Lies are poison to a democracy. Without accurate information, the people will make the wrong choices every time. Lies are also a leading indicator for evil. People don't lie unless they're covering up something to be ashamed of. When an opponent gets caught in a lie, it's a perfect opportunity to pounce and demonstrate that the opponent thinks the voters are stupid, on top of being guilty of the shameful thing they were trying to cover up.
That's why I was so disappointed with Barack's response to Olberman's softball questions about Palin's lies. He stuttered and stammered, and did everything he could go agree with Keith that Palin was lying about bridge to nowhere, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to say so directly. Why not just directly tell the truth about McCain/Palin's lies?
John McCain and Sarah Palin were lying, are lying, and will continue to lie until they pay a price for it. Senator Obama, it's o.k. to say so directly when it's true. It's mandatory to say so when it's so obviously true. John is not your collegial senate colleague. You don't have to stick up for him. Why do you appear to be embarrassed for his behavior? He is advocating policies that will hurt almost everyone in the country, and which almost nobody in the country actually want. And the only way he can do it is by lying about it. He's not going to stop lying about it unless you stand up and stop him. Instead of saying (paraphrasing) "Um, uh, ...he's stretching spin beyond where it.. uh...beyond the level we usually see," You have to call it for what it is. Lying. John McCain cannot be allowed to do this.
Here's what I was hoping you would say:
Keith, it's a sad day when someone with so honorable a record from 35 years ago is dishonoring himself with such disgraceful falsehoods. Some of the first words we heard from governor Palin when she was introduced as Senator McCain's running-mate were that she opposed the so-called bridge to nowhere. Yet as we all know, and as the statements she made at the time that you just read proves, that notion is completely false. We have a picture of her with a t-shirt saying "Nowhere, Alaska" from when she was using this pork to score political points with her constituents. And then, even after these lies were pointed out by our campaign, by fact-checkers, and by the media, did the McCain campaign retract their lies and apologize to the American people? No, they dug themselves deeper. They just ran a commercial that claimed --now get this-- that she not only opposed the bridge to nowhere, but that she was responsible for getting it stopped.
Can you believe that a candidate would be so out of touch in this day and age that they think they could get away with something like this? Don't they know that the country is ready for some truth for a change after seeing all the destruction and lives lost that were a direct result of lies from the Bush administration? Does John McCain think the American people are stupid?
You know, in this country, in our democracy, the American people need to hear the truth if we're to solve the enormous problems that are in front of us. How can we solve global warming if the Vice President still denies that humans are causing it? How can we make the right decisions about how to end the war in Iraq when Senator McCain is so dishonest about the conditions there, that in order to promote the lie that he could take a peaceful stroll in the market in Bagdad, he had to take 3 Apache gunships and 100 marines away from their real duties to make his market-strolling photo-op possible?
The fact is that America can't afford more lies about the problems we're facing. And I'm so disappointed to see John McCain continue down the deceptive path that has been the hallmark of the destructive politics of the last 8 years.