Truth in Politics. Don't We Wish.

The mainstream media is apparently getting upset at what they say are lies in John McCain’s ads and campaign statements. For example, see Steve Chapman’s column in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune here. Also, see Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post here,

I agree with Mr. Chapman that the McCain campaign was over the top when it claimed that Barack Obama was comparing Sarah Palin to a pig when Senator Obama used the lipstick-on-a-pig metaphor to say a McCain administration would be no different than the George W. Bush administration. However, where was the outrage, other than from Republicans, when the Democratic co-chairman from South Carolina said Sarah Palin’s only qualification for Vice President was that she had not had an abortion?

I also would not have put out a commercial that said Senator Obama supported a bill requiring sex education for kindergartners when what the bill apparently provided for was age-relevant lessons for each grade. Senator Obama would not favor kindergartners learning about sex before they learned to read, as the commercial said, but unfortunately, there are people out there who would favor something pretty close to that.  [See Update below.]

I would rather that Senator McCain and Governor Palin not say that Senator Obama was going to raise taxes because I don’t think that is accurate, at least right away. What I would say is the Democrats, including Senator Obama, want to spend so much money that they are going to have to raise taxes on somebody or something – and it’s not going to just be the rich because they don’t have enough money. Ultimately, all Americans are going to have to pay for that increase, either through higher tax bills for themselves or higher prices on what they buy or lower economic growth for the economy as a whole.

But in spite of what Mr. Chapman and many others like to say, Governor Palin did stop the bridge to nowhere. Sure, Congress sent the money that had been originally set aside for the infamous bridge to Alaska for them to use as they wanted. But Governor Palin was the one who decided Alaska would not build the bridge. She stopped it. If you think this isn’t right, ask Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young. They were pretty mad when she decided to kill the bridge without asking them. I suppose you could argue that what Governor Palin has been saying is an exaggeration or a little puffing, but calling an exaggeration a lie doesn’t help restore truth to politics.  [See Update below.]

Also, before we complain too much about what the McCain campaign is doing, how about remembering Senator Obama saying, back in February: "We are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years." That wasn’t what Senator McCain said. Senator McCain said he would not object to troops staying in Iraq for a long time, like in Germany (where we have been for 63 years), as long as they weren’t getting killed or wounded. But that didn’t stop Senator Obama from saying what he said and repeating it.

But most of all, how about the biggest lie of all: That President Bush deliberately lied about there being weapons on mass destruction in Iraq. No, he didn’t.. The CIA told him there were WMD there. The intelligence agencies of our allies thought there were WMD in Iraq. Some of Saddam Hussein’s own generals even thought Iraq had WMD.* Sure, looking back on it now, you can find a stray comment here or a minority view there that raised a question about whether Iraq had WMD. But the conclusion of the people President Bush had to rely on was that Saddam Hussein had WMD. The fact they were wrong doesn’t mean he lied.

But because the "Bush Lied" claim fits the disdain that a lot of the MSM has for President Bush and because it helps Democrats incite their left wing crazies, a lot of Democratic politicians and large parts of the MSM keep saying that President Bush lied us into war.

I wish truth and accuracy mattered more in politics, but they don’t. Partisans on both sides are at times so blinded by their dislike or even hatred for the other side. that truth loses out. (See, for example, Howard Dean saying that Republicans are evil.) When the whole "Bush lied" charge is made and remade and passes for truth for many Democratic politicians and in large parts of the MSM, I find their outrage over a campaign ad here or some political charge there to be a little hard to take seriously.

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* On this point in particular, see, among others, John Hughes, "Bush had good reason to believe there were WMD in Iraq," Chrisitan Science Monitor, April 12, 2006.

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Update (9/17/08 8:10 am):  Following up on the sex education commercial, see this article by Byron York at NationalReview.com.  All things considered, it probably would have been better if the McCain campaign had not run this commercial.  They should have known not to re-use a charge made by Alan Keyes.

 

On the “bridge to nowhere” point, see this article from the Anchorage Daily News of February 8, 2008, and this one from March 12, 2008.  In fact, after re-reading these articles, I don’t think either Senator McCain or Governor Palin have been exaggerating on this point.  Governor Palin did stop “the bridge to nowhere” once she had a chance to, once she became governor.  Senators Obama and Biden could have voted against the bridge when they had a chance, but they didn’t.  They just went along.  Sarah Palin challenged the system - and won.