I'm working on a conference paper and wanted to tap the collective wisdom here. I'm looking for incidents of false campaign speech. Not spin or opinion or fudging, but the real thing: something the speaker knew to be false, but said it anyway. I'm aiming for "reckless disregard for the truth."
The recent "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," would be good, except it's not in the context of a campaign. Swiftboats come to mind. It's part of an investigation about whether campaign speech -- which rightly has the highest level of free speech protection -- can actually subvert our right to self-governance when it's untrue. A tricky but interesting question.
Anyway, if you have a favorite example, from any campaign (national especially) and any political party, I'd love to hear them! Or drop me a line.
Thanks very much!