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Saturday, September 13, 2008
John McCain and abortion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Both John McCain and Sarah Palin say they believe that life begins at the moment of conception; both base their opposition to abortion on that principle.
McCain says that he would nonetheless allow abortions in cases of rape or incest, while Palin would not. The sole exception she would allow is to save the life of the mother.
McCain’s position makes no sense to me. If human life begins at conception, as he told the crowd at Saddleback Church a few weeks ago, then a life created through an act of rape or incest is no less deserving of protection than a life that begins the more socially acceptable way.
If you think through the internal logic of McCain’s position, he would allow the killing of human beings conceived through rape or incest. Am I missing something there?
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Obama wants to tax water!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The volume and audacity of lies pouring from the McCain campaign is startling and even historic. This one may represent a new low — at least a new low as of Sept. 13.
In a new TV ad, McCain claims that Obama has been making attacks on Sarah Palin that have been labeled “completely false” and “misleading” by FactCheck.org.
Except FactCheck says that’s a lie. “We said no such thing. We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin,” the group states.
That’s really something, lying straight out about a FactCheck group, knowing that you’re going to get caught but not giving a damn about it.
With stuff like this, the McCain camp has cut any remaining tethers to reality and integrity and is now floating wherever the winds of illusion and whimsy may take them. It’s quite remarkable, and quite insulting to the intelligence of the American people.
Oh, and as you can tell from the statement below, the folks at FactCheck are not at all happy about being used to bolster a lie:
“With its latest ad, released Sept. 10, the McCain-Palin campaign has altered our message in a fashion we consider less than honest. The ad strives to convey the message that FactCheck.org said “completely false” attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin had come from Sen. Barack Obama. We said no such thing. We have yet to dispute any claim from the Obama campaign about Palin.
They call the ad “Fact Check.” It says “the attacks on Gov. Palin have been called ‘completely false’ … ‘misleading.’ ” On screen is a still photo of a grim-faced Obama. Our words are accurately quoted, but they had nothing to do with Obama.
Our article, posted two days earlier, debunked a number of false or misleading claims that have circulated in chain e-mails and Internet postings regarding Palin. There is no evidence that the Obama campaign is behind any of the wild accusations that we critiqued. There is no more basis for attributing these viral attacks to the Obama campaign than there is for blaming the McCain campaign for chain e-mail attacks falsely claiming that Obama is a Muslim, or a “racist,” or that he is proposing to tax water.”
Taxing water? Uh oh. I can see the new McCain commercial now:
“Obama ‘proposing to tax water!’, says FactCheck.org!!”
I mean, why not? What is there to stop them?
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Palin cops on the bridge question
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It appears that when confronted with the truth about that Bridge to Nowhere, Palin backs down and acknowledges it was all a scam. Charlie Gibson laid out the facts for her yesterday, stating that Palin had strongly supported bridge earmarks until long past the time it was clear that Congress would never pass them. Only then did she stop pressing for them.
And Palin sat there and acknowledged that was true and defended her support for that project.
“I was for infrastructure being built in the state. And it’s not inappropriate for a mayor or for a governor to request and to work with their Congress and their congressmen, their congresswomen, to plug into the federal budget along with every other state a share of the federal budget for infrastructure.”
That’s true. That is not inappropriate. It is only inappropriate to lie repeatedly about it.
It will be interesting to see whether she now stops making that claim on the campaign trail.
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