John McCain has a problem telling the truth
Yesterday, after all kinds of endless fact-checking and concessions, John McCain told an Iowa audience that Barack Obama’s “energy policy” consists of properly-inflated tires. Jonathan Chait’s frustration with McCain’s incessant lying is palpable.
Thinking more about this McCain tire gauge lie, I’m wondering why Barack Obama doesn’t just outright call McCain a liar. All politicians spin, some more aggressively than others, but McCain’s claim that Obama’s energy policy consists of urging people to inflate their tires is way beyond spin. can’t Obama flat-out say, “John McCain is lying. He’ll obviously say anything to get elected president. American can’t afford another president who has no regard for truth or the facts.”
McCain is only hanging in close in the polls because he’s seen as a straight-talking maverick. But he’s just lying about Obama’s energy plan every single day. He did it again today. Doesn’t this say something important about McCain’s character? Don’t the last eight years show us what happens when you campaign in the Rove style and then try to govern?
For good measure, I’d just add that right around the time McCain was lying about Obama’s energy policy, McCain’s campaign was unveiling an ad filled with obvious and demonstrable deceptions.
Given this, I certainly share Chait’s frustrations. It’s more than a little painful to watch a candidate lie, repeatedly and without shame, even after having been corrected. Indeed, it’s not at all an exaggeration to argue that McCain’s entire campaign has been based almost entirely on a series of egregious falsehoods — about Iraq, energy policy, tax policy, Obama’s character, his own voting record, etc.
But what if Obama took Chait’s advice and said publicly what is plainly true — that McCain lies a lot?
Kevin argued, persuasively, against it.
Sure, Obama could say this. And considering both the depth and reach of Obama’s energy plan, which has been available for months, McCain’s lie is an especially egregious one. But would the press report it that way? Or would McCain claim that, come on, my friends, he was just joshing, and can’t that Obama guy ever take a joke? Perhaps, given the realities of today’s media environment, Obama’s choice of a more tempered response is the better approach after all.
Bob Somerby agrees that Obama is better off sticking to his current strategy.
In our view, Obama did a good job this week, batting aside that “childish” tire gauge stuff and turning the foolishness back on McCain. Getting people to inflate their tires isn’t Obama’s energy plan — but the McCain campaign had been pushing such notions. Though Dowd and Collins were puzzled by this, it was classic GOP politics — the politics of clownish ridicule. In response, Obama employed some ridicule of his own — and made some accurate statements:
“It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant…. You know, they think it is funny that they are making fun of something that is actually true. They need to do their homework. Because this is serious business. Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference.”
It’s dangerous for Obama to make claims about “lying.” (Under current rules of the game, Republicans are permitted to make that claim; Democrats not so much.)
There’s certainly nothing wrong with Chait’s recommendation. McCain is lying. McCain keeps lying. McCain’s sense of honor has been tossed aside, leaving a compulsive liar who’ll say anything to win in its place. But were Obama to say so, I suspect the media would go berserk, insisting that Obama had “lost his cool,” let his “emotions get the best of him,” and maybe even “cracked under pressure.”
In fact, I’m reminded of this incident from the 1988 campaign:
Dole’s mood darkened as soon as the New Hampshire outcome became clear. Just as victory had seemed to liberate him, defeat sent him reverting to his old caustic persona. During a television hookup with Bush Tuesday night, Dole was asked by NBC’s Tom Brokaw whether he had anything to say to the Vice President. “Yeah,” Dole snarled as he glowered into the camera. “Stop lying about my record.”
H.W. Bush was, for what it’s worth, lying, but Dole’s response was seized upon by reporters as proof that he was angry and bitter, and the on-air comment ended up hurting his campaign.
With this in mind, Obama probably shouldn’t call McCain a liar. But you better believe the rest of us should — in politics, lying is cheating.
“John McCain has a problem telling the truth.” Tell your friends.
Doctor Biobrain
says:“With this in mind, Obama probably shouldn’t call McCain a liar. But you better believe the rest of us should…”
Yeah, I’ve never understood why some liberals keep imagining that Obama needs to say all the things that we’re completely free to say. Candidates need to be able to take the hightroad while we can take any damn road we want. And Republicans can only dream they have the grassroots abilities Democrats have. Let’s use it. Believe it or not, we have an impact too, even if it doesn’t seem like it. We get to change the conversation too.
The Answer is Orange
says:There’s no need to call the wrinkly old white haired dude a liar. Just keep stating the facts. And yeah, poke fun at him. Then we’ll have two kinds of amusement: Watching McCainiac freak out on camera and watching the press try to play him up as forceful and straight forward and not at all unhinged.
They can call in “Body Language Experts” to tell us how the swearing, pulsing forehead veins and bulging eyes are the signs of a true leader.
Popcorn?
Publicus
says:You are spot on. Surrogates and Supporters should be pushing this point. McCain has a problem with the truth.
nepat
says:Obama doesn’t need to call McCain, the man, a liar. But he can point out his lies, as the campaign did effectively yesterday about the latest ridiculous McCain ad. If he talks to the points being made, and not the person making them, he’ll be fine. McCain’s feelings are spared but the lies are identified and exposed.
SaintZak
says:He needs to call him a liar in no uncertain terms. He needs to calmly and in a serious fashion call John McCain a liar. Point out all of the lies, and emphasize the point that a liar is a very dangerous thing to put in the white House and tie McCain to the lies and disasters we’ve suffered through these past seven years. He needs to step right up and call him a liar to his face.
Maria
says:I strongly prefer your writing and analysis to Drum’s, but this is almost a point-by-point repetition of his post. You guys are cross-posting to a significant degree these days…it’s getting a little circular.
But were Obama to say so, I suspect the media would go berserk, insisting that Obama had “lost his cool,” let his “emotions get the best of him,” and maybe even “cracked under pressure.”
He did say so in the “they take pride in their ignorance” speech. He explicitly used the words “they’re lying [about my energy plan].” But he did so in the context of good-humored mockery, so it came off perfectly.
rege
says:Yes, McCain is lying and I’ll make sure that I’ll tell people that he’s lying. In fact, I’ll call him a liar. But I already know the comeback I’ll hear from people that want to preserve their tax breaks or are more interested in the rights of fetuses than people: all politicians lie. Low information voters will nod in agreement with those McCain apologists.
I think that Obama made exactly the right case. It’s the stupid not the lie.
McCain is playing you for a sucker, that’s a case I’ll also make. McCain doesn’t think you’re smart enough to understand Obama’s energy policy. McCain is disrespecting you. Don’t you feel used? Don’t you hate it when someone assumes you’re dumb? When someone says “tire gauge,” I’ll say your dumb is showing. That’s the case to make.
Maria
says:Obama’s campaign used the word “lie” again yesterday in referring to McCain’s celebrity ad. They aren’t afraid to use it; they’re just using it judiciously.
lilias
says:It seems to me that it is not necessary to call McCain “a liar”. He is confused and listening to his campaign managers. It is sad watching him being used this way. But is this what the country needs? Another term of being led by a puppet? I personally believe he has never been a straight talker, but it is very hard to disprove a widely held fairy tale that has been built up in the public. He seems to be coming apart slowly, and its a matter of letting it happen.
Jen
says:Yes, they need to keep pointing out and correcting the lies. But they don’t want to go ballistic NOW. Many people just aren’t paying that much attention and to have Obama himself seem all rattled would be, well, counterproductive.
Correct the lies, continue to be humorous about mockery, and slowly build build build from now until mid October. By then, McCain should have provided video clips of himself supporting every single position in the world and also of him lying about everything under the sun. That’s when everyone can point it out as loudly and obviously as necessary.
It’s way too early now.
I remind myself everyday that a) most normal people don’t even know 85% of the things I worry about in the campaign every day and that b) they’ll hear vaguely about the other 15% by reading a headline or “hearing something.” When polls come out they’re really talking to people who are just hearing about that 15% from two weeks earlier.
Hey, on a vaguely related note, I never answer the phone if it’s not a number I know, but then again, I sure as heck wouldn’t mind being in a poll. What to do? Shall I put every 866 number into google? Is there a listing somewhere of what pollers’ numbers will look like? Why does Pace University keep calling me? (I have many questions.)
Jen
says:Correcting myself — *we* can all talk about the lies often and loudly — the campaign shouldn’t act like us for a while yet, if at all.
MsJoanne
says:Where are the McCain supporters now? How come Chad and the others – who we know are reading this – aren’t giving us their reasons for supporting McCain, and in turn NOT supporting their country in this thread?
I can fully accept someone not supporting Obama, for that is their choice. But to willingly and knowingly support (in cruising the net to post about) McCain for his lies, that says much of his supporters (who come here), and what it says isn’t pleasant.
Bookmark this page and use it in every thread where those who want to accumulate points are posting.
SadOldVet
says:This is why there should be well funded 527’s countering the McCrap lies.
There is a definite need to yell loudly to overcome the rethugnican lies and their corporate media echo chamber.
OkieFromMuskogee
says:McCain isn’t lying. I think he’s doing the best he can. Not only can’t he articulate Obama’s policies accurately, he can’t even explain his own. He has sunk to the level of most loyal Republican voters – Paul Krugman’s “Party of Stupid.”
I’m being serious here. McCain is old for his age. Call him confused, and subject his nonsensical statements to the ridicule that they deserve. That will be infinitely more effective than calling McCain a liar. Them’s fightin’ words, and they will only rally the dim bulbs to McCain’s support.
MsJoanne
says:Jen, I honestly think your best bet for being polled is to live in a red state, a red town in a blue (or purple) state, or being registered R in that same state.
There are many ways to create poll data and selective parsing of collected data is but one of those ways.
I still personally know no one who has been polled.
tomj
says:Obama did use the word this week. He said “they know they are lying about my energy policy…”This quote has been used by pundits.
CNN did a fact check segment yesterday where the host used the quote and asked the guests if there was any “truth” in the last McCain ad. Neither guest volunteered anything.
Using the word “lie” is good for Obama because it forces the other side to show it isn’t a lie, which at the l very least cause them to explain why it isn’t a lie. That is a good position to put McCain and the pundits in, and all it takes is for Obama to use a broad brush and just say that McCain is lying.
Prup (aka Jim Benton)
says:This brings up a point I’ve been hoping to make (and is likely to be another of my ‘mantras’ like “John McCain has no upside”).
WE are Obama’s surrogates.
This isn’t just rhetoric. Many studies have shown that one reason for GWB’s success is that people — especially people with only a casual interest in politics — pay more attention to what they hear from their friends and neighbors, co-workers and relatives than they do to any political speeches, political ads, or, I think, even news channels or talk radio.
This is why the RR was so important to him. Not because there are these tens of millions of people who believe the way they do — there are much less than you’d think from the coverage they get — but because they talk to their neighbors, who don’t, usually, go, “Oh, that’s John who goes to that crazy church,’ but “That’s John, whose kid plays on my son’s Little League team” or “…who’s in my carpool” or ‘who brings the great potato salad to the barbecues” or whatever. And they listen to John, because he seems to know what he’s talking about (as he quotes from his pastor, or Rush, or whatever) and they don’t know any better — because, in fact, politics bores them and they don’t believe what any politician says.
We’ve never learned this trick. We tend to like to talk politics — but to people who know as much as we do, and who, therefore, agree with us (because ‘the truth does have a liberal bias”). When we hear someone arguing Republican talking points, we just dismiss them as stupid — confusing stupidity with ignorance or simple unconcern — and avoid them, or avoid correcting them. (This might be the tiny germ of truth in the ‘liberals are elitists’ meme.) We call them ‘droolers’ or ‘fools’ or ‘bigots.’ Some of them are, but even arguing with them — if it doesn’t convince them — might penetrate to those who hear us talking — if we remain polite and use facts and not insults.
Now we have an advantage this year, because the RRs may vote for McCain, but they aren’t that enthusiastic about him. (And the more they hear about Sturgis in particular, the less likely they are to even vote for him.) But we have to be the ones who tell them, because they don’t listen to Keith, or to CNN, and when they get the morning paper they turn to the sports pages — and stop there.
So, to repeat what I started with:
WE are, or should be, Obama’s surrogates.
Most of the time, commenters on blogs like this are — as good as Steve is at getting the news to us — really doing little more than people calling in to sportstalk radio or talking about the latest trade in a bar. This year, we can actually make a difference.
IludiumPhosdex
says:“John McCain has a problem telling the truth.”
So does, methinks, the so-called “American Family Association” and the equally-so-called “Parents Television Council,” which, in my book, are none of what they claim to be by their names and stylees.
Dale
says:Calling McCain a liar is what surrogates are for and one reason why Obama shouldn’t have thrown Wesley Clark under the Greyhound.
joey
says:Laughing at McCain’s ridiculousness is a good tactic. It is also what he deserves. He should be treated as it’s just a known fact that if McCain’s mouth is moving , he’s lying.
Treat McCain like the joke he is…laugh at him and his feeble attempts to smear Obama while telling the truth.
McCain: Wrong On Everything…And Lying About It. McCain needs a “surge” of honesty.
Did Rove steal McCain’s integrity…or did he ever have any in the first place?
Did McCain lie about hiring liars to lie for him?
McCain doesn’t lie…he says what ever his oil company masters tell him to say.
We never said McCain was getting too old…but his lies certainly are.
Willfully lying is knowing it’s not true while you’re saying it. Confused is when you forget which lie you’re supposed to be telling. Is McCain willful or confused?
I’m hugry
Renell
says:Reminds me of the old Eagles song-“You can’t hide your lying eyes….every form of refuge has its price…did he get tired,or did he just gat lazy…there ain’t no way to hide your lying lies..”
Renell
says:“Tire guage “?—How about a ” tire tool ” to get McCain’s attention?Actually,one COULD refer TO McCain’t AS a TIRED TOOL!
Rabi
says:It’s pretty pathetic that, in our political system, calling someone out on a lie is a bad thing. Someone attacks you? Well, feel free to launch an attack back – so long as you don’t just come out and call the lie.
I think it all comes back to the current political/media concept of bias, and specifically a lack thereof. The media is so afraid of being called biased that it will show two sides of an issue when only one exists. So when McCain launches an ad falsely asserting that Obama wants to raise taxes on the lower/middle class, the media responds by bringing out a supporter from each side to duke it out. It would be far too honest to actually fact-check the ad.
If Obama calls McCain out as a liar, he’s suddenly violated this neutrality. Every issue must have two sides, right? Calling your opponent a liar when he lies is wrong. It’s seen as arrogant, a gaffe.
It’s all sickening, to be honest. Politics doesn’t have no rules. It just has very strange, twisted rules.
Terry Co
says:#10 Good point, all I hear about is “polls are inaccurate due to,,,”, the young have more cells, caller ID, only older people will take the time for a poll, etc. I’ve been saying this since ’04 but still, look at this poll, look at that poll, you never see any imperical evidence that it’s so. I’m 50 and I’ve been cell only for 8 years, my 89yo “Fox addict” father has done at least 4 polls in 4 years. I just moved him to cell only, because he’ll answer EVERY phone call no matter what the ID says, so this must taint any poll when a much larger % of landline owners (that actually answer) are older. I guess you have to keep the polls close if you want to steal the whole thing.
SF
says:The debate where I live: Is McC lying because he who will say anything to get elected, because he’s stupid and says what “handlers” tell him to say, or because he can’t remember the truth or even what he last claimed was truth? I say all three. He lies because it’s convenient and he’s been the favored one whose foibles and failures have been overlooked and covered up ALL his life; he lies because he’s old and tired, and smart young(er) advisors tell him it’s the way to go, it’s the new “truth”; he lies because he doesn’t understand the REPLAY button on video cams; and he lies because he is literally making things up as he goes because he really can’t remember the truth, or what he said yesterday, or what those smart smarmy snarks around him (whose names he probably can’t remember) told him to say. Underpinning all is the utter contempt Republican politicos have for the process and the people: These are the guys who said (in ’04?) “Reality is what we say it is.” Their tool: lies. They love lying. They seem to prefer it. And yes, I think they cheated in Ohio in ’04 as well as FL in ’00.
Steve in Sacto
says:Jeebus, this post, Benen, Drum and Somerby could not be more wrong.
Here we have a candidate, John McCain, who travels around in the “Straight Talk Express,” who says “Let me give you some straight talk” multiple times at every campaign stop, all while running an “entire campaign … been based almost entirely on a series of egregious falsehoods.” And the collective wisdom of Benen, Drum and Somerby is Obama should give McCain a pass … out of fear of the press?
Just shoot me. Maybe we deserve to lose…
All they have to do is mock and deride “straight talk.” You don’t go “Bob Dole,” you don’t use the word “lie,” you don’t get angry. Instead, you sarcastically bait and ridicule and mock and eventually pity “straight talk.” You make “straight talk” a laughingstock. Humor and ridicule, not anger.
Please, please Steve, re-think this.
Imagine what the GOP would do is they were running against a self-proclaimed “straight talker” caught in multiple, demonstrable lies? Do you think they’d just let it go? Look how they handled medal winning war hero John Kerry — they handed our purple heart band-aids. Humor and ridicule.
I’m just so puzzled and depressed by the lack of imagination and cowardly fear offered by Benen, Drum and Somerby.
grandpajohn
says:One thing to remember the old addage “All politics is local” In many cases Obama is responding but only in states that it is important to respond in Why waste money on national ads in solid blue states where the majority will not believe the lies any way.
Obama has just released a couple of radio ads in Nevada and Ohio, that could prove devastating to McSame. and both of them are factual. the one in Nevada is on the Yucca mountain nuclear waste storage which points out McSames hypocrisy, the one in Ohio revealing McSames and one of his campaign managers complicity in the deal that is going to cost Thousand of jobs in Ohio, tlhese ads could move both states more firmly into Obamas column.
So rather than running national ads to counter lies that most won’t believe anyway , his campaign is targeting and attacking in critical states . Pretty smart move I would say,
Debra
says:It is hard telling how many people believe McCain’s lies. Everyone knows Obama comes with his own baggage, but McCain’s is overwhelming.
libra
says:The mendacious old coot (McCain) produces a lie a minute; if Obama cried “lie” every single time, eventually, nobody would believe him. I saw that sort of backlash right at home. My husband is a “yellow dog Democrat” but, even he, eventually began to say “according to you, every Republican is either stupid or a villain or both. That’s just not possible”.
I had to change tactics. Fed him a couple of facts a day (courtesy of TCBR, mostly), with barely a dash of opinion, and let him make his own mind on what it might mean. Since he’s not stupid, he came to the same conclusion I had; it just took him a bit longer. But it’s now *his own* opinion and he’s less likely to change it.
Of course, it’s much easier to do, when you have your “victim” on hand, to receive the daily drip-drip of facts…
Bruno
says:jen @ 10 said:
I agree with that as well. I’m pretty sure that – other than the occasional troll here – the majority of Carpetbagger readers fall into that category. The knowing 85% of what is going on that is. 🙂
I was asked the other day by one of my clients if I would be interested in starting a weekly get together with other people to educate them about what is going on in politics lately. I hadn’t thought about it in that manner, but I’ll be giving it some thought.
I’ve done the educating more as a One-on-One, which is easier.
Does anybody have experience with get-togethers for educational purposes?
Edgar M.
says:Re: no 16 above — I too heard Obama making that quote about the McCain camp lying, and it was wonderfully refreshing to hear someone use the word clearly and unapologeticaly.
There was another report a day or two ago, as well, where a campaign spokesperson used the word ‘lie’ in response to some McCain charge — can’t quite recall what it was, will post the details when i find it. But I think Olbermann mentioned on his show that night. It was delightful. I’ve never understood why politicians seem so afraid to call a liar a liar.
Wild08
says:Please help spread the word and donate to the Accountable America. We have to fund and help with their efforts.
Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.
“We want to stop the Swift Boating before it gets off the ground,” said Mr. Matzzie, who described his effort as “going for the jugular.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/us/politics/08donate.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1218351965-wMzfK5ijxuz6vmevOKsK8Q
jhm
says:The problem with specific accusations of lying, to my mind, is that the TV news will focus on this statement, to the exclusion of your real message. This would emphasize one’s surly quotient, while simultaneously lessening the real message one wishes to project. A better tack, and one I’m pleased to see is being hewed to, is to point out that Hon. Sen. McCain is confused, misinformed or mistaken with his opposition to policy X. This, assuming it makes the cut for the nightly 10 second bite, both contrasts the candidates, while making the main thrust of the coverage Hon. Sen. Obama’s actual positions. The more Senator Obama talks about his ideas, the more Senator McCain is revealed to have a paucity of ideas, since his retort will consist of 1) misinformation 2) diversion 3) increasingly overused and tired catch-phase half-baked policy prescriptions. Even if the media fails to get tired of re[eating this without citical comment, I have to believe that Mr. McCain will face diminishing returns on a monotonous repetition of barely accurate (if that) boilerplate.
Bonzo
says:What Republican does not consider telling lies, to be a job skill, and isn’t proud of it? J McSame is a republican.
John McCain has a problem telling the... [ The Carpetbagger Report ]
says:[…] 9th 2008 2:45pm [-] From: thecarpetbaggerreport.com […]
Donna
says:” “John McCain has a problem telling the truth.” Tell your friends.”
I say more than that! I tell my friends, “John McCain has built his campaign on Lies and Character Assassination”, and have no problem saying it either, because it’s the truth.
If he thinks the world isn’t becoming painfully aware of his low road tactics, he’s sadly mistaken. We can all see the lovable, truth telling candidate is long gone. Along with his honor, he can look back on this campaign as the time he lost not only his Honor, but also his self-respect. How can he ever expect us to respect him when there’s not much there to respect anymore?
John McCain = Truth Be Damned; Full Speed Ahead!