McShame Campaign

McCain's machine-gun series of lies, each more outrageous than the last, is so desperate and so transparent that even the news media is nearly unanimous in calling him on it.

That apparently is part of the point, for it seems that just about the only thing the McCain campaign tells the truth about is its own tactics. It's campaign director announced last week that they didn't want this campaign to be about issues that actually make a difference in people's lives, for good or ill. Now to a Washington Post reporter, doing a story on how McCain and Palin continue to make assertions of fact that have been proven not to be true--in other words, they're lying--GOPer strategist John Feehery told the Post, on the record, that:

...the campaign is entering a stage in which skirmishes over the facts are less important than the dominant themes that are forming voters' opinions of the candidates.

"The more the New York Times and the Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there's a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she's new, she's popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent," Feehery said. "As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter."

The McCain campaign hit a new low--at least as of Wednesday--when it lied and distorted the truth in an ad about Obama's vote in the Illinois legislature on a bill that included funds to teach kindergarteners about how to deal with sexual predators. Here's what Obama said about this bill in 2004 (which didn't pass anyway), according to the New York Times:

“I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean,” Mr. Obama said in 2004. “And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age.”

But the McCain campaign doesn't care about children, or women, or "the issues"--all the people who suffer and die because they can't get timely adequate health care, all the people who are losing their homes-- their homes; all the people being butchered and dying in Iraq; people losing jobs in a worsening economic crisis, an onrushing crisis in energy, the fate of the planet and the future. "Country First" is the biggest of Big Lies. The McCain campaign is all about winning--about the lobbyists and insiders in charge of the McCain campaign keeping their power and serving their wealthy clients, by fighting change and robbing taxpayers.

They don't care about the truth at all, which has flummoxed members of the media. "This is not false naivete, "writes E. J. Dionne, "I am genuinely surprised that John McCain and his campaign keep throwing out false charges and making false claims without any qualms." But it appears that McCain-Palin are not only set on continuing Bush policies on the issues they don't want to talk about, they are continuing and accelerating the Bush administration disdain for the truth and for the Constitution.

Referencing the 'lipstick on a pig' remark that the McCain campaign deliberately distorted, Barack Obama addressed this directly on Wednesday (the video clip will be posted above.) Part of what he said:

"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, throw out an outrageous ad because they know it is catnip for the media. It would be funny except for the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday. The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversion than about the future."

Enough! I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies, phony outrage and swiftboat politics. Enough is enough! These are serious times and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation. We can't take another four years that were like the last eight. Spare me the phony outrage. Spare me the phony talk about change. We have real problems in this country right now and the American people are looking to us for answers. Not distractions, not diversions not manipulations they are looking for real answers. That's the type of debate I attempt to have."