I'm getting tired of this junk, but as long as the McCain campaign continues to blatantly lie, I'll continue to post this kind of stuff.

Here are a few:

• In the ABC news interview last week, Sarah Palin told Charlie Gibson that Alaska produces 20% of the US domestic energy supply.  This is a lie.
• In one of their ads, the McCain campaign says the Obama campaign is spreading mistruths about Sarah Palin.  This is a lie.
• The McCain campaign has tried to scare people by saying that Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners.  This is a lie.  The bill actually supported teaching kids about sexual predators.

Stephen Chapman from reason.com has a good post about this here.  Here are some of his words:

Now politicians are not saints, and campaigns are not conducted under oath. We all expect a certain amount of deceit from people running for office, in the form of fudging, distortion, exaggeration, and omission. But the McCain campaign's approach, as this episode illustrates, is of an entirely different scale and character. It is to normal political attacks what Hurricane Ike is to a drive-through car wash.

Take Palin's claim to have opposed the Bridge to Nowhere. Long after it was exposed as false, she kept making it. The assumption behind the McCain strategy is that truth is irrelevant.

Mr. Chapman follows up with:

Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? There is plenty an honest conservative might say in opposition to Obama: He's wrong about Iraq. He's wrong about Iran. He's wrong about offshore oil drilling. He wants to raise taxes. He favors abortion on demand. He would appoint liberal judges. He would impede school reform.

But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn't enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe.

I don't agree with Mr. Chapman's thoughts on conservatives being right or wrong on these particular issues - but he has a great point.  An honest conservative wouldn't need to lie because they would be confident enough in their positions and their ability to convince the American public of their merits.  Unfortunately, the perceived gullibility of the American people is more powerful (and tempting) than integrity to the McCain campaign.