I've been wondering what the word in English is for a lie that has been completely debunked, but which is still asserted as if true. This is a gap in the English lexicon that is shrieking to be filled.
I quick search of the Internet reveals that while "McLie" is still used most often to refer to McCain the man, there have already been several attested uses of it to refer to a pre-debunked lie.
I'll give a few examples, without links (to avoid embarrassing anyone), but they can be found with google in unlikely event anyone cares.
"I was referring to the bold word 'unprovoked' - which is a McLie that requires ignorance to be believed."
"That is a McLie!"
"They can't tell a McLie?"
"Could it be a McLie?"
"Yeah McCain, tell us how great of an idea to put your retirement on the roulette table instead of the sure thing. It's a 'McLie' !"
"If Hillary's story about Bosnia were published on McDonald's blog would it be called a McLie ?"
"That's called a McLie in the parlance of our times."
"It's a big McLie."
"A good share of an easily duped American electorate believes the big McLie."
To be honest, the general usage of "McLie" to refer to a lie told by a McSomone existed before this campaign. For example, people have refered to certain assertions of the McDonald's corporation as McLies, and also the word was used in connection with the McCann case.
However, that was much less widespread than the current usage of McLie, and in addition, the type of lie being used by the McCain campaign--a lie repeated and elaborated in the face of the strongest possible contradictory evidence--may be unique enough that we will come out of election 2008 with a brand new word in our vocabulary.
The critical transition will be to find uses of the word in contexts that have nothing to do with McCain.
For example, "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat McLiar", or "Bush's assertions regarding WMDs in Iraq turned out to be McLies".