John McCain Lies His Way to the White House

Since accepting the Republican nomination for the Presidency, the McCain Camp has run a startlingly negative and deceptive campaign, the likes of which is unmatched in recent political history.  McCain/Palin has moved from deceptive smears to outright lies, many of which have been debunked by the mainstream press.

While some of the lies may have initially been honest mistakes, McCain and Palin show a casual disregard for the truth by continuing to repeat many of them long after they have been disproved and debunked.

What also separates the McCain/Palin rhetoric from Obama/Biden is the sheer nastiness of it, accusing Obama in turns of sexism, perversion, elitism, and more, as well as the exhausting pace of sometimes two and three attacks a day.

We'll share a few of the most recent lies with you below, along with the facts and the source for the debunking.  And remember, most of these are from just the last two weeks:

8/28/08: THE READY TO BE PRESIDENT LIE: McCain touts Palin's experience as a small town mayor and Governor of Alaska: In fact, he criticized Mitt Romney in 2007, saying "I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time." Source

9/3/08: THE EBAY LIE: During her acceptance speech, Palin claimed to have sold a wasteful private jet for the state on Ebay, for a profit.  In fact, while she listed it three times on Ebay, she finally had to turn to a private broker to sell the plane, and she sold it at a loss. Source

9/3/08: THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE LIE: Claiming Palin stopped the "Bridge to Nowhere": In fact, Palin was for the Bridge until it became unpopular, and even after it was canceled, she kept the money, some of which was used to build a road to where the bridge was going to be built. Despite repeated debunking, she continues to repeat this lie. Source

9/9/08: THE SEX-ED LIE: A McCain ad accused Obama of wanting to teach sex-ed to kindergarteners: In fact, Obama's vote was for legislation that would have helped kindergarteners avoid sexual predators, but McCain stands by this lie despite repeated disproval by the press. Source

9/10/08: THE FACTCHECK LIE: A McCain campaign ad suggested that factcheck.org said Obama had attacked Palin with false and misleading attacks: In fact, FactCheck.org issued a statement saying that it had yet to dispute any claim by the Obama campaign about Palin. Source

9/10/08: THE ARMY OF LAWYERS LIE: In the same FactCheck ad, McCain's campaign claimed that "Obama air-dropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Alaska to dig dirt on Governor Palin." In fact, a) this never happened, and b), the ad misquoted the source, the Wall Street Journal's John Fund, who said democrats, not Obama, had sent the team. Source

9/10/08: THE LIPSTICK ON A PIG LIE: Accusing Obama of a sexist smear against Palin: McCain claimed Obama's comment about his policies being like trying to put lipstick on a pig. In fact, it was clear that Obama was not referencing Palin at all, and this claim has ben debunked by many news organizations. Source

9/10/08: THE HUGE CROWDS LIE: The McCain campaign claimed that 23,000 people came to a rally in Fairfax, VA for the two Republican candidates, attributing the numbers to a city fire marshall. And the campaign has also claimed huge numbers at other rallies, saying those numbers came from the Secret Service. In fact, the VA event drew approximately 8,000 people, according to a reporter at the scene, and the Fairfax fire marshall denied giving the McCain campaign any estimates.  And the secret service also says they did not provide any crowd size estimates to the campaign. Source

9/12/08: THE EARMARKS LIE: Appearing on The View, McCain claimed that Palin had never asked for Earmarks from the Federal Government: In fact, she asked for over $200 Million in just the last year. Source

9/12/08: THE GLOBAL WARMING LIE: In her ABC interview, Palin challenged Charlie Gibson to show where she ever said that global warming was not caused by man: In fact, in August 2008, Palin said: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made." Source

9/12/08: THE VP LIE: Palin, trying to shore up her foreign policy credentials during her ABC interview, claimed that "many vice presidents" didn't meet any heads of state before they were elected: In fact, every one of the VP's in the last 32 years met at least one head of state before they were elected. Source

9/13/08: THE IMMIGRATION LIE: Accusing Obama of blocking immigration reform in 2007: In fact, it was Republicans who fillibustered the legislation, and McCain and Obama voted identically on the major votes on the issue. Source

9/13/08: THE PALIN IN IRAQ LIE: Aids to Sarah Palin claimed that she had visited Iraq during a trip to Kuwait in 2007, her only trip outside North America. In fact, the campaign has now "clarified" this statement, saying the went to a border crossing, but never actually entered Iraq. Source

9/15/08: THE FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND LIE: After claiming on the same day that Lehman Bros filed for Bankruptcy and the Dow Jones dropped 500 points that "the fundamentals of the American economy were sound", McCain tried to turn this blunder around on Obama by claiming he meant the "American worker" when he used the word "fundamentals", and accused his opponents of not valuing American workers. In fact, Obama said nothing about American workers, only calling McCain on his own statement. Source

9/16/08: THE BLACKBERRY LIE: Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a top advisor to the McCain camp, held up a BlackBerry PDA and claimed "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.": In fact, McCain doesn't know how to use a computer, or email. Source

ONGOING: THE TAX LIE: McCain claims that Barack Obama would raise taxes on the middle class if elected. The latest spin - after being called on the lie, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds basically said Obama's a democrat, so he'll raise your taxes: In fact, Obama's tax plan would not raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000, and 81% of Americans would actually see a tax cut.  Middle class families would actually save more money under Obama's plan than under McCain's. Source

What's sad here is that the McCain camp has apparently made a political calculation that they can't win on the issues.  With the current President's popularity at an all-time low and the Republican brand damaged almost beyond repair by two poorly conceived and run wars, poor government response to Hurricane Katrina, political cronyism, and much more, McCain has decided to gamble his White House run on a campaign of deception.

Suddenly, the Republican Party is the party of change, the folks who will throw those corrupt bums out of Washington.  Nevermind that the bums they want to throw out are their own party members.  Nevermind that change = more of the same.  And nevermind how many lies need to be told to get the there.

After all, it's not the way you play the game, it's whether you win or lose.  Right?

--Scott