Claiming something does not make it so
In light of the factually-challenged comments coming out of the McCain/Palin camp in the last week, and in fact over the course of the majority of the McCain campaign so far this election season, it is ironic that I ran into this article on my Comcast home page tonight:
Obama accuses Republican rivals of dishonesty
What has become so frustrating to me about watching the media's handling of the McCain campaign is the willful reluctance to follow up and require them to state facts and examples.
The line that jumped out at me in the article is:
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded to the charges of dishonesty by saying: "Barack Obama should familiarize himself with the honest facts: John McCain and Governor Palin have actually reformed government to root out money in politics and fought wasteful spending — Sen. Obama has not."
Mr. Bounds, I just have a simple request: could you please cite me one example? It may be obvious, but I can claim to be the heir-apparent to the throne of England, but the claim alone does not make it so.
To help you understand why I need to know this, I'll cite some examples from your campaign so far.
- McCain campaign representatives have argued that Sarah Palin has been the commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard and the fact that Alaska is near to Russia gives her special insight. The reality is that Governor Palin has never made any decisions in that regard.
- Your campaign has insisted that it will be the true agent of change in Washington, even though the Senator has been a part of the Washington machine for over two decades. In fact, it is easily proven that the Senator has supported the Bush administration when they needed him most.
- The real big one here, the one that has the most traction with voters and has already become part of the media narrative: Governor Palin opposed the "Bridge to Nowhere". A one-second Google search refutes it. The Governor has never in fact returned the money the Federal government has already given Alaska.
Of course, these are just a few examples, but there is also the whole issue of the Senators' "adjusted" positions from his 2000 campaign on subjects such as choice and religion
Senator McCain has stated that he believes this campaign should be civil but has allowed his surrogates to attack Senator Obama's patriotism.
Mr Bounds, I resent that your campaign treats me and the voting public as though we were fools. I realize you rely primarily on us as not researching your claims, and then on the media not reporting the findings.
I've listened for years to Republicans who have plenty of opinions on what I should do to be a good Democrat. Please take some time to get your own house in order, I would honestly welcome intelligent, informed debate. Enough with the mud-slinging and lying.