He is still running the damn ads and the low information voters are beginning to write letters to their editors. Obama's campaign needs to hit McCain hard on the issue, and on the issue of truth telling. If he does it right he can win a lot of swing states.

and major garrett will be "clarifying" his comments, or resigning to spend more time with his family in ..... 3, 2, 1.......

We should keep in mind that Fox News probably has mixed feelings about McCain at best, like much of the conservative base it draws its audience from.

Y'all just better watch it. Claiming that our man John is a lyin about taxes means you might think he's lying 'bout other stuff as well.

He was a POW for 66 months.

Now, that story about the cross in the dirt by that commie guard. It's gotta be true!

Them taxes on the rich just ain't right.

Seems if you earn money, the more ya have the less taxes ya shud pay.

I'm with John on this un.

(Clueless typical US voter)

It's not lying, it's just mendacity.

John M: "What's mendacity? Is it a disease? I sure hope I don't catch it."

That's shocking coming from Fox News, especially when you go to their site and realize they have an entire section dedicated to debunking Sarah Palin smears...

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/05/top-7-myths-lies-and-untruths-about-sarah-palin/

I couldn't find Obama's section.

I wonder if Obama/Biden have the balls to utter the word LIE in a debate?

Fox News probably has mixed feelings about McCain

Mixed feelings have about as much to do with Fox as whiter teeth do with Madison Ave. admen.

I also wonder when "the elite, leftist, media" will get the balls to use the word LIE instead of misleading, false, deceptive. Apparently, the word itself would make history.

john mccain is a maverick. mavericks have their own definitions for truth, lie etc.

I wonder if the truce Murdoch brokered between Obama and Ailes has anything to do with this...

Just imagine- Brokaw, Jennings, Couric, Wallace, WApost, NYTimes, etc... saying " " LIED today when he/she said the Earth is flat. Historic.

Farmgirl makes the suggestion that I was thinking - I wonder if Murdoch has gotten Ailes to back off for a bit until the election. Obama interviews mean ratings, and FOX News dearly needs the ratings right now.

Of course, that could change in a split second if interviews with Palin bring in bigger ratings. But to test that theory McCain's camp would have to let her give some interviews.

Now, that story about the cross in the dirt by that commie guard. It's gotta be true! -Tom Nicholson

I was thinking about that story last night when the McCain retrospective was playing.

They showed pictures of him in the prison on a bed smoking a cigarette and the building he was imprisoned in which was on a paved street, and I was like, "Hey, where's the dirt and shackles?"

The impression I've gotten from the campaign in the past was that he was in a hut with a dirt floor, bound prostrate and unable to move. You know, like a Sylvester Stallone or Chuck Norris movie. I think that's the image they wanted people to have.

It seems to be a far cry from reality, and makes me suspect even more that they cross in the dirt story is apocryphal.

The fact that even Mr. Benen titles this post "the L word" is ridiculous. Whatever happened to facts?

I wonder if Obama/Biden have the balls to utter the word LIE in a debate?
"lie" does seem a good word choice.
Various other choices seem rather geeky - dictionary.com:

canard, concealment, equivocation, evasion, exaggeration, fabrication, fabulation, falsehood, fib, fiction, hyperbole, inveracity, mendacity, misrepresentation, prevarication, pseudology, roorback, subreption, subterfuge, tergiversation, untruth

Obama or surrogates could say something like "you must be talking about somebody else's XXX plan/position, because it is not the BObama plan/position".

Some branches of Christianity interpret the commandment against bearing false witness (8 or 9 depending on religion/denomination) as a commandment forbidding lying.

There are wingnut justifications out there which spin various lies against BObama as truth but I've not seen convincing ones for the most part.

Looks like the 'ebay story' isn't quite as represented either.

McCain is all but repeating, on a daily basis, that he can't carry on a campaign without lying constantly. I don't know if there's a meaningful difference between mendacity and lying, either - and if McCain is peddling things that are flatly untrue, then he's a liar, plain and simple.

If I ever go into politics, I'll run as a Republican, and tell people that I invented a time machine, and went back in time, executed Hitler before WW2 broke out, and saved the world. It doesn't matter that I didn't do it. It doesn't matter that WW2 actually did happen, utterly disproving my statement. All I have to do is keep repeating it and questioning the patriotism of anyone who questions me, and I'll get millions of Republican votes.

See, I'm old enough to remember when saying things like this would sound histrionic, but not any more. The right really will swallow just about any bullshit you can think up. Most of their pundits' careers are built on this basic premise, and they're all zillionaires as a result. It depresses me to no end that there are literally millions of people in this country that don't give a rats' ass about reality. This is the only reason McCain has a campaign.

/rant

This is how it's going to be for the next two months. A steady, unrelenting stream of brazen, blatant, sickening lies, slanders, hate-mongering and race-baiting from the Rove/Palin campaign and their obedient puppet John McCain. They are not going to let up, no matter what, because lies and hate are all they have to offer the American people.

So when did the word LIE become unacceptable? Other than "Right wing radio" it's just not used. How come? "There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein posseses weapons of mass destruction" I still have not heard anybody in mass media proclaim that was A LIE. WTF?

So when did the word LIE become unacceptable?

Exactly. Right-wingers have gotten a universe's worth of mileage out of liberal decorum over the years. For as much as they whine like babies about the "liberal media", they have no idea how good they have it.

I have hope. Maybe the McCain/Palin match is too much for even Rupert Murdoch/Scaife/etc. Just because they're billionaires doesn't mean they want McCain to have a stroke and then have Palin launch WWIII against Iran. Or, God forbid, ban reality TV.

Barack is certainly cozying up to Fox though, and vice versa. I admit I'm worried. Granted, Rupert Murdoch is, first and foremost a money machine-- he will sell what people are buying. But U of Chicago is a place where everything looks like a problem in (mostly pretty conservative) economics. I dare say that Obama can find common ground even with him.

Lies and mendacity, Fox news suggesting McCain is lying? Suggesting there's evidence? Must have been very very late at night or something in a parallel universe.

Here in BushWorld they are looking for the second coming of McCain the Messiah to explain that lies are necessary even for good folk and a lie is really not a lie when you don't consciously consider mendacity. It's an extension of Lord Bush's ideas that you can smash a man's testicles, but as long as you aren't consciously trying to inflict pain...well, you kids know the end of this story, right? We smash everybody's balls until they tell. Then we get "voted" rulers of the world.

Where is the real Orwell when you need him?

"Low information voters", religious cranks, rednecks, etc. - isn't it telling, the sort of support the Republicans need to find each time.

I wonder if the truce Murdoch brokered between Obama and Ailes has anything to do with this...

Maybe, but this worries me more: What does that tell us about Obama's real commitment to reform, etc.?

Neil B, I don't think I'd worry too much (although I'm still getting over the FISA vote). There's a certain percentage of voters that *might* be persuaded that McCain/Palin is just too far out this time around, and FOX is the only way they're going to ever see him speak in complete sentences rather than sound bites. I'm swinging between despair and optimism, and I'm currently in an optimistic mood. . .

Fox, the MurdochToads, are going to side with Obama this time. I think McMaverick makes them nervous. He's not easily controlled. Too bad he has the brain of a fly.

It's not as illogical as people think that Fox has made something like peace with Barack Obama. Fox News apparently believes their role is the shill for the current administration. If you stop and think about it, CNN does too. They both have apparently decided that the current government is going over to Barack Obama. He's already taken the lead on the last things the country has done diplomatically.

Fox and CNN toady up to power, and Barack Obama is a powerful man. He really handled O'Reilly and Bill was powerless to disagree. Several times O'Reilly threatened to slime Obama but had to back off quickly when Obama stood up to him. I think this will go a long way to settle the "elite" issue and the "All hat issue." He's got balls, big hairy ones. And if he can dominate a discussion that Bill O'Reilly is trying to dominate, I believe most Americans will believe he can dominate foreign dictators, too.

It's not as illogical as people think that Fox has made something like peace with Barack Obama. Fox News apparently believes their role is the shill for the current administration. If you stop and think about it, CNN does too. They both have apparently decided that the current government is going over to Barack Obama. He's already taken the lead on the last things the country has done diplomatically.

Fox and CNN toady up to power, and Barack Obama is a powerful man. He really handled O'Reilly and Bill was powerless to disagree. Several times O'Reilly threatened to slime Obama but had to back off quickly when Obama stood up to him. I think this will go a long way to settle the "elite" issue and the "All hat issue." He's got balls, big hairy ones. And if he can dominate a discussion that Bill O'Reilly is trying to dominate, I believe most Americans will believe he can dominate foreign dictators, too.

I hear Biden has another son he "hides away"; a drug addict or in prison; what does everyone know?