Bottom of the Eighth: Still Behind, But Catching Up

Dubious Claims in Obama’s Ads Against McCain, Despite Vow of Truth:

Bill Adair, the editor of PolitiFact, the fact-checking Web site of The St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, said that until last week, the McCain campaign was more frequently guilty of including the most egregious falsehoods in its advertisements.

A lot of partisan Dems around the nets's have been questioning why the Obama campaign weren't utilising the same tactics as McCain's i.e. lies.

Well, here we go. The big kids in the sand pit have started fighting over the yellow Tonka truck. S'gonna end in tears.

Team Republican Bench: Weak

The Sarah Palin / Charlie Gibson interview is tough to watch. I was embarrassed for her and I wanted her to look bad! There are multiple facepalm and peek through finger moments.

Juan Cole provides comments on some of Palin's responses:

Sarah Palin revealed herself in the Charlie Gibson interview on ABC to be nervous,uninformed, green and generally not ready for prime time. The interview was full of stock phrases she was made to memorize, and which she repeated over and over again when stumped. She knows nothing about how Iran is run, or about Pakistan, or about al-Qaeda, and even is ignorant of the Bush doctrine of preemptive warfare. It was a shockingly bad performance.

I wonder if she can spell tomato?

Its also kind of weird that she refers to McCain as.. well, 'McCain', which may seem normal in isolation, but consider that most everyone else is referred to by their first name.

How well does she know the guy, really?

"John? Who do you mean, Charlie?"

Palin's False Narrative

No. Sarah Palin didn’t tell Congress to take their f*cking bridge and shove it. Her statement is blatantly, laughably wrong. And it’s now winning votes

Bob Somerby will detail how the Republican's, dutifully assisted by an inept press, are doing it, here.

Standing for Torture

Excerpt from the New Matilda article of interview with author and QC Philippe Sands.

Just Following (Rumsfeld's) Orders:

Sands believes that the move to abusive interrogation goes all the way to the top. "Since the book came out, President Bush himself has said that the techniques of interrogation were subject to decision making by him and by his principal political colleagues: Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, Vice President." What fascinates Sands more is how the lawyers were such a formative part of this — lawyers he describes as "highly politicised, political appointees" who overrode the advice of long-term career military lawyers..

McCain voted for Bush, voted with him 90% of the time and continues to support his policies.

That'll leave scars on you.