Another Day, Another McCain Camp Myth Debunked

While touting Sarah Palin's foreign policy "experience," the McCain campaign was quick to point out that she had made a trip to the Middle East - stopping in Kuwait and at a "military outpost" in Iraq. While one trip to a foreign country where you do not meet a foreign leader does not qualify you for president in terms of foreign relations, it turns out that Palin's trip to Iraq never happened. Yet another lie to reach the surface in this presidential campaign.

A few days ago I wrote a post about the lies being spread during this campaign, with many of them coming from the McCain campaign. Most of those lies were really people just stretching the truth and being misleading (like Palin stopped the "Bridge to Nowhere" and Obama supported comprehensive sex education). This latest revelation, however, is a significant deviation from twisting the truth into a lie; it is an outright fabrication. For the McCain campaign to say that she has been to Kuwait and an Iraqi "military outpost" with a straight face is ridiculous. The boldness of this statement is unbelievable. Did they really think that no one would find out? This is Nixonian.

This all comes on the heels of McCain's appearance on "The View," where the hosts directly asked him about the lies spread in his recent campaign advertisements. The videos can be seen here (please excuse the fact that it's from HuffPo). It's painful to watch Joy Behar confront McCain on the untruths in his ads because McCain rolled his eyes and said "Actually, they're not lies" and was interrupted before he could explain why lies were not lies. He was actually interrupted by Barbara Walters, who reminded him that he used the expression "lipstick on a pig," the same expression that his campaign has derided Obama for using in describing change. McCain said, "Well, I was talking about the issues." In fact, the context of Obama's "lipstick" remark was tax policy and "Karl Rove-style politics," not Sarah Palin. However, as we have seen recently from the McCain campaign, McCain and company are not going to allow the facts to get in the way of a good smear.

A lot of the media is picking up on the McCain campaign mistruths/lies. It will be interesting to see if McCain continues his denial (as he did on The View) or comes clean (as his campaign has with Palin's trip to Iraq). They have already used the "sexism" card when confronted with legitimate questions of Palin's experience, and while some people ate it up, I don't think they want seconds. In many aspects of life, you reap what you sow, and if McCain's recent poll surge is based on misinformation and lies, his numbers will tank in the near future. That is, if his campaign does not counter these more recent facts with yet more lies. Peace.

Photos - Palin testing out training equipment in Kuwait - not Iraq (www.boston.com), McCain on "The View" (www.amny.com)