No Steve. It should be a much bigger story. Because it is both true and defining.

There's no reason this shouldn't be just as big a campaign narrative as Gore's so-called "exaggerations," or Kerry's so-called "flip-flops."

Really, it should be 100x bigger.
(1) Honesty and bipartisanship is what McCain's campaign is premised on.
(2) Unlike the other narratives, this one is overwhelmingly, screamingly true.
(3) McCain has yet to release an ad that doesn't do this. It's not a gaffe or an occasional lie. It is ongoing.

"John McCain has a problem telling the truth."

This is weak. It should read "John McCain is a serial liar."

The Rove team has been using the same drooling frat boy tricks for a long time. Those have worked so far and are all they know anyway, so they're going to keep on using them as long as the paychecks keep coming in.

The problem for them is that the country has moved on and people are seeing them for the talentless posers that they really are. Good for you, America.

Why am I being asked to donate $50 to the McCain/Palin Compliance Fund at this ostensibly liberal blog? I wouldn't give that little creep two bits for a phone call.

And Palin fits into all this just fine

"There's no reason this shouldn't be just as big a campaign narrative as Gore's so-called 'exaggerations,' or Kerry's so-called 'flip-flops.'" The Irish know McCain's secret: "If you get the reputation as an early riser, then you can sleep till noon."

It is becoming the narrative for both McCain and Palin. Listen, if McCain comes off of an interview with The View bloodied up you know its crossed over into the mainstream.

Maybe the Obama campaign knew what it was doing by laying back and letting the Sarah Palin story play out (and I think it has. She's been exposed as pretty empty) and taking the worst McCain can throw. Now they have a laundry list of lies and distortion, all being talked about in the media, to fling at McCain. McCain/Palin might have peaked too soon.

If i click on that ad multiple times does it cost grampy money?

But the problem is that those lies can be exposed again and again, and it won't really change the public's view of anything, outside of the small subset of voters who read blogs and the national papers. People can be remarkably blind to revelations they don't want to hear--it doesn't surprise me at all that McCain's lies haven't garnered more shock and awe.

Let me try to put this in the best possible light for John McCain.

Lying, like all other political skills, requires talent, training and practice to do well. The point is to lie just enough to damage your opponent and avoid blowback to yourself. George W. Bush was a masterful liar in that way in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

John McCain is new to this. Whatever you think of him, prior to the 2008 campaign, he showed no evidence of honing the fine art of lying. He had to pick it up on the fly to win this campaign. It's not a natural fit, so he plows gamely on. And the result is that he doesn't know how to do it very well. So he lies about everything. He lies after he's been caught inflagrante delicto. He lies when people start laughing at him about his lies.

I'll give McCain credit for one thing: he's a really bad liar. Too bad he sold his soul in this feckless attempt to grab that last big prize.

McCain doesn't have a "problem" telling the truth; it's just he and his advisors have come to the (reasonable) conclusion that they have no other strategy to fall back on. They's stretching the axiom about "Telling a lie so often it's the truth" to its illogical extreme, but they know they can't run on issues. They have nothing.

John McCain wants to goad Obama into a debate about character, and to do so he is telling ever more outrageous lies. If Obama does engage, McCain's plan will be a variation of the Palin plan (They shouldn't attack the inegrity of a woman!) with the "they shouldn't attack the integrity of a American POW hero" response.
I think when Obama does attack (and he must) in must be in the contest of policy and real facts and the drastic difference those policies have on peoples lives. If Obama doesn't excoriate republican policies from global warming to debt to militarism and get people to understand the importance to each of their lives if things don't change, and call McCains lies in that context, then in fact the election will be decided on a playing field of McCain's choosing.

"There's no reason this shouldn't be just as big a campaign narrative as Gore's so-called exaggerations, or Kerry's so-called flip-flops?"

I understand what Steve is saying, and the press corps movement he cites is encouraging. But let's recall some important history:

In the most basic sense, it's too late for this to match the narrative about Gore. That narrative was hammered quite firmly into place in mid-March 1999; it persisted for the next twenty months, widely asserted all over the press corps. There's no way that any negative assessment about McCain can match the sheer volume of that.

Liberals pundits offered almost no challenge to that narrative during those twenty months. Many of them were actively repeating the narrative as late as October 2000. For reasons others will have to explain, we've all agreed to forget about this.

Systematic dishonesty is of course a very big story, but one shouldn't overlook the systematic stupidity displayed in Palin's talk about "not blinking" and "being wired" and "staying on mission." Translated into English, all this means that she despises knowledge and is prepared to "act" instantly on gut feelings and without reflection. That is precisely the mindset that has led the present government into such foolish and illegal actions. Acting on gut feelings leads to the gutting of the constitution.

"And if you and the Obama campaign want to disagree, that's your call."
He knows the media will not call his bluff.
If Obama says it, it's just 2 politicians arguing.

(1) Honesty and bipartisanship is what McCain's campaign is premised on.

No, it isn't.

It's premised on bright shiny things, and middle fingers.

Any bank robber will tell you that if you want to do a bank job on the east side, you need a helluva diversion on the west side of town.

AS I'm sure others have noted,

I think that they have adopted the other "Bush Doctrine": Flood everyone with so much BS they can't hope to refute it all, keep the opposition from grabbing a news-cycle and some of the BS will get through the filters and work (just like it did for the push to Iraq).

They know exactly what they are doing. From my POV they see the writing on the walls, and this is part of their "Hail Mary" strategy.

Maybe John McCain is just preachin' to the choir.
Perhaps there are a great number of potential voters who have already made up their mind that -NO WAY am I gonna vote for a black man. Anything that John says just gives them justification for their predisposition. Progressives have a hard time believing that this Country hasn't moved that far from the past. It's so subtle now that it's nearly invisable, but it's there for sure.
You don't see or hear comparisons of Palin vs. Biden. It's only Obama. Progressive need to get out and mix with these people more at the country clubs ,lunches etc. Listen more closely to the conversations and you'll discover what I'm talking about.

I don't see a downside to this for McCain.

The press will barely mention it, and if they do they will be declared liberal lovers or ultra-partisan.

Republicans don't care - or worse, they fully approve. No matter what McCain does, he knows it is impossible to do anything so slimy that he risks losing a single Republican vote.

So, the lies are targeted and the rather large group of people that make judgements based on soundbites - and McCain is winning their votes.

It appears to me that McCain is hoping to either get away with his lies or goad Obama into an angry response. Actually, the latter would play right into McCain hands --- getting his opponent to adopt the "angry black man" persona, which would make him easy to dismiss and defeat. What we need to hope for is the news media to recognize what's happening and call McCain on his lies --- maybe this isn't too outlandish. Meanwhile, the Obama needs to walk the fine line between responding in ways that show he won't get pushed around without falling into the angry trap that McCain has set for him.

The Republicans have had a serial liar in the White House for nearly eight years. The press remained supine throughout. What makes anyone think that things have changed?

McCain is a man without principles, even bad ones. He is a fundamentally empty man, and looking back over his career, I see no evidence of the 'formerly principled' McCain. His 'mavrick' status seems to have been based on two things, fundamentally. McCain-Feingold, which was his way of distracting people from Keating 5, and the only truly honest thing he did, joining with Kerry in demolishing the 'there are still hundreds of POWs in Vietnam' myth. There are good reasons, beyond his temper, why his colleagues didn't like him -- balanced by a superficial charm that fooled people -- the way many sociopaths can be charming.

His flip-flops are not so much an example of 'selling his soul for office' as they are a reflection of simply not caring about issues except as far as they help him.

"Worse than Bush?" Absolutely. Bush actually has some sincere beliefs, and I believe he 'means well,' as damning as that phrase can be. He doesn't understand his own beliefs, doesn't see how they contradict each other, and doesn't see how his actions -- and those of his subordinates -- contradict them, and he's a fundamentally lazy man who really doesn't pay attention to what goes on.

But McCain is the true 'hollow man,' reminiscent in some ways of Joe McCarthy in his failure to understand how his lack of principles affect the world outside his own skin. (McCarthy too was 'charming' by all accounts, and he seemed truly puzzled when, after he would destroy a man's character and career, that he couldn't go up and shake their hands and say 'aww, y'know it was just politics, no hard feelings' and get them to accept it.)

This is why, whatever mistakes you think Obama has made -- and I agree with Saint Zak and patrick that he has been handling this better than many of you think -- none of us can throw up our hands and start yelling 'all is lost.' It isn't. We've still got weeks to work to make sure that this man, John McCain never becomes "President John McCain.'

And if John McCain thinks his ascendancy to the presidency is so important that he is willing to get there based on such flagrant dishonesty, then he is truly a megalomaniac.

For better or worse, Obama's people have to go after McCain's character, or more specifically, his trustworthiness (liar), his judgment (rash), and his temperament (hotheaded).

I did like David Brooks's (ug) comment yesterday on NPR -- the McCain campaign is like a football team with a weak offensive line -- they've pulled off a couple of razzle dazzle trick plays for long gains, but over time they should wear down.

An article today's Politico quotes a McCain campaign rep essentially saying,"We don't care that the media is nailing us for our serial lies. We know the media isn't as much in the bag as in year 2000, so we are just going to lie and ignore the protests"

This is amazing. They are not even going to bother to pretend they aren't lying and seem to have broken through to some new level of calculation without even a figleaf of deniability.

The odd part of this is that it's as if the McCain campaign has inverted everything Americans like to believe about themselves. I feel like we are watching "It's A Wonderful Life" and the audience is rooting for Mr. Potter instead of George Bailey. Talk about un-American.

What does it say about the patriotism of the media and the journalists that they are so quick to promote a candidate who is so transparently bad for the future of our nation?

There's no reason this shouldn't be just as big a campaign narrative as Gore's so-called "exaggerations," or Kerry's so-called "flip-flops."

There is a very good reason that this will not be a campaign narrative: McCain is a Republican and the corporate press/media is owned and operated by Republicans. That is, they write the narrative.

One of the best illustrations is the way Chris Matthews points out that McCain's campaign is lying, but excuses McCain himself. Stated another way, McCain is an honest and honorable man who is just engaging in some distasteful political behavior. But it's all for the good of the country! He needs to save us! Don't hold him responsible!

We are well and truly screwed.

McCain is like Bush is more ways than is often suggested. Both children of privilege, ne'er-do-wells pushed into greatness, never held accountable, failures at every step along the way, protected by users and sycophants, intellectually incuriious, and totally amoral. They also have one key strength - they are both politically and socially deft.

I think it's pretty clear that John McCain sold his soul to the devil to win this campaign. It explains everything.

While he was checking out Sullivan's blog, I hope Steve also read this one: Are the Netroots Being Played by Rove?

With the last 6 posts on here about the Republican campaign, I don't think there's any doubt that McCain has succeeded in making his campaign front-and-center on Democratic blogs. Whether this is intentional, or even a good thing for McCain, I'm less certain about.

Could the NY Times be more namby-pamby? McCain is being criticized by people for 'stretching the truth'? That's the story?

On my planet, McCain is being criticized not for 'stretching the truth' but breaking it into little pieces. And trampling on them. Would it be too hard for them to report that he is being accused of "lying"???

I mean, I realize that their heads would explode if they actually had to report themselves that he was "lying", but they can't even bring themselves to say that others are saying it? Sheesh.

Joy Behar sat next to John McCain, looked him in the eye and called him a liar on national tv. Maybe people are quick to discount The View, but it reaches the very audience the McCain campaign is trying to reach.

The sleazy tone and dishonesty of McCain's campaign is being reported and discussed all over the meidia, in mainstream newspapers, cable news shows, bloggs. John Fund had a difficult time defending McCain and Palin on Bill Maher's show last night. He certainly didn't put much heart into it. On NPR the best David Brooks would say about Palin's interview was "She didn't make any big mistakes. she spoke in complete sentences." He also expressed unease with her recklaess positions, especially her cavalier talk of war with Russia. This isn't just the Huffington Post and Daily Kos, anymore. It is becoming a major stoory in this campaign.

Sarah Palin's interview was orchestrated and hyped for maximum effect. It was a disaster. Instead of Palin Phase 2, it was a direct hit on her qualifications and honesty.

I think the worm has turned.

This is HATE SPEECH.

Steve, I hope you'll check out and blog about the Bill Moyers Journal segment that aired last night about the insidious and potent effects of Hate speech.

Personally, I think it's beginning to stick. Certainly, it's been impossible to avoid hearing the charge about the lying. But it takes time for recognition of the facts to change into character formation in the sense of this is who John McCain is. But I believe lying is becoming integrated into his character profile, and he's beginning to suffer for it. Watch what happens with the jokes on the late night monologues this week...

In any case, I think the MSM has done its job on this one, and if McCain manages to win the election it will not be because people did not know he had become an inveterate liar; it will be because they did not care. And if they don't care, that's really not the press's fault, is it?

more lies!!!! look at TPM and the links ... every day, almost every hour now ... awesome!

"If Obama does engage, McCain's plan will be a variation of the Palin plan (They shouldn't attack the inegrity of a woman!) with the "they shouldn't attack the integrity of a American POW hero" response."

Correctamundo.

That's why they have to jujitsu the honor meme and make it "how far the honorable have fallen."

Don't just honor his service. Praise it to high heaven.

Remember "Caesar was an honorable man?" Just go get your high school copy of "Julius Caesar" and substitute "McCain" every time Brutus mentions Caesar. Rinse and repeat.

"Too bad he sold his soul in this feckless attempt to grab that last big prize."

One he doesn't even seem to really want. maybe Cindy wants it. Hey, it's one more big house, innit?

BTW, STEVE (!!!!), why doesn't this site remember personal info anymore?

Do you learn leadership in inhumane captivity? Or do you learn to lie?

That's Just What I Said

This has to be driven home right now. With millions of dollars of advertising. Becuase if we don't do it within days, Steve Schmidt and Karl Rove will have ads up calling OBAMA a liar.

You can just SMELL it coming.

I think you're on the right track but somewhat missing the point. McCain doesn't care that *you're* mad cause he's lying -- his supporters love him for lying, the bigger and more obvious his lies the more they'll love him. And the more guys like you and I will hate his supporters for being so ignorant, venal, or whatever we think they are.

And this is what JM wants -- what he's doing is trying to get people to hate each other. The Republicans have been running this game for 40 years: "The black guy wants to rob you, the woman wants your job, the gay guy wants to recruit your son, etc, etc." Standard divide & conquer stuff.

Only by sowing out and out discord, does JM have a chance.

BO knows this, and this is why his whole campaign about bringing people together is potentially disastrous to the Repubs. If BO wins it won't be just a win as it would've been w/ HRC, it's potentially a stake through the heart of the Republicans' entire playbook.

Now, I'm not sure BO's right. I'm not sure this country is ready for it's Kumbayah moment, and I'd like to see him start battering away at JM. But we'll see.

If, not we're in for 4 more years of divisive, hate-filled politics coming from a president who tries to pass himself off as the most patriotic man in America, yet doesn't have the decency or judgment to take the 2nd most important post in the nation seriously.

Well call the fucker out on it....I'm beginning to get disgusted with Obama as much as McCain in his pussy ass repsonses. It's kind of like the kid in the school yard that gets punched and then runs and tells the teacher.

Don't these guys realize most Americans care to ignore the fact that this crap that McCain and company are spewing is lies...

Call both of them liars every day over and over and over and over. Repeat McCain's flip flops, talk about Palin's crazy talk in that fucked up church she went to. Talk about the fact that if her daughter were raped she'd make her have the baby

People don't care what the editorial boards say. The Rethugs have lied over and over again and keep winning elections....enough is enough.

I'm pissed cause if this guy doesn't get some balls he's gonna lose and then we're screwed.

Enough of the Harvard crap...act like your from the south side of Chicago!!!!!

Most everyone but the willfully blind finally wised-up to the bitter truth that the Bush administration Big Lied this nation into unleashing war. Even so, even in light of that monstrous crime, our enfeebled political establishment failed to exact a single punishment. Bush and Cheney themselves will have retained their formidable (if diminished) political power until the end. McCain merely personifies the spritual cancer of that establishment. He has witnessed firstand the triumph of that brazen, institutional corruption. He has chosen to embrace it, to cultivate it, because he knows for a fact he can prevail doing so. And let's face it- he might very well pull it off. After all, compared to Big Lying a country into waging war, all his lies together still amount to little more than small potatoes.

The chickens are coming home to roost for those who opposed an impeachment for sordid, short sighted political calculations.

GOOD on all you bloggers, reporters, and pundits who are finally using the "L" word! We've got to pound home the obvious: LIE, LIES, LIAR, LYING. LIES LIES. LIES.

If the people hear it enough, it will sink in. No more "fibs" and "fibbing." It's LIES, LIES, LIES from now to the election.

Yaaay!

Look at Bush approval ratings. Republican policies are so unpopular McCain could not get elected if he did NOT lie about everything.

What paul @ 1:17 said.

The GOP are masters at this game -- and it is a game, well a war game anyway -- is that they are brilliant in first laying the groundwork.

For the past 30 years, or more, they have waged a cultural revolution: railing against signs of intellectualism, railing against the media, and railing against relavatism while attacking the -ism culture in general.

So they start with this base: academics? Bad. Media? Bad. Multiculturalism? Bad. Government? Bad. Against this backdrop, they are positioned to take make use of all the things they've established that they hate. They have created a new reality for themselves: with a set doctrine of truths. From there they can lie about whatever they want, because they can always refer back to their original opinions to discredit their critics, or to challenge even the notion that they would do something so out character.

Apparently, they were right to decry moral relativism. Only they were to see the sinister end game and develop a strategy for exploiting it.

"Pathological" is the only way to describe it.

Take the "sold the plane on Ebay and made a profit". Listed on Ebay, repeatedly, never sold, ended up being sold through a broker at a loss.

They could have talked up the "she was too honest/frugal/down-to-earth to use a luzury plane, so she sold it!". Brief, true, and gives the illusion of honesty/frugality/humility. But the needless embellishment begged for debunking.

That the MSM is actually doing it is the most amazing thing. Usually it's just the "left wing nuts" in the blogodome that do this stuff anymore.

look, mccain was the victim of the big lie 8 years ago. he learned a lesson. you can campaign on the issues and lose, or you say anything you want, no matter how big the falsehood, and win. it's clear which path he chose.

Pathological. Here's my Daily Kos post on the same subject.

The rightwing is very, very good at us vs them politics. Watch out for those immigrants, they're stealing your jobs. Watch out for the black man running for president, he'll take sides with "his kind". It's all "be afraid, don't trust those liberals", and so on. They play on the fears that many people have. Isn't our country ready to stop that garbage?

Obama has tried to elevate public discourse in this country to a level of civility, to we are all in this together, get involved.* The Rs cannot survive in that atmosphere. The citizens will not allow it. So the Rs must continue their attack of lies.

*Obama can't do that alone; we have to help him get elected AND continue to be involved afterwards.

It might not be wishful thinking to say that we might look back and be thankful that the MSM gave Hon. Sen. McCain so much leash. The harder they come, the harder they fall; and if Senator McCain's perfidy ever starts to become a narrative, there is just do much material to feed it, that I don't think it will be just a few day story.

Devoted to you.

It's night, the
fall of an absent
caprice leaves
in the country
a sullen behaviour,
the sound of
a fancy and
always that care,
like a beautiful
fortune.

Francesco Sinibaldi

OT, but check this:
http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/did-palin-consider-rape-kits-form-of.html
Did Palin consider "rape kits" a form of abortion?

"While he was checking out Sullivan's blog, I hope Steve also read this one: Are the Netroots Being Played by Rove?

With the last 6 posts on here about the Republican campaign, I don't think there's any doubt that McCain has succeeded in making his campaign front-and-center on Democratic blogs. Whether this is intentional, or even a good thing for McCain, I'm less certain about.
Posted by: Equal Opportunity Cynic"

Completely agree with this. And as someone who's volunteering and trying to find out what Biden says on the trail or Obama it is completely dismaying that I have to go to BarackObama.com to get my news and have none of it picked up by the blogosphere. The blogosphere should be echoing and amplifying Obama/Biden. It's what Lakoff talked about in his most recent article. Negating a frame only activates it. Please activate Obama frames and stop spending so much time activating McCain frames through negativity!!!!

Get the word out!

The last week has made it pretty clear that McCain has lost the goodwill of the MSM, even among those columnists and opinion-makers who are normally espousers of the GOP line.

And now that the narrative is accepted by many (if not most) pundits and news-drones, the Obama campaign is starting to attack McCain's honor (though Obama seems to be staying mostly out of it for now--probably waiting until it really, truly sticks).

Essentially, McCain is all tactics; his campaign has done its best to control the media cycle on a day-to-day basis without any apparent plan for the long-term. As a result, they've used up most, if not all, their best tactics already, just to get the race to a tie.

Obama's campaign is about strategy. That means long-term planning and waiting until the right time to play a move. That's why they had to wait until the narrative McCain-is-a-liar took hold among the MSM before they could start pushing it themselves.

In the meantime, they've been working their ground game, focusing on the issues, gathering ammunition, watching their state polls and internals, and planning more strategy.

It's certainly possible McCain's campaign has some long-term strategy they're playing, but if so, it's impossible to tell. It certainly *seems* like their strategy is just to smear, drive up Obama's negatives, and distract from the issues. But, they started playing that game too soon and too often.

I saw an interview with Scott Rasmussen at update@rasmussenreports.com

He said the important number is 43% of the voters are solid McCain and 39% are solid Obama and the other 18% hold the election in their hands. Now I have an interesting question. It is obvious that something is bothering these people about each candidate. When they get in the voting booth will they be afraid to vote for the black man or will they be afraid to vote for the lunatics? This election is not lost and it will come down to the last day. More Malox please!

I'm still waiting for someone to ask McCain what really happened on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal!

There really is only one way to confront this.
Seize the moral high ground and up the ante.

How?

Run an ad that documents the lies and conclude with something at least this powerful:

Serial liars are never trustworthy people -- that is a truism. But it also demonstrates a deeper character flaw. A normal job applicant would be disregarded out of hand after such a record became clear...

In other words, go at the jugular and don't miss the aorta either. It is that, or live with the lies. I don't see a middle ground.

If one can not call serial lying by a presidential candidate serial lying, then what worth hath America? Such timidity is simply too appalling. When you have truth on your side you either seize the day or you shut up and lose...

As long as McCain lies, stay on the story. It's catching.

I hate to say it, but this is Rovian politics turned around. McCain the straight talker is being turned into McCain the serial liar. His strength has become his weakness. It's getting attention, and not just on the liberal blogs. The New York Times, AP and Washington Post all ran articles this week about McCain's lies.

To those that don't understand how the game is played: the Chicago street fighter in Obama is in the fight. The Obama campaign has signalled that it's ok to say McCain and lie in the same sentence. They have stoked media interest in McCain's lies. They have chosen their battles, but are definitely involved in the fight.

Keep hammering away--it's working.

"This is amazing. They are not even going to bother to pretend they aren't lying and seem to have broken through to some new level of calculation without even a figleaf of deniability." -Karen

And you have never seen Dana Perino? How about Alberto Gonzales? Maybe Donald "Master of Known Unknowns" Rumsfeld? It's not really that new.

I not only see a man who has sold his soul to the devil, I see a 72 year old man who is so desperate to be president that he has allowed the most evil, obnoxious beings e.g. Rove & Davis to manage his campaign however they want to, also that this is the only way they know. I cannot help but wonder if the onset of dementia has something to do with McCain doing all this. If, as they say, he once had honor, he would not drop so low if he was in his right mind.

McCain aide Kimmie Lipscomb told reporters on Sept. 10 that an outdoor rally in Fairfax City, Virginia, drew 23,000 people, attributing the crowd estimate to a fire marshal.

Fairfax City Fire Marshal Andrew Wilson said his office did not supply that number to the campaign and could not confirm it. Wilson, in an interview, said the fire department does not monitor attendance at outdoor events.

In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign.

Bloomberg

Obama campaign has a new website:
http://www.johnmccainrecord.com/mclobbyist/

I think the worm has turned.

Posted by: Saint Zak

I agree, the power of Sarah Palin's neo-persona is fading rapidly under the weight of lies, scandal and incompetence, and that interview was a disaster! Anybody who saw that display and doesn't agree that she was completely daft and a dumb-driven Bushie caricature is hopeless and a sociopath as an American. I look forward to the debates especially the ones between the candidates for President, and I look forward to hearing more blatant inexperience sound bites from the brainless Harpy. Joe Biden is going to smoke her out of her black hole.

I cannot help but wonder if the onset of dementia has something to do with McCain doing all this. If, as they say, he once had honor, he would not drop so low if he was in his right mind.

Which is not to say taht he isn't in the early stages of dementia; he looks and sounds to me as though he is.

McCain's (and Palin's) lies have to backfire. Both have lost all credibility. How can anyone believe McCain's ads going forward -- with 2 months left to go -- after what he put out last week? How can anyone believe Palin after most of her self-representations have been debunked, including details like whether she traveled to Ireland and Iraq, and after seeing her EVADE questions from Gibson in such a blatant manner? Haven't they shot themselves in the foot early enough that the Obama campaign can point out that not only has McCain lost his honor but his credibility, in the campaign as well as if he were to become president? How could we believe a word he says? Even Bush didn't enter office with this smirch on him.

You can add the NYTimes editorial board to the list of public speakers who are re-acquainting themselves with the word "lie". The board used it twice, in its yesterday's editorial: "A Message From John McCain"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12fri3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

That's the same board that actually expressed support for McCain's presidential aspirations; he was their choice of Republican. It's gotta sting to have been that fooled...

When they get in the voting booth will they be afraid to vote for the black man or will they be afraid to vote for the lunatics?

Afraid to vote for the black man. This is America.

Next question.

We have to make them MORE afraid to vote for the lunatic. It can be done. Think "Johnson daisy ad".

"Republicans.
They used to have enough respect to try to mislead you.
Now they just lie."

I think McCain has thrown in with Karl Rove and Rove is screwing him royally and McCain doen't even know it. He believes that if he follows the "Architect's" advice he will be a winner.

It's not "whether everyone else prefers a different reality," Steve, but that everyone else KNOWS actual reality to be quite different from the lies McCain and pals are spewing. To take just two examples, by no means the most ludicrous: McCain says he "knows how to win" in Iraq, but that's a lie: he does not KNOW how to win because he never WON a war, Vietnam or otherwise; Palin says she's been to Iraq but that's a lie: as you just pointed out, she got as far as a border crossing when she visited Kuwait. Republican flacks like Brian Rogers are not "preferring" a different reality, they are lying through their teeth and hoping everyone is too damn polite to call them liars.

Again, what do people not get???

The guy needs to be called out on this crap!

Hit him as hard as we can...the Harvard crap doesn't work, be a prick and be as dirty as they are...taking the high road ain't gonna work, these people are pigs.

"When pressed to come up with ANY experience on issues of national security that Sarah Palin had, John McCain had a one word answer:

INTERVIEWER: Again, I'm just asking you for an example, what experience does she have in the field of national security?

McCAIN: Energy. She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.

And leaving aside the question of exactly how that translates into national security experience, let's look at Palin showing off that expertise during her recent interview with Charlie Gibson:

Palin: Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

And while facts don't mean anything to the McCain campaign, factcheck.org says that Sarah Palin is wrong:

Palin claims Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy." That's not true.

Alaska did produce 14 percent of all the oil from U.S. wells last year, but that's a far cry from all the "energy" produced in the U.S.

Alaska's share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And if by "supply" Palin meant all the energy consumed in the U.S., and not just produced here, then Alaska's production accounted for only 2.4 percent.

There are a number of conclusions one can draw here, so take your pick: Sarah Palin doesn't know very much about energy, John McCain doesn't know much about Sarah Palin, John McCain and Sarah Palin are both liars."

Wow. They really are brazen, aren't they? They lie, thinking that those of us who are smarter than they won't fact check their every idiotic comment.

As Forrest, Forrest Gump said: "Stupid is as stupid does."

GK's addendum: "Stupid vote Republican - again."

. . . and I wonder why I don't get any robo-calls from the RightWingLemmongdompubbiehood asking for me to vote for McSame . . . .

Recommended talking points for next week: "What hasn't McCain flip-flopped on? What hasn't Palin lied about?"

The most pathetic thing about mccain's lying is that he's hired the same campaign manager that bush used to ratfuck HIM in 2000.