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Photo: Photo Mojo

Since accepting their GOP nominations 2 weeks ago, both Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are proving to be by far the most liberal candidates in the race when it comes to one important issue: truth.

For a candidate who professes to rise above the sort of nasty lies and smears that cost him the 2000 nomination, McCain’s newfound penchant for such tactics says volumes about his determination to win at whatever cost. That li’l public pledge he made back in April to wage a “respectful campaign” based on truth? Fuhgeddaboutit.

It’s no coincidence that of the 10 separate campaign lies or distortions appearing this morning on the home page of Fact Check, run by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Annenberg Public Policy Center consumer advocacy group, eight of the 10 were smears committed by the McCain-Palin campaign, compared with two by the Obama ticket. The so-called “Straight Talk Express” is about as straight these days as Liberace’s wardrobe closet at the height of his flamboyant career.

Apparently McCain has opted to punish Obama for the sins eight years ago of George W. Bush’s operatives, who spread rumors just before the South Carolina primary that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. One would think McCain, of all people, would refuse to tolerate such tactics now by his own campaign. Yet he has embraced the very same end-justifies-the-means attitude that Bush operative Karl Rove made into an art form — bringing great dishonor to the legacy McCain built over 30 years in Congress.

Of course, the GOP’s strategy is clear:

• Project a mythical perception about themselves — and their opponents — that is grounded much less in fact than in reality.
• Knock their opponents — and the media — off message so they can’t address substantive issues like Iraq, the economy, health care and national security.
• Distract the electorate from focusing on how much worse off they — and their country as a whole — are today than eight years ago.

After weeks of mocking the “celebrity”-like crowds drawn to Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the McCain team has begun ratcheting-up the audiences at its own rallies. The larger crowds that have flocked to catch a glimpse of the ex-beauty-queen vice presidential nominee apparently have not been quite as immense as McCain staffers would like the public to believe. They have claimed as much as three times the number of attendees that independent journalists estimate, then falsely attributed the inflated estimates to various government agencies that deny ever having provided them at all.

As for the mainstream media’s thus-far feeble attempts to hold the GOP nominee accountable for the ongoing fabrications emanating from his campaign, don’t count on such scrutiny to force a change in game plan for the McCain team. “We’re running a campaign to win,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”

Let’s hope that after eight years of an administration that seems to pride itself in regularly taking gross factual liberties, the electorate can recognize the McCain-Palin nasty smears, feigned outrages and gross distortions for what they are. If so, the message to the GOP today might well be that this time, a campaign strategy based on lies is itself a Bridge to Nowhere. Least of all, one to the Oval Office.