Freedom of Press is limited to those who own one - H.L. Mencken

Honest Comments On Dishonest Campaigns
by Hal_10000

Reason attacks McCain’s dishonesty:

Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? There is plenty an honest conservative might say in opposition to Obama: He’s wrong about Iraq. He’s wrong about Iran. He’s wrong about offshore oil drilling. He wants to raise taxes. He favors abortion on demand. He would appoint liberal judges. He would impede school reform.

But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn’t enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe.

He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What’s McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul.

And the WSJ pounces on Palin’s anti-pork claims:

Sen. McCain has made the battle against earmarks and wasteful spending a centerpiece of his campaign. He has never sought earmarks for his state of Arizona and vows to veto pork-barrel spending bills that come to his desk as president, saying these projects should go through normal budget review. And he derides the argument that states often make: that they’re funding important projects.

“If they’re worthy projects they can be authorized and appropriated in a New York minute,” he explained on his campaign bus earlier this year, before Gov. Palin joined the ticket. “If they’re worthy projects I know they’d be funded.”

During an appearance Friday on ABC’s “The View,” Sen. McCain said Gov. Palin shared his views, and hasn’t sought congressional earmarks. “Not as governor she hasn’t,” he said.

In fact, in the current fiscal year, she is seeking $197 million for 31 projects, the records show. In the prior year, her first year in office, she sought $256 million for dozens more projects ranging from research on rockfish and harbor-seal genetics to rural sanitation and obesity prevention. By comparison, her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, sought more than $350 million in his last year in office.

To be fair, it’s a little unclear as to how much of this comes from her office and how much from the Congressional delegation. It is clear that she has not foresworn special spending for Alaska.

In other news, Kaus hits McCain for deceptive spanish-language ads on immigration reform:

John McCain is running an ad in Spanish attacking Obama for allegedly failing to support the “comprehensive immigration reform” bill that McCain himself has said he no longer supports. ... I guess McCain got the “message” but not the mensaje. ... P.S.: The picture of Sen. Patrick Leahy is especially terrifying. ... P.P.S.: Would McCain ever run this ad in English? ...

Balko has the details here on why McCain is lying.

This is why I like conservatism and libertarianism—real conservatism and libertarianism. I can’t imagine left-wing commentators calling out their candidates like this and providing indirect support for a candidate whose views they diametrically oppose.

I’m getting that sinking feeling I got in 2004 as I watched Bush slime Kerry and lie like a Democrat about his beliefs, his accomplishments and his views. The feeling is that this bullshit is going to work and that the result will be another four years of the Perpetual Campaign. We will have four more years of unconservative action (such as McCain’s repulsive cap-and-trade bill), backed up by demonization of the opposition. And the remolding of “conservatism” into a big-government religious “us versus them” dogma will be complete.

I am so disappointed in McCain. He has had multiple chances to correct the record on the Bridge, on earmarks, on the sex ed lie and on the lipstick nonsense. He has utterly failed to do so. Victory at any price is not victory. I thought we’d learned that in 2004. Apparently not.

Posted by Hal_10000 on 09/15/08 at 07:23 AM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments

Posted by on 09/15/08 at 08:47 AM from

I’m getting that sinking feeling I got in 2004 as I watched Bush slime Kerry and lie like a Democrat..

Seriously, the Republicans of late have really elevated lying to a form of art that I don’t think Democrats could touch.

Posted by on 09/15/08 at 09:11 AM from

It is clear that she has not foresworn special spending for Alaska.

I don’t think she ever claimed to have done so - from what I have read it was a reduction in special spending, not an elimination of it.

Posted by on 09/15/08 at 09:50 AM from

Seriously, the Republicans of late have really elevated lying to a form of art that I don’t think Democrats could touch.

What a bunch of crapola. If you don’t think both parties are equally dishonest, you are fooling yourself. Now, that doesn’t make it right. I’d much rather McCain be more above board, but the Liberals have been lying to keep their power base (Unions, Blacks, etc.) for decades.

And don’t forget the MSM who claim legitimate impartiality. I think I see Cronkite’s nose growing as we speak.

Posted by on 09/15/08 at 09:53 AM from

I’m really getting torn in this election. I support McCain, but then again, the Republicans really had their chance to reform things in the early 2000s, when they controlled both Congress and the Presidency, and that was a disaster. Seems to me like the Republicans need a massive loss to act as a wakeup call.

Then again, this morning my wife received an anti-Palin email from my sister-in-law, which she said she was sending to all “forward-thinking women”. It’s the smug attitude of people like that that makes me want McCain to clobber Obama just so that I can see their heads explode.

Posted by on 09/15/08 at 12:10 PM from