Straight Talk Express No More

A strange and sad thing is happening in America.

The more half-truths, untruths, fabrications, and misrepresentations—whatever you may want to call them—the McCain-Palin team tells, the more the Republican base is energized. In addition, the more the same old lies are repeated, verbatim, the wilder and louder the crowds cheer.

For example, as of yesterday, Sarah Palin had repeated with relish the same widely discredited half-truth about the “Bridge to Nowhere” seven or eight times: “I told Congress: ‘Thanks but no thanks for that Bridge to Nowhere up in Alaska. If we wanted a bridge, we’ll build it ourselves.” And the crowds cheer and whoop every time!

The same is the case with Palin’s disingenuous claim that she auctioned Alaska’s plane on e-Bay. Leave it to John McCain to take this half-truth and turn it into a full-blown lie by gleefully claiming, “You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay — and made a profit!” And the crowds cried and whooped it up.

And the beat, and the list, goes on. And the crowds lap it up and clap even more.

And the more frequently and jubilantly these untruths are repeated, the more jubilantly the crowds react to them, and believe them to be facts.

That is what the title of a story in this morning’s Washington Post alludes to: “As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They’re Undone,” and provides more examples of such untruths and of how they may be beginning to “stick” because they are repeated so often—with impunity and without shame.

The Post says, “Nevertheless, with McCain’s standing in the polls surging, aides say he is not about to back down from statements he believes are fundamentally true, such as the anecdote about the bridge.”

And that is what is so sad, as long as the crowds keep cheering and the polls keep surging, why would the McCain-Palin team want to get back on board the “Straight Talk Express.” They might as well keep sprinting and telling half-truths all the way to the White House, always surrounded by those adoring, wildly cheering crowds.