The "Straight Talker" is a crooked, crooked man

I honestly don't know what happened to McCain between 2000 and now. I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but seriously, it's like he made a deal with the devil (Rove?) to win this election.

This week has been filled with lie after lie after lie. And here's the thing: a lot of times, when someone says that a politician told a lie, what they're really saying is that they disagree with someone's position. That is NOT what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about saying the opposite of a verifiable fact. Like saying "water is dry" or "most dogs are 60 feet tall." Saying things that ought to make average Americans look at you and wonder which med you forgot to take this morning.

McCain keeps saying that Palin killed the Bridge to Nowhere. This is 100% not true, and that's an independently verified fact.

(There is an excellent NPR story on this here: NPR story on Bridge to Nowhere )

On April 11, 2004, McCain railed against the Bridge to Nowhere on Meet the Press. McCain later said that a 2005 story about the Bridge to Nowhere was a primary reason Republicans lost so many seats in the 2006. As late as September 2006, during her campaign for governor, Palin supported the bridge, holding up a "Nowhere Alaska" t-shirt. In October 2006, Palin said she supported continuing funding for the bridge "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist." She did not change her mind until the project was mocked and trashed by pretty much the entire nation. Even then, she kept the money and used it for other projects. That is not saying "thanks but no thanks." And that makes McCain and Palin liars.

McCain and his campaign staff are now saying that Obama is sexist and that Obama called Palin a pig this week. This, too, is a verifiable lie. There are numerous stories on this, and you can also go to You Tube to see Obama's remarks. Obama was equating McCain's current positions on, well, pretty much everything, with the Bush Administration, and saying that there's no change there. He did not say that Palin was a pig. He wasn't even talking about Palin - he was talking about McCain's positions. Now, this is on camera. You can't make it up. He said what he said. And yet McCain and his campaign keep insisting that this was somehow about Palin.

Here's just one video showing Obama's actual words.
"You Tube pig in lipstick"

McCain keeps insisting Obama would raise everyone's taxes. This is simply not true. FactCheck.org has written a piece ( A New Stitch in a Bad Pattern ) explaining McCain's lies and Obama's actual tax plan. FactCheck.org relied on the analysis provided by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which is nonpartisan. McCain keeps on saying "Obama will raise your taxes" because it's worked for Republicans in the past. How many of you can hear the phrase "tax and spend liberal" in your minds right now? It doesn't seem to matter that it's a lie. It works, so McCain says it anyway.

I just don't understand how anyone can stand to vote for someone that is so disrespectful of the American electorate that he not only lies repeatedly, but badly.