quite. Sarah Palin said on October 29, 2006; "I support these infrastructure projects. It will build Alaska, and it's cheaper to do it today than it is tomorrow." Once the bridge became more expensive, was highlighted by government spending watchdogs and it became a symbol of federal waste, she came out against it. She did keep the money though, and used it for other projects.

This is just a sampling of what has happened in the last week. Hopefully the next week will bring some honesty so we can look at the real issues, instead of questioning the validity of attack ads. ...Read more