Sept. 24, 2008
How McCain Reconciles Lies With Honor
The New Republic: The Logic And Rationale Behind John McCain's New Sleazy Campaign Style
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Photo
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., delivers a speech at the Navy and Marine Corps Stadium during his Service to America tour, Wednesday, April 2, 2008, in Annapolis, Md. (AP)
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Photo Essay
Behind The Scenes
Take a behind-the-scenes peek of Scott Pelley's interview with Sen. John McCain.
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Timeline
McCain's Quest
Mileposts in the Arizona senator's race for the GOP nomination and the presidency.
About a week after John McCain's campaign unveiled a vice-presidential nominee who incessantly boasted about her decision to turn down federal funding for a notoriously pointless bridge ("I told Congress 'thanks, but no thanks' on that Bridge to Nowhere"), the press corps began to notice that Sarah Palin had, in fact, vigorously championed the project until it was no longer tenable. Political fibs, even brazen ones such as this, are hardly unprecedented. What happened next, though, was somewhat unusual. Despite having its claim exposed in nearly every media outlet, the McCain campaign continued to assert it anyway, day after day, dozens of times in all. It was as if Bill Clinton had persisted in his claim that he did not have sexual relations with that woman even after the appearance of the semen-stained dress.
But what happened after that was even more unusual, and possibly without precedent: McCain's supporters simply suggested that the truth or falsity of their statements didn't matter. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said this to Politico about the increased media scrutiny of the campaign's factual claims: "We're running a campaign to win. And we're not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it." Republican strategist John Feehery made the point even more bluntly, telling The Washington Post: "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." Then, he added, "As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter."
Here we have the distilled essence of the McCain campaign's ethos: Perception is reality. Facts don't matter. McCain has presented himself as the grizzled champion of timeworn values. But the defining trait of his candidacy turns out to be a postmodern disdain for truth. How could McCain--a man widely regarded, not so long ago, as one of the country's most honor-bound politicians, and therefore an unusually honest one--have descended to this ignominious low? Part of the answer is that McCain is simply doing what works--and there is good reason to believe that his campaign's strategy of persistent dishonesty will pay dividends come November 4. But part of the explanation for all this recent dishonesty may lie, oddly enough, in McCain's legendary sense of honor.
No presidential candidate has ever gone through an entire election without stretching the truth. Certainly, Barack Obama is not totally innocent. Last March, Obama said that McCain "wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as one hundred years," when in fact McCain said that he would favor an indefinite peaceful military presence. (Obama was repeatedly called on this distortion by the press, and subsequently stopped saying it.) He has accused McCain of helping to permit a corporate takeover in Ohio that has led to the threat of layoffs--a literally true claim that inaccurately implies that the takeover caused the problem. He has also accused McCain of favoring nearly $4 billion in new tax breaks for Big Oil--literally true, but misleading, insofar as McCain is offering tax cuts to corporations in general, not Big Oil in particular.
But McCain's untruths, in their frequency and their audacity, defy any modern historical precedent. He has been concocting falsehoods for months on end, all of which serve a clear political purpose. Last summer, Obama--on the heels of a New York Times report that the Bush administration in 2005 had canceled at the last minute a snatch-and-grab operation targeting Osama bin Laden's lieutenants in Pakistan--pledged to follow through on any actionable intelligence against Al Qaeda. After Obama's nomination became likely, McCain--then trying to portray Obama as dangerously naïve and uninformed--accused him of having "once suggested bombing our ally, Pakistan." Obama had not said anything about bombing. His speech merely conveyed his support for small, special operations missions--the types of missions, incidentally, that the Bush administration has since undertaken.
During Obama's overseas trip this summer, he called off a meeting with wounded troops at a military hospital after the Pentagon told him that the trip might run afoul of a policy against visiting soldiers in the course of campaigning. A McCain ad accused him of canceling the meeting because he learned that cameras couldn't accompany him. (In fact, the press had never been scheduled to come along.)
Just last week, McCain attacked Obama for proposing to cut defense spending. "During the primary, he told a liberal advocacy group that he'd cut defense spending by tens of billions of dollars," charged the GOP nominee. "He promised them he would, quote, 'slow our development of future combat systems.'" Actually, Obama had pledged to cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful military spending (he also favored increasing the size of the military). Worse, almost any listener hearing this claim would come away thinking Obama was proposing to cut funding for weapons systems in development. In reality, Obama had promised to slow the development of a specific project called "Future Combat Systems," a controversial program. Indeed, McCain himself had proposed eliminating this very program in July.
By Jonathan Chait
Reprinted with permission from The New Republic.
| If you like this article, go to www.tnr.com, which breaks down today's top stories and offers nearly 100 years of news, opinion, and criticism. |




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See all 108 CommentsGuess there isn''t anything wrong with the messiah''s campaign running Spanish only ads in 4 states using lies to say mccain is against immigration when he co-sponsored the amnesty bill with ole ted. Nope, nothing wrong there.
So far the mccain campaign has been using the messiah''s own words. And, let''s not forget msm part in this. We all know the collective media is in the tank for the messiah. Just admit it for God''s sake.
He incessantly claims to love his country, he says he is a patriot, but that is a lie, too. How can anybody love their country while they show all the citizens such contempt, how can he love his country while he tells such outrageous lies?
He''s beginning to sound more crazy than Richard Nixon ever was, and Nixon was crazy as a bedbug.
Come on lib, reach way, way down into your addled brain and tell us just one.
There is no one so blind as the man that doesn''t want to see. If you think lying doesn''t matter look at the Iraq War. Tell the parents and children of those that are already dead that the "facts don''t really matter." Oh, sorry that''s what the last president did.
John McCain should be ashamed. He has no honor. It makes me wonder how long he has truly felt this way and what other lies he has told.
During Obama''s overseas trip this summer, he called off a meeting with wounded troops at a military hospital after the Pentagon told him that the trip might run afoul of a policy against visiting soldiers in the course of campaigning. A McCain ad accused him of canceling the meeting because he learned that cameras couldn''t accompany him. (In fact, the press had never been scheduled to come along.)
You are just as bad as McShame - a Lie becomes a Lie when somebody like you chooses to take it as a fact.
Merriam Webster''s defines Lie -
"to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive,"
or -
"to create a false or misleading impression."
This article is a great accounting of a man who doesn''t really know what the truth is, and he never will know.
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If we continue to buy into "the ends justify the means" philosophy, we continue to put our country in great peril.
We seem to forget that there is always two sides to this "lie" business.
1. The person telling the lie in order to achieve a desired result.
2. The person who buys into the lie usually because it''s what he/she wants to hear - or - "willful ignorance".
The idiot-son told his lies in order to achieve his political ends. He was successful because a lot of people believed him because he was telling ''em what they wanted to hear. He was successful, he achieved his political ends, and his "believers" were successful because they achieved theirs.
But now look where it got him and the country.
And now McCain has replaced his primary campaign staff with the Karl Rove proteges in order to copy what the idiot-son did to him in 2000. We see that in the lies coming out of his campaign recently.
"There is not such thing as objective, independently verifiable reality" Karl Rove (direct quote). This is the centerpiece of Rove''s philosophy - it got the idiot-son elected, and now McCain is trying it.
Posted by hadenough43 at 04:33 PM : Sep 24, 2008
While you may not agree, what you mentioned in your own post supports the idea that the ends DO justify the means. Good or bad, it works.
As for your allegation as to the reason the messiah didn''t visit the troops, I learned of it on line and I do believe it may have been cnn. I don''t recall seeing a mccain ad. So, cite your source.
And, please, enough with the nastiness,ok? How about a civil discourse.
REPUBLICANS CANT USE PARTY NAME IN POLITICAL ADS
JOHN MCCAIN KEATING 5
ACCOUNTABILITY!
Posted by hadenough43 at 04:33 PM : Sep 24, 2008
While you may not agree, what you mentioned in your own post supports the idea that the ends DO justify the means. Good or bad, it works.
Posted by incog-nito
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Steroids "work" too. They make anybody stronger and faster, but in the end, they destroy the body.
The GOP attitude that "Lies work better, so we will continue rely on them" is alive and well within the McCain campaign, and that attitude makes him indistinguishable from Bush (remember all the WMD lies?).
McCain = Bush
There really is no difference at all.
Next time McCain speaks......will someone throw a bucket of water on him? Voters, carry your pails to the next McCain/Palin speech. Make this 8 year National Nightmare melt away by dousing McCain and the entire GOP
Only when all the lies end, can America can return to the normalcy of honest government last witnessed during the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy eras
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"
The Wizard Of Oz (R-KS.)
You challenged %u201Cmswolfestock%u201D when they corrected you about the %u201Csnub the troops lie%u201D.
You wrote:
mswwolfstock-you need to cite your source for your statement. Oh and BTW, I won''''t accept the dailykos or huffingtopost. OK?
As for your allegation as to the reason the messiah didn''''t visit the troops, I learned of it on line and I do believe it may have been cnn. I don''''t recall seeing a mccain ad. So, cite your source.
And, please, enough with the nastiness,ok? How about a civil discourse.
________________________________________
Posted by Xlib at 04:49 PM : Sep 24, 2008
Personally, I think you may have spent way too much time reading Fox News or listening to Rush Limbaugh, but you need to try to verify your information by going to one of the numerous fact checking sites available. FACTCHECK.ORG is excellent.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/snubbing_wounded_troops.html
The above is how Republitards think and feel.
Posted by hadenough43 at 05:49 PM : Sep 24, 2008
I don''t quite agree with the analogy. There is no reason why you cannot be aggressive during campaigning, and still work to implement your platform after you get elected. If you don''t win, not only you don''t get to implement anything, the other side gets to impose THEIR agendas on you.
Posted by incog-nito
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HUGE difference between an "aggresive" campaign and a campaign filled with demagogery and lies.
But it is true that the winner gets to impose his/her agenda, but an agenda based on lies is ultimately self defeating. The idiot-son won, short term and small picture, but is ultimately losing a whole lot more than he ever won, and he''s taking an awful lot with him.
The lies were told by this reporter, not McCain.
Endless war.
Boundless corruption.
A wrecked economy.
Constant lies.
A weakening of our world standing.
That''s all it took. That''s all it took for enough American partisans to pull their heads out of their backsides long enough to understand that they were in trouble with Bush and the Neocons.
Maybe now we can get a few things done.
REPUBLICANS ARE ALWAYS TELLING BUSHIT!
THEY WONT CARRY 5 STATES!
Moreover, it makes perfect sense to demonize the press. That way whenever some inconvenient fact comes up in complete opposition to the Republican fantasy world view you can blame the ''liberal media'' for some how ''making it up''.
I am no longer amazed by this repugnant behavior. It is the logical result of mediocrity.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A grainy YouTube video surfaced Wednesday showing Sarah Palin being blessed in her hometown church three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from "witchcraft" as she prepared to seek higher office.
The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?vkj-on3kfWuE&featurerelated
Sorry, but I dispise liars and cheats. These "people" are liars and cheats and criminals and traitors.
McCain himself is guilty of squandering the public trust.
Everything lie he tells about liberals and Democrats and Obama, it turns out that if you replace liberal with conservative and Democrats with Republicans and Obama with McCain in each sentence you will suddenly have a truthful statement. Try it sometime. Just listen to the rant and replace the words.
Bill Clinton once said that whatever they accuse you of, they are guilty of themselves. Bill surely didn''t lie about that!
The lies were told by this reporter, not McCain.
Posted by sean7phil
You know CBS also publishes NRO articles. NRO is essentially Rush Limpbore in print and we ALL know what that means.
There can be no honor in lies.
I asked him about what he thought the solution was and predictably he shouted drill drill drill. I was very calm, btw, and asked him why he thought that was the solution. Then he started going on about all the hate those liberals spew, etc. He was trembling with anger he was so livid.
So then I asked, can you hear yourself? I said, you are the only one spouting anything even resembling hate. He clammed up looking like a deer in the headlights as I think he was realizing the truth of what I said.
It probably only lasted until his next dose of Limbaugh, but that mentality is the mentality of the republican base. They believe what they hear. If a lie is repeated enough by those they listen to, they will simply accept it as gospel and begin repeating it themselves. And you can''t really blame them as they have essentially been brainwashed.
It used to be that the media had to give equal time to opposing viewpoints. No single entity could own more than one media outlet in a given demographic region. This "deregulation" enabled all the rest IMHO. Until this is fixed, every election will be like the last couple. Lies and smears and lies and smears.
The internet is the only thing that has saved us from being completely immersed in the neocon lie pit.
I was astonished at how that played out and day after day could not believe how the mainstream media seemed to be purposely ignoring this issue.
JOHN MCCAIN
Very sad and ultimately very poisonous for the country. "Country first?" Sorry, it looks like "Me first."
Maybe you should bring up something more recent like say, rezko and his deals with the messiah. Like your messiah''s real relationship with ayers and dorhn. How about 20 years of listening, ops, he didn''t know wright was like that, I forgot. Yea, listening to 20 years of anti-American and white hate speech. Say, where was the messiah the years that aren''t mentioned in his biop.
Oh, do bring things up, please. That was fun.
Posted by SkySoldier75 at 07:46 AM : Sep 25, 2008
Your just mad because her voodo is stronger than Biden''''s voodo. Or Hillary''''s voodo.
Posted by littlebuddyd at 09:33 AM : Sep 25, 2008
So now the Repug Party endorses Voodoo?
Too funny!
You guys are toast!
JOHN MCCAIN
Posted by bluestardad at 09:11 AM : Sep 25, 2008
And I might add, the only one of the Keating 5 STILL in Congress!
Shameful!
Now, any take on the Spanish speaking ads put out by the messiah saying that mccain is against immigration?? Last I knew he wrote the amnesty bill with your teddy. So, I call that an outright lie, don''t you??
Also, that was a bit low on the messiah ad making fun of mccain because he can''t use a computer. The reason the man can''t use a computer is because of the injuries he sustained in Vietnam.
So, hope you get this post.
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