The Whoppers of 2008—The Sequel

One of the biggest and most disgusting part of McCains campaign, and I support him, it making a hero of Joe the Plumber as the guy looks like a big stupid dope on stage with him and I hear that if McCain wins he will take him to Washington with him. I cannot believe McCain would be that stupid.

Being a governor for ONE DAY qualifies you more to be president than being a senator for 24 years. I???m tired of the rhetoric that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president, if something should happen. She???s more qualified than any of the other three.

Teddy Roosevelt was governor of New York for less time than Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska. And TR is in the top 5 greatest presidents of all time.

Number one? Lincoln. What qualified Lincoln to be president? He wasn???t even a member of the house. He was just a lawyer. Number one greatest president in American history, Lincoln.

Get off Sarah Palin, democrats (I won???t even capitalize your party, because you???re not capitalists).

It's true that both candidates have made false claims, and this article attempts to be unbiased by giving equal weight to both candidates, but what is missed is how frequent these false claims are made versus the same person making true statements or at least talking about what they are going to do rather than going negative on the opponent. I have read most transcripts of speeches made by the candidates and to give the two presidential candidates equal weight is grossly biased towards McCain.
Obama has made false claims, and has run false ads, but they are only a small part of a mostly positive campaign. He resorted to RoboCalls only to make a RoboCall to tell people not to believe RoboCalls. His misleading statements about McCain's policies have at least some basis in fact: for example, when he says McCain will reduce even further employer provided healthcare - that is true, and although it is not the whole story, it is worth pointing out to people who really don't want to lose/change their healthcare in these difficult times. I am not saying Obama is a paragon of virtue, but you would have a hard time finding a more positive campain in recent history. He has said very little about McCain's character or Palin's character - and we all know there is enough ammunition out there. Some of it may be spurious, but that does not stop his opponents. Obama said McCain was erratic, and I have yet to see anyone claim that was not true.
The McCain camp, meanwhile, has relied on almost nothing but lies and negativity. All we have heard from them is stuff about Ayers, socialism, tax creep, etc. : basically all the stuff that this article points out as false. And it has all been personal too. Joe the Plumber said that Obama's tax plan sounded like a socialist plan to him, yet all we have heard from McCain and friends is that Obama is a socialist and Joe agrees (except when questioned directly in an interview, when they back off like cowards.) They could have made some of these claims less personal, but they chose not to. I think that is racist since it is playing to people's fears of the non-white candidate.
Here is my (subjective, informal) BSometer for the P/VP candidates, which takes into account not only their lies but how often they tell outrageous lies versus talking about other stuff. Percentage of time lying:
- Biden 5% ~~~ that is pretty darn low for any politician, and I didn't include waffle in the denominator.
- Obama 20% ~~~ mostly the stuff covered in this article plus some obvious exagerations.
- McCain 70% ~~~ he does talk about his policies some of the time, just not enough.
- Palin 95% ~~~ sorry, I don't want to appear a Palin-basher but has she ever told the truth about anything? I gave her 5% because I am pretty sure she is not lying about her kids (although she won't release her medical records so you never know.)

I hate to be the one to remind everybody about this but as most Americans will tell you an election is about who can spend the most money ,and who can tell the biggest and best lies and this is a sad and unfortunate truth.

Goblue1968,

Not sure how to respond to what you wrote, but you're the nationality of the country of your birth. Kenya is in Africa. NE Africa has a huge mix of people who speak Arabic, French, English, and national tribal languages. If you were born in Switzerland, but you were raised by French speaking parents, would you be French?

More importantly, who'd care if Obama was 43.75% American-born Icelandic and 6.25% Australian and 1% Mohawk and 2% Freelance Writer and 19% Swiss Alpian? He's an American, and he's judged by the character of his person, not the color of his skin. Some simple American Civil Rights 411. Get with civil rights, or move out of the way for those of us who are rolling with it. Some day this great nation will have an American-born Japanese president, or an American-born Mexican president. 2008, almost 2009, it too late and too great for any of this ridiculous hate and fear.

Get with it.