An Internet firestorm swiftly engulfed Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, as reporters and bloggers laced into his campaign’s false claim that McCain’s tenure on the
“„Politicians generally go to great lengths to avoid being seen as acting dishonestly, because the consequences are usually so great…. During the last week, the McCain campaign has unabashedly engaged in the active spreading of mistruths and falsehoods.
“„It said that Barack Obama supported “comprehensive sex education” for children in kindergarten (“dishonest” and “deceptive” said The Washington Post); that Obama used the colloquial expression “lipstick on a pig” to describe Sarah Palin (GOP Senator Orrin Hatch labeled the charge “ridiculous”); that Palin never accepted earmarks as governor of Alaska; (this is patently false, she actually requested $450 million in earmarks as governor); that Obama will raise taxes on middle-class families (his plan would give a tax cut to 80 percent of Americans); that his health care plan will force families into a government-run health-care plan; (a public health expert quoted in this paper called that “inaccurate and false”); that Palin told Congress “thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere (she initially supported the bridge and kept the congressional funds earmarked for the project)….
“„**Even after the press debunked each of these lies, the McCain campaign has refused to concede the truth. **Though news outlets have consistently shown that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s claim about the “Bridge to Nowhere” is not true, she continues to repeat it to the point where MSNBC’s “Hardball” began to keep a running tally of how often Ms. Palin made the same false assertion on the campaign trail. According to Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, “we’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”