By doing the lying himself, rather than outsourcing the job to the assorted Swift-Boaters, McCain has set himself up for the blame when things go kablooey. He physically looks strained and uncomfortable when he is trying to portray himself as Our Savior From Wall Street. Like Nixon's five o'clock shadow on the TV debate in 1960, John McCain exudes body language that says "I don't really believe any of this". Too bad for him, but the stakes are too high for us to "Trust, but not Verify".

voting for people, rather than single issue referenda, creates the necessity for lies.

when you vote for a (4 year) king, you put all your hopes on one vote. each of those hopes, about financial security, peace with other nations, a future for coming generations are all tied up in one person. but the only person who thinks the way you do is you. politicians must hide this fact and they do, by lying.

elections are not designed to get good management of a nation, they are a non-violent resolution to the struggle between classes in a nation.

if you want good management, you must move on to democracy. in america, not many people rise above class struggle, not many see the obvious systemic flaws in a society modeled after georgian britain. mike gravel does, and put a reasonable first step on his site. not much action has resulted, creatures like ron paul and sara palin seize the nation's attention instead.

democracy only happens when people want to run their own lives, without having to trust politicians not to steal, not to make war, not to waste money. america hasn't made that connection, so they go on measuring lies.

Excellent article, a critique of McCain that is based in fact rather than hysterics.

The Republican electoral strategy is to create a narrative that is attractive to voters. It has nothing to do with facts, which some of them have admitted. I find it tragic now to watch John McCain lie so easily, sometimes about something he said only hours earlier.

It's only going to get worse from here.

I used to constantly try to remind myself that the Republicans didn't wake in the morning and say to themselves, "How can I screw over Joe and Jane Public today?" because, however mistaken they may have been, I thought that they believed that what they were doing what was right for the country. I have lately found it ncessary to disabuse myself of that notion. It's become very hard to imagine any possible way that McCain, Palin, the conservative commentators and the RNC are not presently conducting themselves with malicious intent.

Yes, of course. Right wing politicians lie because they could never be elected if they came somewhere close to telling the truth.

I wish the Dems were more explicit in pointing this out.

They have actions driven by dogma. Today's action is different from yesterday's and tomorrow's will be different still. It's not a policy. It's just doing something in the pursuit of self interest and hoping you don't get forced to be accountable after you are caught.

It's sad to see John McCain shirk from his maverick label to assume the king of fib-meisters mantle. He looks uncomfortable and forced, a bit alone and overwhelmed unless flanked by his wife or running mate.

McCain is doing what he must to win. His handlers are calling the plays, writing the talking points, going on the offense wherever they can. And we know the facts arn't wholly on their side. When things in the country are this shabby due in large part to your party's leadership, lying becomes almost a core tactic.

Good article, except that I think there's less to distinguish "conservative populism" from some allegedly honorable conservatism, a la John Adams and Edmund Burke, than Wolfe suggests. Adams was a revolutionary, after all, and Burke, while he took some enlightened positions, also argued that society should be run like "a joint-stock company" with political power skewed toward the wealthy. Later Burkeans deployed similar logic to defend segregation and other retrogade social arrangements.

The problem isn't just some populist corruption of the conservative vision, it's the vision itself. That's "Why Conservatives are Always Wrong," as I explain at greater length in my article of that title (link via my name below).

If the Republicans told the truth they'd still be elected.

Americans are just that stupid.

Barack should wake up early tomorrow, and call McCain a liar in front of TV cameras. And he should repeat it in the afternoon.

Every day, Barack should repeat, "Liar." Only 50 days to go. In the coming debates, Barack should look McCain right straight in the eye, and say, "Liar."

Do it, Barack. Right now, the campaign is boring, even while life in the USA is scary, exciting, dangerous.

In paragraph 5, Mr. Wolfe wrote:

"We now also know that the Bush-Cheney administration was intent on adopting the most aggressive American foreign stance possible, and that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, offered them the public justification for actions they had been secretly planning since taking office."

Mr. Wolfe is understating the issue. The Bush administration did not secretly plan to invade Iraq "since taking office." In point of fact, the Bush Administration's plan to invade Iraq was formalized at least as far back as January 26, 1998, when key members of what would become the Bush Administration- including Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton, sent a letter to then-President Bill Clinton calling for the invasion of Iraq. Here it is:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

I particularly direct you to the following quote:

"Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.

We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power."

Far from being as bad as Mr. Wolfe claims, the Republicans are, in fact, much worse.