This week, non-partisan fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact and FactCheck.org
have called Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) out for lies in his attack ads against Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). But on Fox News Sunday today, former Bush political adviser Karl Rove dismissed the organizations, claiming that “they’ve got their own biases built in there.” “You can’t trust the fact-check organizations,” said Rove. Watch it:
Big Bucks
Looks like a big money haul for Barack Obama in August with the campaign reporting $66 million and 500,000 new donors. That brings their total number of donors to around 2.5 million which is a staggering total. All told, he has $77 million cash on hand. That’s a lot of money and, I think, assures us that the Obama campaign will be able to meet its goal of outclassing McCain’s ground operation.
That said, when pondering Obama’s fundraising feats, it is worth recalling that there’s nothing stopping Sheldon Adelson from giving “Freedom’s Watch” $60 million or, for that matter, $600 million if he decides that swamping the airwaves with conservative messaging is really important to him.
Palin Repeats Bridge To Nowhere Lie For The Ninth Time
As ThinkProgress and others noted, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) seemed to acknowledge last week to ABC’s Charles Gibson that she lied in claiming repeatedly that she said, “Thanks, but no thanks” to Congress for federal funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. Palin did not challenge Gibson when he explained that “it’s now pretty clearly documented that you supported that bridge before you opposed it.”
Palin had dropped the lie from her two speeches before her fellow Alaskans, some of whom are reportedly angered by her false bridge claim. But during a campaign rally in Carson City, NV yesterday, Palin re-introduced the lie, falsely claiming for the ninth time that she said to Congress, “‘Thanks, but no thanks’ on that Bridge to Nowhere”:
PALIN: I told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” on that bridge to nowhere — that if our state wanted to build that bridge, we would build it ourselves.
Watch it (5:28 from the end):
Palin’s claim is, of course, demonstrably false — but the McCain-Palin campaign and its surrogates have now repeated the lie 32 times, according to a ThinkProgress count.
Wheels Coming Off
NBC News’ Mark Murray says the wheels are coming off the Straight Talk Express.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers issues the following defense of lying as a campaign strategy: “We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”
Jeffrey Goldberg explains that McCain needs to lie because McCain’s core crazy policy idea is unpopular:
The point is that McCain knows that preemption isn’t the easiest sell these days: “It’s very hard to run for president on this idea right now,” he told me. So, what do you do when one of your core ideas is out of sync with the predispositions of the American public? You spend your days talking about lipstick on pigs. This might win him the election, but I’d rather see him debate preemption.
Once again registering my rote objection to describing the Bush/McCain Doctrine of preventive war as “preemption” (the point of the doctrine is to eliminate the normal standard of preemption) this is why I think it’s important to go beyond mocking Sarah Palin for not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is to pointing out that John McCain is very much a believer in the Bush Doctrine and the Bush Doctrine is incredibly dangerous for the country.
McCain: I’ll Cut Taxes for Everybody
John McCain said yesterday that he’d go beyond promising to avoid raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000: “Not only that, I’m going to cut taxes for literally everybody.”
It’s too bad John McCain doesn’t seem to be familiar with John McCain’s health care proposals which involve a large tax increase on everyone who gets health insurance through an employer. For the rich, this will be offset by some of McCain’s other tax cuts, but for middle class families it’ll be an increase. McCain also might want to check out the views of John McCain’s top economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin since he seems to think McCain will raise taxes.
Strange Laws
Hilzoy does us all a service by showing which bills and amendments John McCain and Barack Obama have introduced in the 109th and 110th congresses. There’s some serious stuff in here. But also some somewhat wacky stuff. For example, who knew John McCain was such a Cesar Chavez fan?
327: A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of sites associated with the life of Cesar Estrada Chavez and the farm labor movement.
Too bad McCain never seems inclined to express his admiration for the late labor leader by supporting any pro-labor legislation. Also — pedantry:
S.AMDT.1438 to S.1042: To redesignate the Naval Reserve as the Navy Reserve.
I think I liked “Naval Reserve” better.
Confusing Future Presidents, Part 2
Part 1 of this book review looked at the (mis)handling of climate science in two books by Professor Richard A. Muller — his textbook and general public book, which, confusingly, are both named Physics for Future Presidents. Here I turn to portions of the general public book, such as the chapters on climate solutions, his treatment of terrorist nukes, and even his unsubstantiated dissing of the Toyota Prius.
