By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 11, 2008
New York Times

"Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere?

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.

But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

Take the case of the Bridge to Nowhere, which supposedly gives Ms. Palin credentials as a reformer. Well, when campaigning for governor, Ms. Palin didn’t say “no thanks” — she was all for the bridge, even though it had already become a national scandal, insisting that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

Oh, and when she finally did decide to cancel the project, she didn’t righteously reject a handout from Washington: she accepted the handout, but spent it on something else. You see, long before she decided to cancel the bridge, Congress had told Alaska that it could keep the federal money originally earmarked for that project and use it elsewhere.

So the whole story of Ms. Palin’s alleged heroic stand against wasteful spending is fiction.

Or take the story of Mr. Obama’s alleged advocacy of kindergarten sex-ed. In reality, he supported legislation calling for “age and developmentally appropriate education”; in the case of young children, that would have meant guidance to help them avoid sexual predators.

And then there’s the claim that Mr. Obama’s use of the ordinary metaphor “putting lipstick on a pig” was a sexist smear, and on and on.

Why do the McCain people think they can get away with this stuff? Well, they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs. You know how it goes: If a politician says that black is white, the news report doesn’t say that he’s wrong, it reports that “some Democrats say” that he’s wrong. Or a grotesque lie from one side is paired with a trivial misstatement from the other, conveying the impression that both sides are equally dirty.

They’re probably also counting on the prevalence of horse-race reporting, so that instead of the story being “McCain campaign lies,” it becomes “Obama on defensive in face of attacks.”

Still, how upset should we be about the McCain campaign’s lies? I mean, politics ain’t beanbag, and all that.

One answer is that the muck being hurled by the McCain campaign is preventing a debate on real issues — on whether the country really wants, for example, to continue the economic policies of the last eight years.

But there’s another answer, which may be even more important: how a politician campaigns tells you a lot about how he or she would govern.

I’m not talking about the theory, often advanced as a defense of horse-race political reporting, that the skills needed to run a winning campaign are the same as those needed to run the country. The contrast between the Bush political team’s ruthless effectiveness and the heckuva job done by the Bush administration is living, breathing, bumbling, and, in the case of the emerging Interior Department scandal, coke-snorting and bed-hopping proof to the contrary.

I’m talking, instead, about the relationship between the character of a campaign and that of the administration that follows. Thus, the deceptive and dishonest 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign provided an all-too-revealing preview of things to come. In fact, my early suspicion that we were being misled about the threat from Iraq came from the way the political tactics being used to sell the war resembled the tactics that had earlier been used to sell the Bush tax cuts.

And now the team that hopes to form the next administration is running a campaign that makes Bush-Cheney 2000 look like something out of a civics class. What does that say about how that team would run the country?

What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse."

 

[align=center]Hi Rick,[/align][align=center]Very interesting read.[/align][align=center]I believe, and was taught that a person is only as good or bad,[/align][align=center]as the actions of their words.[/align][align=center]What does that say about peoplerunning for office, or[/align][align=center]already in office ?[/align][align=center]Many do not seem to `Walk their talk.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]They talk a lot, but never seem to act.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]They talk, stumble & fall, but keep getting `up and[/align][align=center]start talking again, but never act.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Is Integrity missing in government ?[/align][align=center]Or just inthe majority, or minority ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Cangood journalist keep them honest ? or can the[/align][align=center]people they serve ? That is the question ?[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Speak `Out, Speak True, and Act your Words.[/align][align=center]I am saddened by the way both campaign`s are being run.[/align][align=center]Attack the issues, and not each other. `amen[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][:-]The silenced majority below [:-]Its funny/different 4 Sure[/align][align=center]http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/political_lies/index.html[/align]

 

We are headed for a national election here in Canada as well. Mid october.
We have the same problem here as in the U.S. That is, it's very hard to make an intelligent decision on who to vote for, because you don't know what either of them stand for.
It's all attack ads. We know what each candidate is against. But when it comes down to the hard questions about what they plan to do, they give you a long, drawn-out politician's answer that side skirts the issue.

McCain, in my opinion, only picked Palin because she fits the description of a lot of guys fantasies. The hot librarian fettish. All the focus was on Obama. The only wayMcCaincan get anyone to pay attention to him, is to drag his wife and/or Sarah Palin on stage with him.

The whole idea of being insulted by the lipstick on a pig comment, is complete crap. McCain and Palin know damn well that Barack was referring to McCain's policies being the same as George Dubya. The latest commercials calling McCain and Palin "mavericks" just makes me want to puke. For the reasons RJ already mentioned.

I happened accross an episode of The View last week while I was off from work. That Elisabeth Hasselback went on for half an hour about McCain and Palin, practically making them out to be the second coming of you-know-who. It was no wonder that she appeared at the RNC the next day.

I want to believe that Barack would be the leader that the U.S. needs. But I have to remind myself that he is a politician looking for votes. Any politician looking for votes is going to say what ever you want to hear. Once he/she gets elected, it's a whole new ballgame.

A. Whitney Brown made a commentary on Saturday Night Live years ago, that issadly true. He said that it used to be, you voted for the best man for the job. Then somewhere down the line it changed to the man you liked the most. Then itchanged to voting for the man you disliked the least. Now, we have resorted to voting against the man you hate the most.


Edit: Fixed mistake.

 

The way I see it, we can vote for Obama, figuring he probably will turn out to be another lying, all talk politican who doesn't fulfill 9/10 of his promises, or vote for McCain and know for sure.

McCain has the second hottest temper on the Senate floor, only second to Hitlary Clinton.
McCain is just a jerk. He's a moron. How he won the Republican nomination is still beyond me. He picked Sarah Palin hoping to get some of that undecided women vote.

However, Obama and the Democrats don't know how to stop digging holes for themselves. First, Biden claims Hilllary would have been a better VP than him (if you dont' believe in yourselves, why should I?) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...t-than-me.html

Then Obama still speaks in glittering generalities. He comes across as arrogant to me. He acts like he's already won the election most of the time. He's almost a pop star.

The Obama crowd at Campbell University is also very rude. They are rude, they have a George W. Bush "you're either with us or against us" attitude, and when a friend of mine registered to vote at their table and went to pick up a pin (figuring they were free as they usually are), they snapped "THOSE ARE $2!!" I butted in "WELL I JUST WONT' VOTE FOR OBAMA THEN" and walked off. Very rude crowd I tell ya. They get very pissed if you start bringing up points nad trying to question their beliefs, call you a racist, a bigot, and start claiming you think he's a muslim (which only any reliable source will tell you is false). What ********.

However, let me point out that Obama can only have so much control on how friendly his staff are.

Therefore, to restate my thesis, we can take a chance on Obama or know for sure we're getting a lying, cheating, backstabbing John McCain.

 

I still see no one mentioning that Obama will not pledge his allegiance to our flag. Think this isn't important? H-ll yes it is!!!

He wants to be our commander n chief he can damn well support our flag and all it stands for.

No one. Not a single politician you find today in this country is above board. NONE!!!!!!!!

Every one has an agenda that only improves their live and their families. It's either in a kick back or some other means for gain.

Now we're back to square one. WHO do you vote for in the upcoming election?

Obama has an agenda that none of us can even imagine. His wife did a thesis on making like better for the blacks and has said she will make this her number one priority when she gets in the White House.

This is not and never has been a black/white thing. But Obama is using his "Appears to be" black to his favor to get the black vote. The man is Arabic, not black. His natural father is a Muslim as is his step father. So where does his allegiance lie? Not with the U.S. flag.

Back in july a black man approached me in the parking lot of Dairy Queen at the thursday evening cruise-in asking me if I voted today who would I vote for? I told him straight up not Obama. We talked for at least half hour on the subject. He agreed this is not a black/white thing. The politicians are using that to keep us from realizing their true agenda.

All I can say is Heaven help us all.

 

RJ, please see this article in response to Obama not pledging allegiance to the US flag.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

This link has videos of Barack Obama pledging allegiance.

http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress....-daggone-fool/

My general rule of thumb: if it is true and should in any way disqualify the person for the position, the other candidate will be all over it.

 

Holy smokes! I thought everybody knew that was bunk!
Thanks for the Snopes link, Cowboy ...
I hope everybody that thinks what got circulated in a Spam Chain Letter was just somebodies Hate Mail and nothing but bullcrap!

 

I just wish we had an unbiased website where we could look up the facts and positions on key subjects...im sick of all the slandering and bashing...all it does is anger me

 

the onion is about the closest thing you got kweef

 

lol i love the onion...read it on the net pretty much every day...produced right here in wisconsin