McCain: Same As He Ever Was

On a recent trip to Europe, I was asked several times how John McCain could get away with lying repeatedly about facts that were easily verifiable. Each time, I was stumped, realizing that the moral corruption that has settled on the McCain campaign appears invisible to about half the American voters, and I do not know why.

What Europe thinks about US presidents doesn't matter much: Europeans are hardly immune to voting for ethically challenged, corrupt, war-mongering extremists themselves, and have no lessons to give on the subject. What is fascinating, though, is that there is a broad understanding in Europe that politicians will lie about contestable numbers, as they do everywhere; a born-again Paul Krugman said it best about George W. Bush: "you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned." There is also agreement that they will lie when confronted with evidence of actual corruption (the financial kind), if only to avoid jail. Of course, Europeans understand why Americans lie about sex, and Bill Clinton was only made more popular there because of his complicated sex life, in a wink-wink nod-nod kind of way.

But to simply say something did not happen or was not said when there are dozens, sometimes millions of witnesses to the contrary, seems bizarre and returning to the US in the present state of the campaign is truly entering a twilight zone. McCain and Sarah Palin appear to be successfully reinventing the art of campaign lies. Even more extraordinarily, they are doing so themselves, not using surrogates. Comparisons to the Bush vs McCain 2000 South Carolina primary sleaze are inaccurate in that sense: the rumors about McCain fathering a black child were done anonymously, at least in the beginning, not by the Bush campaign (even though the latter surely had a hand in it). The same for the 2004 general election Swift Boat smear against John Kerry: it was at least cosmetically launched by an independent group.

Now, though, we have McCain himself advertising the most blatant lie about Obama's work on the prevention of sexual abuse of young children. McCain, a father himself, is sexualizing children as young as five for the purposes of a campaign ad, with absolutely no consequence. Similarly, although not quite as disgustingly, we have Palin repeating like the Stepford vice presidential candidate she is that she said "no, thanks" blah blah to the bridge to nowhere.

When called out about their lie, both McCain and Palin deflect the questions by repeating the same answer, then saying they are not lying, then saying that Obama is a bad person toO, and the interview is over. Their campaigns are even more grotesque in their responses, a typical one being: " everything that we've been saying we provide detailed backup for - everything." This latter quote, from the New York Times, goes basically unchallenged by the writer, which is fairly typical for such stories, perhaps in a terribly misguided effort to be "balanced" (it is no coincidence that the word in a political context is immediately reminiscent of Fox News.)

It should be eye-opening that in the middle of one of the sleaziest campaign weeks in memory, McCain confirms that he is "the same person as [he] always was." We take this to mean that he was always the sinister, perverted, out-of-touch politician he is now. Many were fooled in the past, but why are they fooled now? Or is it that they are not so much fooled, as they are willing to overlook McCain's sordidness because they have such fear of an Obama presidency? And if so, why? There is nothing in McCain's past to indicate that working Americans, women in particular, would not be far worse off under a McCain presidency than even under Bush.

Or has abortion so distorted American politics (as The Economist recently noted) that nothing else matters to a decisive group of poor to middle class, mostly white American men and women? Or do voters really think that the country is better off with a president who is "like them?" And if so, how do McCain or Bush, with their patrician, wealthy, entitled backgrounds have anything to do with the average American, besides, perhaps, their average intelligence? Both men underperformed in college, but unlike 99% of Americans, they attended super-elite schools on the strength of legacies and it did not matter how they performed academically: plenty of opportunities would come their way regardless.

Now, in an effort to further fetishize academic underperformance and complete lack of curiosity, we are introduced to Palin. She too is presented as someone "like us." At least in this case, the qualifier is closer to the mark, but who the hell wants someone "like them" anywhere close to the White House? Would it not be better to have someone more accomplished, perhaps smarter and harder working than we are, like, say, Bill Clinton or Obama, who have succeeded against all odds and whose backgrounds are far closer to most Americans' than the dynastic McCain and Bush?

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the fact that race must be playing a role in many places, not least in the swing states of Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In the latter, for instance, half of Hillary Clinton's significant primary winning margin was made up of voters who openly said that the candidate's race was "important" to them in their decision. And that was a Democratic primary.

At some point it becomes hard to blame the traditional media for its improper coverage. Clearly, the McCain/Palin lies have not gone unnoticed, although they are still timidly challenged considering the scope of the deception. And yet, there is barely a blip in polls that still show the two candidates tied nationally. In the more important state polls, the movement is all over the place: to be blunt, the more educated swing states (Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire and Oregon, for instance) are moving towards Obama or staying close; others (Ohio, Florida) are going the opposite way. There is still far more opportunity for Obama than there is for McCain in the electoral college map, but what a challenge it must be for the Democrat to try to get into the head of voters whose mind can actually be changed by the kind of toxic dribble emanating from McCain, Palin and their surrogates.

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Comments

[DavidBlackburn]

My favorite is that Governor Palin supports unlimited gun rights (except in the case of her former brother-in-law,) and is against the free press (liberal media).

[ChangingmynamefromSarah]

Great points! But let's face it, here at HuffPost we're all pretty much preaching to the choir (and I don't mean preaching about Alaska being a safe haven when the Apocalypse comes or about asking parishioners to pray for a pipeline). We need, I mean NEED, to get these messages out to the general public. That is, the ignorant, misguided, and uniformed. We've got to get people to bury this ridiculous concept of identity politics. I don't want someone like myself to be VP; I want someone smarter and more knowledgeable. WE NEED TO DRIVE THIS MESSAGE HOME!! And we need to convey to people how vehemently the McCain camp is trying to manipulate us with smear and fear and outright lies. So, please, I implore everyone to spread this message to battleground state newspapers and other media outlets. We need to do all we can to win this election. And with 50 days left, I'm starting to get really, really scared.

[bailinonpalin]

The media seems to have trouble providing just the facts or balanced reporting, often allowing lies by Republicans to stand unchallenged. Have you ever stopped to think who owns most of the media?

I suspect the answer is: rich Republicans. I question whether we have "freedom of the press' today. Reporters want to keep their jobs just like the rest of us.

[justobserve]

This is the weirdest Republican campaign where the presidential candidate, McCain, has to rely on his VP candidate to "shake up Washington". Not only it isn't befitted a hero, it showed McCain has nothing but a record of using women to advance his career. McCain lost his integrity by lying about her record, a 670,000-pe­rson-state governor, to be better than, say, Giulini, Mayor of NY City of 13 millions people. The ONLY record that Palin is "better" (worse) than other big city Mayor or bigger state governor is PALIN'S MIXING UP family and state affairs: her NEPOTISM.
"McCAIN: STRAIGHT-FACED LIES EXPRESS. DO VOTERS WANT ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF LIES, SECRECY,...? WILL OUR VETS AND ARMY BE PROUD WITH McCAIN-PALIN AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF?

[PioneerKing]

although McCain's campaign may have financially gone bankrupt twice
McCain's campaign has been morally bankrupt since McCain courted the agents of intolerance to win this election

it is not an unsurprising that McCain's behavior has been revealed as a portrait in dishonor
given the manner in which McCain treated his first wife, uses abusive language on his current wife and has told the most disgusting jokes about Chelsea and Hillary Clinton

McCain's behaved dishonorably since his returne from Vietnam yet no one has called him on it
just read the remarks members of congress who speak of McCain's temper

also telling is the manner in which McCain has allowed his campaign to be used to spread the divisive and hateful quotes of anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and racist Westbrook Pegler

the most dishonorable of all behavior has been McCain's lies about how much he supports our troops when in fact McCain has one of the worst voting records of veterans" issues that nearly any other member of the Congress and Senate

John McCain has proven that it is he who is willing to do anything and say anything to win an election as McCain does when he gets a tough question or called out in a lie, McCain resorts to his - noun, verb and POW rhetoric

John McCain has not run an honorable campaign and as a result McCain has lost all of the political capital that was garnered through his military service and his former POW status

[ExpatDane]

The media may not be to blame, but they still haven't done their job. Anchors and reporters and talking heads cannot challenge McCain/Palin on their lies because they are neither informed nor knowledgeable enough to do so.

All they can do is repeat talking points. Wolf Blitzer, for example, is one of the dumbest newscasters I've ever heard. He should be in the classroom, not the situation room. Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric et. al. are not much better. And Brokaw has sold out like McCain.

I was only a child in the heyday of Huntley, Brinkley, Conkrite and Rather - but we sure could use them now. O'Reilly and Olberman are about the most intelligent these days and they are so biased you can't really trust their reporting.

Sad, sad, sad. Yet that's what makes this election so amazing. That an intellectual like Obama can be running even in such an anti-intellectual society is quite an achievement. And if you saw Megan Kelly grill Tucker bounds about McCain's lies on Fox news, then you might suspect that Obama is not only smart but a real heavyweight fighter. His meeting with Rupert Murdoch...well wait and see.

[gulfcoaster]

The following excerpt is not getting any press, but is highly revealing about the Bush/McCain Administration's policies and Palin's understanding of them:

"GIBSON: Do we have the right to be making cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan, with or without the approval of the Pakistani government?

PALIN: Now, as for our right to invade, we're going to work with these countries, building new relationships, working with existing allies, but forging new, also, in order to, Charlie, get to a point in this world where war is not going to be a first option. In fact, war has got to be, a military strike, a last option."

In other words, Palin acknowledged that the current policy is one in which war is the first option!

WHERE IS THE AD?????

[robbep]

The fact that so many white people are willing to swallow the lies in spite of the facts says something does it not? There is only one demographic that McCain leads in and that is white folks. There are many white people who do vote on issues like economics and policy but to many of them dont . They vote on cultural issues and ignore economic ones. Their love of country is dwarfed by their dislike of people not like them. These working class white folks have to hit bottom bfr they open their eyes and start voting on issues and character. Unfortunately for all of us the bottom is coming soon.

[gvc]

The lies are on record. More ads need to be made. "Troops are below pre-surge levels; I never said that." etc.

[Deschris]

What do you guys expect form this Liar.Both he and Palin are trying to sell the American people the same bridge to nowhere she was for and then against, like you are stupid.The scary thing is you are buying it. Look at her tactics,drop certain lines about nuclear when she is in Nevada and her lies about the bridge when she went back to Alaska,what a travesty! Stop being stupid America don't be duped again.They talk about reform,how can a republican reform a republican administra­tion,lobby­ists croonyism,all for the rich kind of policies and give aways.I just listened to Sarah,what a bunch of BS not a word about the hurt you are feeling. Stop them now,the middle class and less fortunate must rise up.

[cooltheplanet]

The problem for democrats and Obama /Biden in particular, is how do essentially decent persons respond to psychopaths McCain/Palin, who seemingly have no conscience? In my personal dealings with such people, I disengage as quickly as possible and cease to conduct business of any kind, lest I be drawn into their toxic dance. But of course, they must stay engaged.

The only way out I see is to realize we are literally at war in our own country. Right now we the people don't own our government, the corporations, wealthy class and religious extremists do. And in war, many of our civilized mores are suspended for the greater good of vanquishing the enemy. Why the mushy middle of our country can't see this clearly I cannot understand, but the ruling class is diabolically clever in manipulating enough of this poplulation to maintain their stranglehold, or (plan B) simply steal the election.

So I say, hit below the belt, shoot at the back, stomp it's degenertive brains out, because our lives, and perhaps the rest of the world's, are at stake.

[libwingoflibwing]

McCain and company's future ends the first Tuesday in November. All they care about is winning and they'll do whatever they think is necessary, including alienating half the country minus one vote so much that we'll be polarized for years.

Obama and company's future *begins* the third Tuesday in January. Obama just doesn't plan on winning, he plans on governing for change. That requires consensus. That is why he is determined not to run a campaign of attack.

As we watch this campaign many of us begin to fear that we can only win if he runs a campaign of attack. Obama is my candidate and I trust him. He knows what he's doing. He will not only win but he'll be able to pul the country together in January.

Don't let the mainstream propaganda, er ah I mean mainstream media, and the latest round of skewed polls freak you out.

McCain's a Liar.

[huffy2001]

Everyone should start watching the view..."the best political team on television"!

[huffy2001]

Since when is it the job of the media to be "fair and balanced"? I always thought the job of a free press was to ferret out the truth. There is nothing fair and balanced about the truth...it's just the truth. Like there is no good news or bad news...just news.

And what on earth is the appeal of having someone "just like us" in the Oval Office? I'm a pretty smart guy: my I.Q. tests, school records, and economic standing prove it. Yet I hope and pray that the guy sitting in that chair has twice my intelligence and judgment. I simply cannot imagine having to make the decisions that person has to make...and then being able to sleep at night. It seems to me that people, especially people of average intelligence, who hunger after that position have a screw loose somewhere.

Finally...this "executive experience" argument..­.bullsh^t! I have plenty of executive experience. I have built two businesses and employed several people over the years. Yet I cannot imagine having to decide when and where to bomb buildings, invade countries, deploy soldiers to their potential deaths, etc. Who in the world has that kind of "executive experience." That's ENTIRELY about judgment, and it seems to me, the slower you are to jump the better. You can always decide to kill someone. But you can never bring them back.

[springsm]

Ferreting out the truth would truly be the order of enlightenment for the media. So far they have spent their accountibility. We need to get rid of the good ole boys and find some young folks who are socially aware and conscious of the crap that has been produced to date. Unfortunately you won't find them either. To be ambitious is to pander to the one with the power. HAHA...The power wants control of all and the money. Follow the money. We actually need to produce some idealists among the young. Why does that fade so fast with so many competent youth? NO LEADERSHIP.

[kadene]

I remember when Barbara Walters from "The View" asked McCain why he is convinced that Obama's reference to "a pig in lipstick" was meant to belittle his running mate Palin, McCain answered "Obama chooses his words carefully."
I'd like to know if John McCain doesn't, and if that is any reflection on their recklessness.

[elizaW]

Intelligence isn't measured by test scores. Judgment certainly isn't. And based on your argument just because Obama was the executive director of his campaign doesn't mean he's qualified to make decisions on the really big issues. At the end of the day, voting is about guessing and hoping. It's gambling. Whether you want to hear this or not, for many people Obama is the bigger gamble. Yes, even bigger than Sarah Palin and it has nothing to do with race. It's the elitist thing. It's the sense that Obama and his team think Americans are so stupid they can manipulate them by creating an image, (bolstered by references to Martin Luther King and JFK,) that'll seduce anyone hungry for change. Problem is it's not working. For a lot of people Obama comes across as fake as though styrofoam Greek columns.

[Ponzipuppet]

On the Issue of Patriotism

Al Franken has pointed out in his books that Democrats and Republicans both love their country, but that Democrats love their country like adults love their parents--warts and all.

Republicans, in contrast, love their country like a 2 year-old loves his/her parents--believing uncritically that Mommy and Daddy are absolutely perfect just the way they are, and cannot possibly imagine that parents have human faults that ought to be changed.

[DallasMike]

Yep that summed it all up right there

[Ponzipuppet]

My two cents for the rest of us when writing letters to the editor, calling and writing in blogs...

I think McCain has successfully stolen the "change" platform. We can no longer simply demonstrate factually that McCain is Bush3. Pro-McCain people will stubbornly say against all evidence to the contrary that McCain will be different too.

Also, just calling McCain a liar (however unprecedentedly obvious McCain's lying really is) may backfire since the public may just get confused and think that it's a matter of he-said-she-said. It will just sound to wearied voters that both candidates are bickering--and then they'll vote for the white guy since he seems safer.

(1) Instead, Obama should use the slogan: "Enough!" in addition to "Change." That way he looks like the rational adult that he is who is scolding the children who are clearly misbehaving. Year after year the candidate that best exemplifies that generation's conception of "The Father" wins.

(2) We need to hammer on the idea that McCain 2008 is NOT McCain 2000. McCain 2000 may legitimately be called a Maverick, but McCain 2008 is simply a sad pawn of the religious right.

Summary: Obama simply needs to be the adult to McCain's childishness, and say, "I knew McCain 2000, and McCain 2008, you are no McCain 2000."

[DallasMike]

How can you believe in change when Obama voted 99% of the time with his party and NEVER voted against a single tax hike but now you believe that he is going to cut taxes for the middle class?
Now who is living in a fantasy land?

[justobserve]

"I knew McCain 2000, and McCain 2008, you are no McCain 2000."
Yes, this is one of the best slogan! It sums up all about the NEW McCain!
"McCAIN: STRAIGHT-FACED LIES EXPRESS. DO VOTERS WANT ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF LIES, SECRECY,...? WILL OUR VETS AND ARMY BE PROUD WITH McCAIN-PALIN AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF?