To my mind, John McCain’s criticisms of Barack Obama are lies from beginning to end. For any particular example, it might take me some time to put into words why it’s a lie, but I haven’t found it difficult to be satisfied for myself that it’s all lies. There are lies of omission. There are lies of oversimplification. There are misrepresentations of what Obama advocates or his record. Sooner or later, it’s all lies. Yet rarely is McCain called on that by the media, and it doesn’t seem to hurt him in polls. I think the biggest reason for that is everyone is used to this kind of lying, so used to it that they reserve "lie" for some truly outrageous whopper that even someone’s supporters don’t believe.

Republicans have been like this throughout my lifetime. More than any other group, be it from religion or any other cultural institution where lying is like breathing, Republicans have shown me how much I hate lies. That’s one reason I’ve never voted for a Republican, not for a major office at least, from my first vote in 1974, to replace the "straight-talking" Ronald Reagan as governor of California with a guy much closer to my age, Jerry Brown. Now things would be better with that great oversimplifier retired, so many of us thought.

I don’t know how the "conversation" is going to go through November about what makes anyone qualified to be Commander-in-Chief. Some emphasize military experience. Maybe if George W. Bush had had combat experience, he would have sided with his generals more than the civilians who were sold on their fantasy of easily "liberating" Iraq. Then again there are lessons from before this decade that judgment is even more important than experience.

Thank you to DrSteveB for the link to Physicians for a National Health Program. I've heard of their proposal before through Dr. Marcia Angell, but I never actually read it until now. I am impressed how specific it is regarding who pays for this and who will keep costs down. If one doesn't specify the mechanisms for those, "single-payer health care" is just a slogan, not a proposal. So PNHP says to fund health care through income tax and limits costs in part through national mechanisms, through regional boards and through local, institutional measures for those institutions that are paid through a global fee, like an HMO is now. OK, so what's the holdup?