"Fact-Based" 09/26/2008
 

I traveled to Fuquay-Varina this morning for coffee with my sister-in-law, Cindy.  (Well, only in a "fact-based" way is she my sister-in-law.  In a technically true way, she is Dan's sister-in-law, married to Dan's brother, Ken.)  I had a couple of nice surprises upon arrival.  First, Ken was home so I got in a quick visit with him as well.

Second, Ken had thoughtfully "purchased" for me (as part of his health care rewards program) a self-stirring coffee mug.  This because I blogged some time back about the questionable "green-ness" of using throw away stir sticks at coffee establisments.

After coffee and a visit to the local art store, I headed home to join Dick, Dotty and Dan for an empanada lunch.  Yum!

Since then, I've been doing a bit of political research.  There was the Couric-Palin interview.  A good op-ed piece offering an opposing view on the bailout.  But nothing I really felt like writing about more than McCain's 60 Minutes interview segment talking about his ads.

I blogged about these ads a week or more ago, and how fact-checking organizations had labelled them as "misleading" or "pants-on-fire" (as in Liar, Liar). 

When interviewed by Scott Pelley about these ads, particularly the ones that say Obama will raise taxes on the middle class (the opposite of what the Democratic nominee has expressly pledged), McCain hid behind a new euphemism--"fact based."

McCain:  "I dispute that any of the spots we have run are not fact based."  Huh?  What happened to the captain of the Straight Talk Express?  Wouldn't it just be easier, if the ads were true, to say, "All of the ads we've run are true"? 

Problem is, of course, they're not.

So here's what McCain meant by fact based.  While Obama has said he won't increase taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 per year, he has in the past voted to raise various taxes.  Therefore, Obama is a tax raiser.  And therefore, we can say, in a "fact based" way, that he wants to raise your taxes.

So, in a "fact based" way, I could also say that McCain wants to raise your taxes.  After all, he was originally against the Bush tax cuts.  Or I could say that McCain is a flip-flopper since he's going to debate Obama tonight when he pledged not to do so unless there was a resolution to our financial crisis.

I guess the fifth commandment under McCain will read, "Thou shalt dispute that any of your assertions are not fact based."

Sheesh.  I hope this is the guy that gets exposed at the debates tonight.

 


Comments

Kenneth R. Morefield

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:57:33

So, I guess it would be "fact-based" of me to say that John McCain wants to (or is going to) divorce his wife and marry someone even younger? Or that Sarah Palin is going to force my niece to get married before she hits 20? Or that John McCain wants to go to war with Belgium (he voted to go to war in the past, so any claim that he will do so again is "fact-based" even if it is contrary to what he's said or a different situation than the one before).

I was going to say that based on that logic, I would never get an a plane with John McCain because it is clear that he would crash it...but then, I thought, that claim might not only be fact-based, it might also be true.

 

Laura

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:37:27

I know I'd want someone else on the stick, Ken. True or not.

And in the same regard, I want someone else's hand on the controls of America.

 



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