McCain supporters are engaged in negative campaigning?
The conventional wisdom seems to be that McCain/Palin and their supporters are running the negative campaign, and that Obama/Biden are being firm but fair. It comes out in national polls, and it comes out in conversation when I discuss politics with others.
Several times I have had to correct people on the false impression left by the media on the Republican nominees. Neither McCain or Palin have called Obama a Muslim - in fact, they have publicly corrected others who have claimed that. Neither McCain or Palin have called him a terrorist either (although they have claimed he associated with a terrorist - William Ayers). True, a lot of false charges have gone back and forth, and McCain isn’t totally innocent here, but nothing he has done compares to this kind of intentional disinformation (and these all occurred just in the last few days):
The Guardian prints an article from a former Vietnamese guard at prison camp where McCain was held as a POW, who claims McCain was never tortured. They don’t even seriously question his account.
Rolling Stone magazine runs a hit piece putting the worst spin possible on every facet of McCain’s military career, including accusing John McCain of running and hiding in cowardice during a 1967 fire on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, which killed 134 navy personnel. They base this entire article on the word of one man (who, incidentally, supports Obama).
And based on this story, many blogs even run with the rumor that McCain started the fire himself!
And Sarah Palin? It just keeps getting better. The UK’s Daily Telegraph gave us this quote about polar bears from the Alaskan governor:
“magnificent, cuddly white bears are doing just fine and don’t need our protection. If the ice melts, they’ll adapt to living on the land.”
Only problem is, she didn’t say that. The literally just made it up out of whole cloth. The Telegraph has since altered the page and removed the quote (without an explanation or apology), but you can still see the angry reactions to the fake quote in the comm