I heard a story on NPR a few minutes ago that said McCain and Obama will be at the site of Mr. Bush's most spectacular intelligence failure, laying wreaths, together. The newsreader went on to say that they had both pledged to shelve politics for the day and not run campaign ads. Call me cynical, if you like, but I think that this "pledge" will be ignored--almost certainly by the Rovians--by both campaigns. The reptilican haters are out in force to obscure the McPalinCain campaigns lack of substance by mischaracterizing (or telling outright lies about) Obama and (soon, my pets, very, very soon) Joe Biden. The McPalinCain "StrangeTalkExpress™©®" may have the ability to speak in tongues; it certainly has the ability to speak with a forked tongue. That Sarah Palin and John McCain are liars is not for me to prove. All one needs to do is read their current utterances and then compare and contrast them with others they've made--many of fairly recent vintage. All politicians tell lies, it's a very large part of their toolkit. The thing about the lies is that they fall into one of two categories, imo. There are those lies that are seen as necessary evils of the give and take of governance. I don't like them, but I accept that they are an all-day everyday occurrence. Then, there are the lies, like those currently masquerading as "scary truth" in the McPalinCain ads. These lies are egregious and gratuitous. They are not based on misinformation being given to their fabricators. Nor are they intended to, somehow, clarify the process. Their intention is to distract the electorate from looking at the truth or simply to demonize the opposition by making statements that are demonstrably false. This has been the GOP's stock in trade since at least the late 1940's. Yes the Democrats have told lies--millions of them, I've no doubt--but the current crop of GOP operatives seem to think that lies are not just a legitimate campaign tool, they are the only campaign tool. I'm not taking the day off. democommie--cross posted at Nomi's house