MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's spokesman on Saturday accused Sen. John McCain of "cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history."
Sen. Barack Obama blasts his rival, Sen. John McCain, at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Saturday.
************************************************************************************ McCain's campaign said a new Spanish language ad set to air in battleground states blames Obama and Senate Democrats for the failure of attempts to overhaul the nation's immigration laws.
"Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?" asks the announcer in the 30-second spot, "Which Side Are They On?"
"The press reports that their efforts were 'poison pills' that made immigration reform fail," he continues. "The result: No guest worker program. No path to citizenship. No secure borders. No reform. Is that being on our side? Obama and his congressional allies ready to block immigration reform, but not ready to lead." Watch the ad
But Obama and McCain cast identical votes in the major congressional showdowns on the issue last year.
Both men cast votes in favor of an unsuccessful early June effort to end a filibuster. Later that month, they voted again to end debate on the issue -- but again failed to shut down the filibuster effort, led for the most part by Republican senators.
The ad is set to air in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, all crucial states in November with significant Hispanic voting populations.************************************************************************************
(CNN) – Sarah Palin did not visit troops in Iraq, a spokesperson for the Republican VP nominee confirmed Saturday, as new details emerged about the extent of the Alaska governor’s foreign travel.
In July of last year, Palin left North America for the first time to visit Alaskan troops stationed in Kuwait. Palin officials originally said her itinerary included U.S. military installations or outposts in Germany and Kuwait, and that she had visited Ireland. An Alaska spokeswoman for Palin had said Iraq was also one of the stops on that trip.
The Boston Globe reported Saturday that Palin visited the Iraqi side of a border crossing — but never journeyed past the checkpoint.
Earlier, campaign aides confirmed reports that Palin’s time in Ireland on that trip had actually been a re-fueling stop.
Ok, I accept that campaign ads are often misleading and that things said on the trail are stretched and distorted or accentuated or what have you. And certainly both sides have done and will continue to do it. But sometimes it seems these statements are out and out lies. Take the first story above. McCain is running an ad in Spanish is several states with large immigrants populations that attacks Obama for holding up immigration reform. Yet, the two senators repeatedly voted exactly the same fucking way on this issue. McCain might just as well have said "both Senator Obama and I held up immigration reform." That bothers the hell out of me. It is not a lie per se, but it is huge manipulation of the truth. Boo McCain. You should be better than that. The second issue is certainly less problematic. That Sarah Palin has said in interviews that she visited Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq is not at all untrue. Clearly the statements were made with an eye toward making people think she has some experience traveling outside the US. And I am sure the gift shop at Shannon Airport in Ireland and the border post in Iraq were comparatively significant foreign experiences for someone who before then had only been to Canada. So that was not a lie, but it was a bit of serious truthiness manipulation.
The take home point here is that the McCain campaign has descended down a path where lying and blatant manipulations of the truth are a matter of course (in part thanks to adopting Bush's former strategic team). I really thought he was better than that, and that we would have a campaign season conducted with a bit more integrity than this. But oh well.
Ah, and I should say I am not giving the Obama camp a pass on this. If anyone can deliver examples of where Obama's campaign has lied or blatantly abused the truth I would like to here it.
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