Those ’fact-checkers’
“It’s fair to say that John McCain has taken more heat from the fact-checkers than has Barack Obama, so much so that one prominent analyst has declared that ’lies are more central’ to McCain’s campaign than to Obama’s,” Byron York writes at National Review Online (www.national review.com).
“But if you look at the fact-checking of some of the McCain campaign’s most prominent claims, you’ll see that the objections raised are often matters of degree - that McCain claimed that Obama did this or that X number of times, when in fact Obama did it Y number of times - or of tone, or of verb tense. …
“Start with one example that’s been around for much of the campaign and appeared again in the debate between Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden. Palin said that Barack Obama ’had 94 opportunities to side on the people’s side and reduce taxes, and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction.’ Biden immediately objected, saying, ’That charge is absolutely not true’ and ’It’s a bogus standard.’ …
“What were the actual figures? After going through all the claims, [FactCheck.org] wrote that ’in the end, we listed votes on 54 measures under the “for higher taxes” category (and another seven votes in favor of lowering some taxes and increasing others).’
“Let’s assume that FactCheck’s analysis is correct. Why shouldn’t McCain and Palin use the new, supposedly more accurate, numbers? When Palin said in St. Louis last week that Obama ’had 94 opportunities to side on the people’s side and reduce taxes, and 94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction’ - well, why not change it to ’had 54 opportunities to side on the people’s side and reduce taxes, and 54 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction’? Wouldn’t that still be a damning critique of Obama’s stance on taxes?”
Mr. York, after providing other, similar examples of “fact-checking,” asked: “Would the fact-checkers withdraw their complaints if McCain and Palin satisfied the objections they have raised? Not likely.”
Biden’s miscues
“In the popular media wisdom, Sarah Palin is the neophyte who knows nothing about foreign policy while Joe Biden is the savvy diplomatic pro. Then what are we to make of Mr. Biden’s fantastic debate voyage last week when he made factual claims that would have got Mrs. Palin mocked from New York to Los Angeles?” the Wall Street Journal asked Monday in an editorial.
“Start with Lebanon, where Mr. Biden asserted that ’When we kicked - along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, “Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know - if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.” Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel.’
“The U.S. never kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, and no one else has either. Perhaps Mr. Biden meant to say Syria, except that the U.S. also didn’t do that. The Lebanese ousted Syria’s military in 2005. As for NATO, Messrs. Biden and Obama may have proposed sending alliance troops in, but if they did that was also a fantasy. The U.S. has had all it can handle trying to convince NATO countries to deploy to Afghanistan.
“Speaking of which, Mr. Biden also averred that ’Our commanding general in Afghanistan said the surge principle in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan.’ In trying to correct him, Mrs. Palin mispronounced the general’s name - saying ’General McClellan’ instead of Gen. David McKiernan. But Mr. Biden’s claim was the bigger error, because Gen. McKiernan said that while ’Afghanistan is not Iraq,’ he also said a ’sustained commitment’ to counterinsurgency would be required. That is consistent with Mr. McCain’s point that the ’surge principles’ of Iraq could work in Afghanistan.”
Sinking McCain
“Perpetually fretting Democrats will not want to accept it. The campaigns themselves can’t afford to believe it. Many journalists know it but can’t say it. And there will certainly be some twists and turns along the way. But take it to a well-capitalized bank: Bill Ayers isn’t going to save John McCain. The race is over,” Howard Wolfson writes in a blog at the New Republic’s Web site (tnr.com).
“John McCain’s candidacy is as much a casualty of Wall Street as Lehman or Merrill. Like those once vibrant institutions, McCain’s collapse was stunning and quick. One minute you are a well-respected brand. The next you are yelling at the messengers of your demise as all around you the numbers start blinking red and stop adding up,” said Mr. Wolfson, a Democrat who served as spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“McCain’s road was difficult to begin with: the president of his party has had record-low approval ratings for two years and the number of Americans who say the country is heading in the wrong direction is stratospheric. He also had the misfortune to be pitted against an exceptional candidate running an extremely well-executed campaign.
“Still, before Wall Street’s collapse Sen. McCain was ahead. His approval ratings remained high, his VP pick had generated excitement and interest, and his campaign operatives were capable, on any given day, of winning news cycles and giving their opponents fits. And then the underpinnings of American capitalism begin to sink - and with them sunk McCain.”
Cheering section
“They can’t vote, but if the foreign diplomats in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly late last month could do so, they’d go for Sen. Barack Obama,” Paul Bedard writes in the Washington Whispers column at www. usnews.com.
“They see him as a fresh start after 9/11 led to sour relations with world capitals. Many of the diplomats tuned into the race closely for the first televised debate between Obama and GOP Sen. John McCain. ’There’s no question most people here want to see Barack Obama win,’ says a senior U.N. diplomat. ’Obama is an American story. He generates excitement that he will put America back on the right path.’
“Of McCain? ’You hear a lot of references to McCain being old and militaristic,’ says the diplomat, who still threw Mac a bone. ’McCain is a real friend of the world when it comes to climate change.’ ”
Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/635-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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