McCain and Palin's Top 20 Lies, Myths and Flip-Flops

By Isaac Fitzgerald and Tana Ganeva, AlterNet. Posted September 12,
2008.

Agents of change? Symbols of feminism? A roundup of these and other
ridiculous tall tales coming from McCain's increasingly desperate
campaign.

The corporate media won't say it and the Obama campaign isn't saying
it enough, so we're saying it loud and clear: John McCain is a liar.
And so is the woman he now shares the Republican ticket with. Yes,
Sarah Palin is a liar, too. Together they are responsible for one of
the most inaccurate and misleading presidential campaigns, in a
business known for inaccuracy and misdirection. But even by the
standards of American politics, the McCain-Palin ticket seems to be in
a race with itself to set new standards of low.

This isn't opinion, this is fact. Time and time again, on the campaign
trail, in press briefings and in interviews, McCain and Palin
flip-flop on the issues, propagate myths they know to be false, and
flat-out lie to the American people.

Unlike the McCain campaign, we have to back up our assertions, so here
is a quick, short and cited list of the top 20 lies, myths and
flip-flops that have come from the McCain/ Palin ticket so far.

1. The Myth: McCain and Palin claim to be agents of change.

The Truth: In a desperate attempt to revive McCain's "maverick"
reputation, the McCain campaign is trying to co-opt Obama's slogan.
But "change" is a tough act to pull off when your record almost
exactly matches the current president's. According to a study cited by
the Huffington Post, John McCain voted in keeping with the president's
positions 100 percent of the time in 2008 and 95 percent in 2007.

2. The Lie: To burnish Palin's rep as a down-to-earth, no-nonsense
fighter of government waste, the campaign keeps bringing up the
state-owned jet Palin put on eBay. Today McCain stated: "You know what
I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her
predecessor and sold it on eBay -- made a profit."

The Truth: As Politico points out, Palin did put the Alaska-owned
plane on eBay. But she failed to sell it. Instead, the state had to go
through a private broker to unload the jet and ended up losing money
in the transaction. Or, the opposite of profit.

3. Flip-Flop: Offshore Drilling.

Original Position: In 1999, McCain made conservatives very unhappy by
supporting a moratorium on offshore drilling.

Politically Expedient Position: McCain can't afford to make
conservatives unhappy anymore; his campaign now depends on the
rapturous love of a conservative base that is still suspicious of him
from when he used to take intelligent positions. So he switched his
position on offshore drilling. As Dana Milbank at the Washington Post
writes, McCain recently argued that "those very same 'moratoria should
be lifted' and proposed incentives for the states 'in the form of
tangible financial rewards, if the states decide to lift those
moratoriums.'"

4. The Lie: McCain and Palin have said up to 29 times and counting
that Palin told Congress "'thanks but no thanks' on that Bridge to
Nowhere."

The Truth: Palin strongly supported the Bridge to Nowhere and
campaigned on the issue while running for governor of Alaska in 2006.
It should also be noted that she never actually got the chance to tell
Congress "no thanks," as Congress killed off the project, choosing
instead to give a lump sum for all of Alaska's transportation
projects, money that Palin gladly accepted.

5. The Lie: McCain keeps repeating, over and over and over again, that
Obama's tax proposals will hurt the middle class.

The Truth: Obama's tax policy cuts taxes for people in the
middle-income brackets, while his plan would increase taxes only for
those with a family income above $250,000 and individuals who make
more than $200,000. Not exactly the middle class.

6. The Lie: McCain falsely claims he received every award from every
veterans organization.

The Truth: Despite saying it again and again, McCain is flat-out lying
when he claims to have received the highest award from every veterans
organization. As Think Progress reports:

He received a grade of D from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America and a 20 percent vote rating from the Disabled Veterans of
America; Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had "voted against
us" in 15 "key votes."

As for the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- with
whom McCain claims to have a "perfect voting record" -- both groups
vigorously supported Sen. Jim Webb's (D-Va.) GI Bill that McCain
tirelessly opposed.

Given McCain's grades at the Naval Academy, maybe he thinks 20 percent
approval is actually really good.

7. Flip-Flop: Immigration Reform.

Original Position: McCain was once a proponent of an immigration plan
that would combine securing the borders with a temporary worker
program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Politically Expedient Position: With his poll numbers dipping and
under attack from Republican opponents during the primaries, McCain
switched his position on immigration. As the AP reports, instead of
supporting broad immigration reform, McCain's first and foremost
priority now is to secure the borders. All that other, less important
stuff, could come ... whenever. Stated McCain: "I got the message. ...
We will secure the borders first and then go on to other issues."

8. The Lie: An attack ad (ironically called "Fact Check") by the
McCain campaign claimed that Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan
election-accuracy watchdog, accused Obama of spreading misleading
information about Sarah Palin.

The Truth: Factcheck.org did not attribute Internet rumors about Palin
to the Obama campaign. The organization was in fact debunking
information about Palin spread online though anonymous e-mails and Web
posts.

9. The Lie: The very same attack ad seems to purposefully misquote an
article in the Wall Street Journal. The ad states that the Obama
campaign sent a team to Alaska to "dig dirt on Governor Palin."

The Truth: The article actually stated they were sent to "dig into her
record and background." Also, as it turns out, the article was wrong
to begin with. Obama did not send a team to Alaska to dig into
anything. What are the chances McCain will pull the ad and apologize?

10. The Lie: An attack ad by the McCain campaign says Obama is
"against troop funding."

The Truth: According to Factcheck.org, Obama has only voted against
one war-funding bill, "after Bush vetoed a version that contained a
date for withdrawal from Iraq."

11. The Myth: McCain echoed his wife's dubious claim that Alaska's
proximity to Russia makes Palin qualified to tackle the complex
foreign policy issues facing the next administration. When asked if
Palin is up to the challenge of dealing with "an insurgent Russia,"
McCain responded, "... Alaska is right next to Russia. She understands
that."

The Truth: As Steve Benen, writing for CBS News, points out:

Palin has never been to Russia. She's never demonstrated any expertise
on U.S. policy toward Russia. She doesn't have any background in
international relations at any level. But for Republicans, the fact
that she's lived in a state near Russia is somehow a qualification for
national office. ... It's the dumbest argument I've ever heard.

12. The Lie: A McCain Web ad affixed the clever moniker "Dr. No" to
Obama, claiming Obama says to energy "innovation" and to "the electric
car."

The Truth: In fact, according to Factcheck.org, "Obama proposed a $150
billion program of research into a wide variety of clean-energy
technologies last year." Also, Obama is not against the electric car.
He's against McCain's ridiculous ploy to award a $300 million prize to
the person who fixes a glitch in electric car battery technology.

13. The Lie: McCain says that Obama wants kids to learn "about sex
before learning how to read."

The Truth: McCain's attack ad "Education," in which he blatantly lies
to try to make it look like Obama wants to educate kindergartners
about sex, cites a bill that was a piece of legislation in the
Illinois state senate. The bill was meant to add disease prevention to
already standard Illinois state-approved sex-ed classes. That means,
in cases of education in kindergarten, nothing more than child
predator prevention. For McCain to exploit a bill that protects small
children from deviant criminals in our society is disgusting.

14. The Lie: McCain claims Obama doesn't think Iran is a threat.

The Truth: In a misleading attack ad titled "Tiny," meant to make
Obama look naive about foreign policy, McCain took an Obama quote out
of context to make it look like he thinks Iran is a "tiny" threat. The
ad does not note that Obama said Iran is "tiny" when compared to the
threat that the Soviet Union once posed to the United States. Which,
you know, when you think about all those nuclear warheads and that
giant army, it is.

15. Flip-Flop: Windfall profits tax.

Original Position: McCain has said he would look into a windfall
profits tax, a smart thing to do when gas prices are through the roof
and oil companies are reporting record profits. While speaking in
North Carolina on the campaign trail, McCain said:

I'd be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax -- that's not
what bothers me -- but we should look at any incentives that we are
giving to people, that or industries or corporations that are
distorting the market.

Politically Expedient Position: Of course, McCain was singing a
different tune while talking with oil industry insiders in Texas,
where he made fun of Obama's support of windfall profit taxes:

He wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes
he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar,
it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea too -- and a
lot of good it did us.

So which is the senator for? A tax that will help the people, or a
favor for your buddies in big oil? We may never know.

16. The Lie: CBS's Katie Couric thinks Obama is using sexism against
Palin.

The Truth: A misleading attack ad released by the McCain campaign
titled "Lipstick" ends with CBS's Katie Couric saying: "One of the
great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of
sexism in American life." The ad implies that Couric is talking about
the Obama campaign's treatment of Palin, but in reality the quote is
from before Palin joined the McCain ticket; Couric was talking about
Hillary Clinton. CBS was so upset over the dishonest way that Couric's
quote was used that it forced the McCain campaign to take the ad down.

17. The Lie: McCain proposes that Obama is the cause of rising gas
prices.

The Truth: This one is just absurd. There is no way that Obama is in
any way responsible for rising gas prices, as McCain proposed in his
attack ad, "Pump." In fact, McCain himself has said that the energy
problems we face today were "thirty years in the making."

18. The Lie: Obama snubbed wounded troops in Germany because the press
couldn't come with him.

The Truth: Andrea Mitchell of NBC, who was part of the press corps
that toured with Obama, reacted when McCain's attack ad came out by
saying: "That literally is not true. ... The point is that Obama had
no intention of bringing any cameras with him -- I was there, I can
vouch for that." Obama's reason for not making the visit: He was
worried that it would be politicized. Before arriving in Germany,
Obama had visited wounded troops while in Baghdad, without any press.

19. The Myth: McCain argues that Palin is a historic feminist pick.

The Truth: A woman has already been nominated to be a vice
presidential candidate. The Democrats beat the republicans to the
punch 24 years ago with Geraldine Ferraro.

That is much less important than the fact that Palin isn't a feminist
pick at all. You can't be against so many feminist causes and be a
pro-feminist pick. Now, capitulation for the far Right, that's
probably closer to the truth.

20. Flip-Flop: Super POW John McCain Changes His Tune on Torture.

Original Position: McCain's original stance on waterboarding, straight
up: "It is torture."

Politically Expedient Position: But when push came to shove, he voted
against a bill that would have set an interrogation standard
forbidding waterboarding no matter what. Sometimes even an ex-POW has
to look tough. Luckily, the bill still passed. Unluckily, McCain's
good buddy George W. Bush vetoed it.