McCain Switches from Truthiness to Flat Out Lies

NEWS FROM THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY

For Immediate Release: September 15, 2008
Contact: Eric Jotkoff, 850.222.3411

McCain Switches from Truthiness to Flat Out Lies

Campaign Takes Bush-Rove Tactics to New Low

Tallahassee, FL - John McCain's campaign across Florida today, the McCain-Palin Campaign continues their lies and smears in an attempt to distract voters from the issues that matter.

"For months John McCain was making Steven Colbert proud by relying on truthiness in his attempt fool Americans into believing that John McCain's record of voting with George W. Bush 90% of the time was something besides more of the same. Now, John McCain is taking the Bush-Rove tactics to a new low, relying on disgusting lies to district from the issues that matter. Floridians are sick of dishonorable politicians like John McCain, who only are offering the same old tired rhetoric because they don't have solutions to fix our economy, create jobs, or lower homeowners insurance rates," said Eric Jotkoff, Florida Democratic Party spokesman.

McCain wants to portray himself as a Maverick and he may be doing that in a way he never thought. The McCain-Palin camp's tactics of distorting facts, distracting Americans from real issues and outright lying are closer to an Old West gunfighter shooting at anything that moves than the straight talker McCain was in 2000. McCain may have more years in government than Sen. Obama, but as Americans have learned in this election cycle, McCain has less class and integrity.

St. Petersburg Times "McCain's commercial goes too far" (Ernest Hooper); Sometimes, John McCain comes across as that kindly uncle who likes to slip a $5 bill out of his wallet to his nieces and nephews. Then he ambushes Barack Obama with a misleading commercial that states Obama's lipstick on a pig comment was specifically directed at GOP running mate Sarah Palin. Even conservative radio host Glenn Beck said the commercial went too far. [Published Sept. 15, 2008]

St. Petersburg Times "Campaign of lies disgraces McCain" (Editorial); [McCain] has been a serious public servant willing to say unpopular truths when he thought it best for the country, but he's more than willing in this election to put his name on campaign lies. The leader who says he would rather lose an election than lose a war now risks losing his reputation in an attempt to win the White House. [Published Sept. 14, 2008]

Bloomberg "McCain-Palin crowd-size estimates not backed by officials" (Lorraine Woellert, Jeff Bliss); In recent days, journalists attending the rallies have been raising questions about the crowd estimates with the campaign. In a story on Sept. 11 about Palin's attraction for some Virginia women voters, Washington Post reporter Marc Fisher estimated the crowd to be 8,000, not the 23,000 cited by the campaign. [Published Sept. 13, 2008]

Miami Herald "Palin could rob McCain of Jewish vote" (Beth Reinhard); Palin could have proved that she gets Israel's right to security in an interview this week with ABC's Charles Gibson. Instead, she proved only that she was well-coached. When asked how the United States should respond if Israel felt it needed to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, she said, ``I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves.'' Should the United States cooperate? `I don't think we can second-guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.'' So it would be OK for Israel to strike? ``We cannot second-guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.'' Americans who care about Israel have a right to know more. [Published Sept. 13, 2008]

St. Petersburg Times "Graham: McCain should return to 'honor'" (Wes Allison); Bob Graham, the former Florida governor and U.S. senator, says he considers his old friend Sen. John McCain a man of honor but that you might not know it from his campaign lately... "That sort of stuff is not the kind of remark for a presidential candidate or a presidential campaign," Graham said, "and I'm hopeful that Sen. McCain will revert to what I think is legitimately defined ... as a life of honor and valor and he will carry those values through his presidential campaign, and by doing so maintain the good feelings that he has with many Americans, including those who are not going to vote for him." [Published Sept. 12, 2008]

Miami New Times "On Israel, Biden has a record, Palin has a flag" (Kyle Munzenrieder); She's stated she's pro-Israel. But Biden, who calls himself a Zionist and sponsored the Palestinian anti-terrorism act of 2006, has the best record to back those claims up. Owning a flag doesn't measure up. [Published Sept. 8, 2008]

Orlando Sentinel "Could Gov. Sarah Palin simply avoid the press?" (Hal Boedeker); It makes me wonder: Is she not up to swimming in the choppy waters with the other candidates? Can she think on her feet? Can she take her lumps in the interviews like every other candidate for high office? Is the McCain campaign trying to pull one on the public? If tragedy struck and Palin became president, would she take questions from the press? Or would she require special handling then, too? Taking reporters' questions on the campaign trail helps reveal whether a candidate is prepared for office. If she can't deal with Bob Schieffer and George Stephanopoulos, why would she be able to stand up to the leaders of Russia and Iran? [Published Sept. 7, 2008]

St. Petersburg Times "McCain speech fails to deliver on change" (Editorial); This is supposed to be a change election, and John McCain certainly has changed. The Arizona senator, who accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday night, has morphed from a maverick with broad appeal into just another hard-edged conservative relying on cynical judgments and old-fashioned rhetoric to rally his party's unenthusiastic base in hopes of a narrow victory in November. [Published Sept. 5, 2008]

Palm Beach Post "Just straight-faced talk" (Editorial); Sen. McCain chose Gov. Palin because his party is less excited about him than the Democrats are about Sen. Obama, and he wanted to excite the party's easy-to-excite religious fundamentalists. He also wanted to present something of a "historic" ticket. But in passing over all the qualified Republican women - five of them Senate colleagues - Sen. McCain went for tokenism, despite his comment in July that he favored ending affirmative action in his home state of Arizona. Tonight, Sen. McCain will tout his judgment. Based on their first big decisions, the judgment call goes to Sen. Obama. [Published Sept. 4, 2008]

Florida Today "McCain's Challenge" (Editorial); But there's another side to McCain that's troubling and raises concerns about how he would govern. He promised to run a positive campaign but has unleashed personal attacks against Barack Obama, questioning his patriotism. He admits to knowing little about economics when the economy is the nation's top concern, and has a senior economic adviser in former GOP Sen. Phil Gramm who has ridiculed hard-pressed Americans for being in a "mental recession" and a "nation of whiners." [Published Sept. 4, 2008]

Ft. Myers News-Press "McCain panders to base" (Editorial); John McCain is portrayed as a maverick, an independent, free-thinker who isn't beholden to party lines. But in the biggest decision he's made as a presidential candidate, he caved. [Published Sept. 4, 2008]

Associated Press "McCain's Obama-Palin comparison falls short" (Jim Drinkard); McCain continued the theme, noting that "when she was in government, he was a community organizer." That's incorrect. When Palin was first elected to the town council in Wasilla, Alaska, in the fall of 1992, Obama was wrapping up work in Chicago on a voter-registration drive. When that job ended, he joined a Chicago law firm and became a lecturer at the University of Chicago law school, and the Chicago Tribune picked him as one of "25 Chicagoans on the road to making a difference." Obama's community organizing career had come years earlier, in 1985-88. [Published Sept. 2, 2008]

St. Petersburg Times "Palin excites base, but not Clinton fans" (Adam Smith); Democratic former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, who had been seriously talking about not voting, is now an Obama supporter: "I emailed about twenty or thirty like-minded Democrats that the Sarah Palin choice had pushed me over the edge.  I'll be voting for Obama and am glad to see that he is finally tackling some of  the issues that have kept me from doing so before----pay equity to be specific,'' said Freedman. [Published Sept. 1, 2008]

St. Petersburg Times "Crowd count politics in McCain country" (Alex Leary); A McCain spokesman on scene said he did not have an official tally and the consensus among journalists was it was around 1,000. The figure was reported by the St. Petersburg Times and the Wall Street Journal. But Republicans were sending messages to reporters, too. "On background, there seems to be some confusion over how many folks attended the John Rich concert tonight in Panama City. There were 3,000 people in attendance according to the United States Secret Service, which has a pretty good handle on these things." [Published August 2, 2008]

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