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Monday, October 06, 2008
McLiar Bingo
cross-posted from howtheuniversityworks.com
Having a debate-watching party?
Follow along with any of the FOUR McLiar Bingo cards created by John Sellers and Andrew Boyd of Agit-Pop Communications.
From Card 2:
“Obama “pals around with terrorists.” ACTUALLY: Obama was 8 when radical Bill Ayers planted bombs to protest Vietnam. Now a professor, he & Obama volunteer for the same charity. (CNN FactChecker)
From Card 1: “Obama wants to teach sex ed to kindergartners.” ACTUALLY: The bill Obama voted for in the Illinois Legislature helps protect children from sexual predators. (factcheck.org)”
You get the picture.
Comments
To be fair (and as an Obama supporter), factcheck.org has nearly as many Obama campaign lies as McCain campaign lies.
There’s also an article on nationalreview.com that debunks some of the debunking of McCain’s lies.
Neither candidate is running a particularly logos-driven campaign.
>>nearly as many Obama campaign lies
I hear you, but fairness isn’t just a matter of the count; it’s the magnitude, consequence, and intent of the statements in question. Obama’s erroneous characterization of the long-term benefits of correct tire pressure and completely ludicrous faith in voluntary self-insurance, exaggerated gotcha on Social Security reform, etc, are small potatoes. None of it’s in the same league as smearing your opponent as a terrorist, mangling basic statements of geopolitical fact, cynically distorting one’s complicity in the class war from above, etc.
I listen to Obama, and I’m not moved, personally. It’s all too much like Clinton warmed over. Back in the day, I listened to the suddenly-a-contender young governor and thought, “holy shit, is this the best we can do?” I didn’t even know about Quality Management then, and the Democratic technocrat’s eager pimping it into government. But then I heard Hillary’s health-care plan, and hoped.
Same thing today.
I can hope that Obama, with his warmed-over Clinton rhetoric, Clinton positions, and similar fondness for the quality management of government, might turn out better than his election rhetoric. But I’ll probably be foolish in that hope. In all likelihood, he’ll be a dutiful Clinton-Blair clone and spend his time imposing austerities to pay off the Republican spending orgy.
Man, I wish you guys would go to the polls already! Our federal election--campaigns, debates, and all--has just started and is nearly over. That leaves us a lot more time to, well, talk about other things… :-)