It’s not their fault they don’t have a single coherent and inspiring message to convey. There’s only one man in the world who can do that, and he won’t.

McCain ad: Lies and Sighs
The ad was more effective when it focused on Biden’s fabrications,
and it isn’t as though that was a limited resource. According to the
list at the McCain Report, the campaign’s official blog, they had……

He is billed as a teacher of constitutional law. His discourse on what the Constitution says about the Vice Presidency was laughable.

He is billed as a foreign policy expert. He made up a remarkable story about Hezbollah.

Is this the kind of advice he would be giving a President Obama? Would Obama know enough to laugh at these errors?

Also, Ifill asked this of Palin (paraphrasing): “John McCain’s health plan has been attacked because it would tax Americans $5,000. How do you defend those attacks?”

Palin shoulda said, “Y’mean the attack you just attacked me with, attacker? That attack?”

Good message, weak ad production. Meh.

“You despise me, don’t you, Sarah?”

“If I thought about you, I’d despise you, Joe.”

Ed Morrissey on October 3, 2008 at 10:40 AM

Who can top that?

It isn’t about not hurting their feelings. I think it reflects unfavorably on the person who says it.
I don’t mind “untrue”, “absolutely untrue” or “not factual” or even “ridiculous”.

MayBee on October 3, 2008 at 11:13 AM

meh

If it WAS a lie (the person knowingly told an untruth), then it should be CALLED a lie.

The bigger problem, IMHO, is when inconsistencies and ignorance are called lies.

For example, I hesitate to call what Biden said about Hamas and Lebanon a ‘lie’ because I have no idea if he really knows any different.

“Second, call Obama’s tax cut what it really is: welfare”
BuckeyeSam on October 3, 2008 at 11:20 AM

You are SO right. How in the hell can you call it a ‘tax credit’ when you are not PAYING taxes?!

Those in the middle, the undecideds, either will not take the time to sort out the truth from the fiction offered from the Obama campaign, or the lies don’t really matter to them anymore because they have become so commonplace. They will finally, in the end, vote on emotion.

This election, and it’s outcome, will be decided by emotional factors. Ads that touch the emotions, as opposed to those that parse the lies, will effect that slim margin of victory that lies in the hands of the undecided.

Yoop on October 3, 2008 at 10:37 AM

I totally agree with you Yoop.
Many undecideds are people who don’t give rip about educating themselves on whether the candidates are telling the truth. The truth IS out there. You just have to look for it.
I was surprised how many distortions & lies Biden got away with up there. I would never have known about them if I didn’t research this stuff for myself.
Biden is slick and polished. Palin was somewhat rehearsed, but what in the hell do you expect? She hasn’t been spending the last 20 years or so orating meaningless crap in front of people. She’s been working. Actually getting things ACCOMPLISHED.
It’s too bad there are so many emotional people out there who make important decisions without engaging their brain.
Kudos to Sarah for telling it like it is. Hopefully people can look past Biden’s polished and practiced ‘sincerity’ and look towards Palin’s (albeit awkward at times) frank responses.
I know the truth when I see it!

Sarah just may have given the ticket enough of a bounce to allow some effective ads to work. I have ever digit crossed, no wonder I can’t type.

Couldn’t he have moved his mouth away from the mic?

Esthier on October 3, 2008 at 10:48 AM

Like this?

Thank you Sarah.

absolute fabulous photo of the Governor over the Gateway pundit

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/10/palin-biden-debate-at-washington.html

Does the McCain campaign not proofread its (note: no apostrophe) press releases?

hicsuget on October 3, 2008 at 10:24 AM

Good catch. But elsewhere, you’ve complained about Palin’s pronunciation of nuclear. Give it a rest. I don’t care that Bush gets ridiculed for it; it’s actually a common regionalism. Let Rachel Maddow nitpick about that nonsense. Palin’s still our gal and America’s gal.

One Lie #1:

1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.

I think McCain and Palin waste time with the Obama-voted- to-raise-taxes-on-the-middle-class argument because Obama has beaten it into the consciousness that 95% of taxpayers are getting a tax cut. What they have to do is succintly shred the 95% tax-cut notion with a few points.

First, Obama can’t pay for his programs without raising taxes on the middle class. Cite the Bill Clinton tax increase in 1993.

Second, call Obama’s tax cut what it really is: welfare. Obama doesn’t provide these people with a change in the law that acknowledges an existing expense as a new tax deduction. He’s running welfare through the IRS to reimburse people for these expenses. And they should point to IRS stats that report that 38% of households already don’t pay income taxes. With Obama’s “tax cut,” the number of households that don’t pay income taxes will increase to about 50%. How does that square with Biden’s definition of “fairness.”

Third, McCain and Palin should argue that the amount of time and paperwork that middle class families will waste to claim Obama’s five to seven refundable credits will make them far more hassle than they’re worth. Seriously, the existing Earned Income Tax Credit is so complicated that bar associations around the country annually run low-income tax clinics to help people claim the credit. Do families really want to sift through a two-page form and four pages of instructions for each credit when they’ll net a total refundable credit of $1,000 (or whatever the amount)? H&R Block must be a primary contributor to Obama’s campaign. Who needs that hassle? People want to live their lives. Can you see that ad with a husband and wife at the kitchen table sifting through that complexity? It’s absurd. Call it out.

I’m less concerned about Biden’s exhalations, and even then, in this case, it sounds more like an inhalation. The ad was more effective when it focused on Biden’s fabrications, and it isn’t as though that was a limited resource.

Agreed. If inhalations bother debate watchers, that will be a personal and perhaps subconscious observation on their part, but the McCain campaign should stay out of that arena. This was nothing like Al Jackass Gore’s arrogant sighs during the Bush debate, and in any case there is so much more in the way of substantive issues to attack on, which the first part of the ad did very well.

In one of them should be his snarky comment about the bridge to nowhere. She should have nailed both Biden and Obama on this. And this leads me to say this, if the McCain camp and McCain himself does NOT seize moments like these in the next debates, the American people will not be able to CLEARLY see through what most of us already know and that is Obama is dangerous to America and a liar. When Palin quoted Reagan last night about how freedom is just one generation away from extinction she was soooooo right and in particular THIS generation and THIS election. This morning we are hearing about how teachers in VA are being encouraged to wear Obama Blue and to convert not the adults, but the children. Perhaps we are no longer a generation away. Perhaps freedom might just die with this generation if we do not defend her. If ever McCain needed to fight for his country again, I think it is now.

I’m tired of PC touchy-feely ‘don’t hurt their feelings’ garbage.

It isn’t about not hurting their feelings. I think it reflects unfavorably on the person who says it.
I don’t mind “untrue”, “absolutely untrue” or “not factual” or even “ridiculous”.

I don’t like the use of the word “lies” in politics.

MayBee on October 3, 2008 at 10:47 AM

What else should we call a knowingly untrue statement?

I’m tired of PC touchy-feely ‘don’t hurt their feelings’ garbage.

When Biden said that Obama didn’t agree to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions – that was an out-an-out lie.

Umm.. this was clearly a planned bit of stagecraft Biden had been instructed to use in Honor of Reagan’s “there you go again.” Since both sides tried to use this, it should be obvious that the McCain people most closely connected to the debate prep and response would be hypersensitive to it and therefore think Biden’s efforts ad worthy.

I don’t think so, but they’re the people on the spot.. sigh..:)

KCSteve on October 3, 2008 at 10:44 AM

I thought that was a HUGE moment. He basically stated that, indeed, Obama has training wheels and a helmut on.

I’d prefer to know that the President offered counsel to the “new” V.P., as opposed to the President needing the V.P. to hold his hand.

My wife is very non-political and she noticed that Biden was sighing alot

ConservativePartyNow on October 3, 2008 at 10:58 AM

It was hard not to. It really started getting annoying towards the end.