Wow, positions on the Bridge to Nowhere and how much Palin kinda bilked a traveling per diem while spending half her governorship at home in Wasilla (brings to mind W. in Crawford) seem kind of trivial now. This Washington Post article is about how politicans manage to stay on message despite revelations that they are stretching the truth. Easy to do when everyone is loathe to use the “L-word.” Lies. 

A Republican strategist says “the bigger truth” is more important than “these little facts.” And what would the bigger truth be? Other than Palin being popular, it’s whatever emanates from John McCain’s gut. Aides say he won’t back down from statements he believes are “fundamentally true” like the bridge story.

More damning:

Almost every day, for instance, McCain says rival Barack Obama would raise everyone’s taxes, even though the Democrat’s tax plan exempts families that earn less than $250,000.

They need to talk about this point on all the networks and cable news shows. It is an outright lie. And this is what people really vote on–their pocketbooks. Will Olbermann cover this or will he be still be talking about Palin’s personal chef being reassigned, not let go. Chris Matthews needs to get on the case since he’s always saying he knows what regular people care about. I actually just started this blog out of outrage that they keep lying about that damn bridge. But this is so much worse. People’s comments on non-liberal, not necessarily political blogs like Oprah or US Weekly are always about fears of Obama raising their taxes. 

For now, there appears to be little political reason to back down. A Washington Post-ABC Newspoll taken Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 found that 51 percent of voters think Obama would raise their taxes, even though his plan would actually cut taxes for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Obama has proposed eliminating income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 a year, but 41 percent of those seniors say their income taxes would go up in an Obama administration.

Tell the elderly they’ll be off the hook! Spread the word. (Although from the percentages, it does seem that seniors are somewhat more informed than the general public. They probably still read newspapers).

Oh yeah, and the great other danger being that when one governs from a position of some overarching “fundamental truth” superceding “little facts,” we get George W. Bush using non-existent WMDs as an excuse to go into Iraq.

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