McCain's lies

The Nightly Build...

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McCain Takes the Low Road

John McCain has taken to telling lies about Barack Obama's character -- that Obama wants America to lose a war to help his election chances and that Obama hates the military. These are the most despicable campaign tactics since Republicans smeared John Kerry with being unpatriotic and smeared Georgia Senator and triple amputee Max Cleland with lying about his war wounds and since George Bush smeared John McCain with racist rumors about his family during the 2000 Republican primaries. In some ways, McCain's lies and smears today are worse because in those prior examples, George Bush used surrogates to spread the smears. Today, John McCain himself lies openly and brazenly.

So, how does the press cover this? Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, posts an item asking, "Does Obama hate the military?" and suggests Obama should, in response, name Texas Congressman Chet Edwards as his choice for vice president.

Huh? First, let's deal with Landauer's question so we can get it behind us. No, Obama does not hate the military. Look at his votes on military matters, compare to McCain, and any fair-minded observer would conclude that Obama supports our troops as much or even more than McCain does.

Now, let's look at what's left unstated in Landauer's blog item. McCain's ad is a bald-faced lie. I don't, for a minute, believe that Landauer himself thinks Obama hates the military. Landauer does call McCain's ad a smear, but he doesn't say much to set the record straight. Instead of making McCain and his dishonorable smear the issue, Landauer repeats the smear, putting a question mark after it like it's a reasonable question. It isn't. Landauer reinforces the lie by suggesting that Obama better pick for his veep candidate someone who doesn't hate the troops, leaving the impression Obama himself does.

In a comment, Landauer suggests that people taking offense at all this might be enough to convince Landauer to switch his own support from the victim of the lies to the liar himself. Unbelievable!

Landauer defends himself in several more comments. He says the McCain ad is "a twisted version of the truth, but there's a grain ..." No, it's not any version of the truth. It's a lie. There's not a grain of truth to the charge that Obama hates the military. It's a lie.

Landauer says, "most people will not hear the details as we're discussing them here. They will only hear the slanted overview." That's true. And Landauer's own headline provides that slanted overview for the casual reader who doesn't get much past the headline anyway. Landauer says his point is suggesting how Obama should respond. Obama should respond by asking the press to report the facts. Obama supports the military as much or more than John McCain. McCain's campaign has descended into a sick, sleazy smear campaign. And the press is giving him a pass on it.

Michael Landauer dismisses the criticism by saying it's an OPINION blog and that "It's my job to write persuasively. ... Clearly, I don't think Obama hates the military."

My criticism is not aimed at Michael Landauer personally, who I don't think agrees with John McCain's lies. My critique is targeted at his writing, in which failed miserably at writing clearly. His headline leaves the implication that Obama hates the military, or at least that there's a grain of truth that he does. His suggestion that Obama respond by naming someone who doesn't hate the military, in effect concedes the point that Obama needs such balance. His hint that he is more likely to support McCain because people are offended by this suggests he isn't offended by McCain's lies. All of these points sound like McCain campaign talking points. The fact that the comments indicate that no McCain supporter has taken offense at Landauer's blog item tells me that they thought he was clear... clear with the charge that Obama hates the military. I believe Landauer when he says he actually meant no such thing, but clearly he failed to write clearly.