If You Tell A Lie Often Enough Does It Become the Truth?

Once again the willingness of the Republican National Committee, and apparently John McCain, to lie is astounding.

I'm not saying Democrats and their candidates don't ever lie, but the Repugs do it and then do it over and over until the brain washed masses start repeating it.

I had hoped McCain would be above it, but let's the latest ploy is showing his true colors and a willingness (as if I didn't know) to do what is necessary to get a few of those dropping poll numbers back. He has spent himself on touting his qualities so now all he can do is attack and try to drag his opponent down. I suppose we shoudl expect nothing less from a capaign that includes a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth". 

In the meantime, the Repugs are throwing out Obama's voting history on taxes. According to them Obama voted for tax increases 94 times.

The truth?

Non-partisan FactCheck.org, a source relied on by Cheney in the 2004 debate with John Edwards, has researched and found a slightly different set of facts.

Twenty-three were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all; they were against proposed tax cuts.

Seven of the votes were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on a relative few, either corporations or affluent individuals.

Eleven votes the GOP is counting would have increased taxes on those making more than $1 million a year - in order to fund programs such as Head Start and school nutrition programs, or veterans' health care.

The GOP sometimes counted two, three and even four votes on the same measure. We found their tally included a total of 17 votes on seven measures, effectively padding their total by 10.

The majority of the 94 votes - 53 of them, including some mentioned above - were on budget measures, not tax bills, and would not have resulted in any tax change. Four other votes were non-binding motions related to conference report negotiations.

It's true that most of the votes the GOP counts would either have increased taxes for some, or set budget targets calling for such increases. But by repeating their inflated 94-vote figure, McCain and the GOP falsely imply that Obama has pushed indiscriminately to raise taxes for nearly everybody. A closer look reveals that he's voted consistently to restore higher tax rates on upper-income taxpayers but not on middle- or low-income workers. That's consistent with what he's said he'd do as president, which is to raise taxes only on those making more than $250,000 a year.

Analysis

In a June 9 press release, Tucker Bounds, spokesman for Sen. John McCain's campaign said that "during just three years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama has already voted 94 times for higher taxes." The same day, the RNC, which researched Obama's votes and is the original source of the claim, issued its own release, saying "Obama Voted At Least 94 Times For Higher Taxes" and that he had voted "For A Tax Increase Approximately Once Every Five Days Congress Has Been In Session." A few days later, McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin and other campaign staffers repeated the charge, which was quoted in various news stories. We suspect we'll be hearing this figure a lot more as the campaign wears on.

If this type of claim sounds familiar, it's because George W. Bush's campaign used a similar refrain against John Kerry in 2004, charging that Kerry voted for "higher taxes" a whopping 350 times. We found that claim to be incorrect as well. This time around, Republicans are using some of the same tricky accounting to beef up the number of votes. " www.factcheck.org

Up until 2000 I would have laughed about this kind of politicing but that election and the atrocious one in 2004 showed how easily the public is misled. It still amazes me that they actually believe some of the stuff spewed from the mouth of the smear machine.