McCain-Palin butchers FactCheck.org – supporters need to rebuke them

The latest McCain-Palin ad, on TV and their e-mail list to supporters, implies that FactCheck.org blamed the Obama campaign for “completely false or misleading” rumors about Sarah Palin. Curious to see what this report was, I visited FactCheck, associated with the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and saw they didn’t appreciate the campaign’s creative interpretation of their report:

There is no evidence that the Obama campaign is behind any of the wild accusations that we critiqued. There is no more basis for attributing these viral attacks to the Obama campaign than there is for blaming the McCain campaign for chain e-mail attacks falsely claiming that Obama is a Muslim, or a “racist,” or that he is proposing to tax water. The anti-Palin messages, like the anti-Obama messages, have every appearance of being home-grown.

I’m not swooning for Obama, I have to make clear. I’m pretty sure his presidency would resemble others where Democrats controlled everything – most recently 1993-95 and 1977-81, which no one is looking forward to revisiting. Divided governments seem to get quite a bit done, including bringing down the Soviet Union, welfare reform, and more recently, the electronic surveillance compromise that Obama got so much crap for eventually supporting. But there’s no excuse for the Republican ticket to butcher this report by FactCheck, which politely calls the ad “less than honest.” The campaign can say they think Obama operatives are pushing the rumors, and with any luck, find some evidence of that, without twisting someone else’s report.

With his numbers rising, and his Obama-esque running mate throwing off the Obama camp, it’s unlikely that the McCain campaign will relent on aggressive ads. Indeed, I’m scratching my head to remember a single presidential race where negative ads weren’t a huge boon to the winner. If men were angels, no hit piece would be necessary.

I suppose that means that only strong supporters of the Republican ticket – especially Palin’s mom-throngs – can tell the campaign when it has crossed an ethical line, and not have the message be interpreted as Obamania by the media. Especially as two people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ – never mind the eventual destination of their handlers – McCain and Palin should be held to a high standard by fellow believers. I’m going to write to the campaign now and tell them where I think they’ve lapsed, and how I think they can make it right, so that my enthusiasm doesn’t wane. I hope I’m not alone.