One of the Things I'm Going To Do More of Is Respond To Comments With New Postings

Squidley:

The Obamamessiah hasn't achieved a single thing in all his time in office. No legislation bears his mark; no bill bears his name. All he excels at is self-promotion.

This is a popular thing for Republicans to say, and it's a lie. That won't stop them from saying it, of course, because lying is one of their best things. They're utterly dependent on it. (Al Gore never said he invented the Internet, just for example.) Sarah Palin repeated the lie two nights ago in her coming-out speech.

So, just for the record, during his time in the Illinois legislature Obama sponsored 820 bills. In the U.S. Senate, he co-sponsored 427 bills and authored more than 150.

That is, perhaps, testimony to the fact that too many laws are written. Anyone with a lick of sense knows that the idea that any legislator would go years without writing or sponsoring bills is laughable. The fact that Republicans believe something so patently absurd says much about how hate-filled and gullible they are. There seems to be no lie about Obama that they won't believe and repeat as fact.

That the McCain campaign is using the line is indicative of how lacking in integrity Candidate McCain really is. Clearly, he will say anything to win this election, since he surely remembers that he and Obama co-sponsored -- and Obama introduced on the Senate floor -- the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. The law requires full disclosure of all entities and organizations receiving Federal funds, and was crafted to shed light on special interest earmarks. McCain considers the bill a triumph, and at the time he thanked Obama for helping to get the bill passed. Now, as a candidate, he has his running mate claim that Obama has accomplished nothing and has no record of working "across the aisle."

Obama's signature legislation, which he developed with Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana, is the Lugar-Obama Proliferation and Threat Reduction Initiative, which President Bush signed into law in January, 2007. That legislation is designed to, among other things, keep shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles out of the hands of terrorists.

Now it's conservative lore that, as Squidley puts it, "no legislation bears his mark; no bill bears his name."

It would be one thing if the lie were just being repeated by wingnuts like Squidley. It's another thing entirely that it played a prominent role in the just-concluded Republican National Convention.

Comments

[fish]

I liked Obama better when I thought he was a layabout!

[Steve]

As you recently said to me Tom, Relax, take a deep breath.

The sad thing is, I'm sure actually you believe that the DNC has never told a single lie, misrepresented the facts or distorted the truth.

[michael]

Not all lies are created equal.

Steve, please give us a hint which of the recent statements given by Democrats you would consider being in the same ballpark as this lie.

[Trop]

Why isn't the Obama campaign splashing our TVs with video of Obama's introduction of the McCain-Obama bill? Seeing is believing.

WTF is Obama doing with that equal-wage agenda? It's in just about every ad here in Virginia. When did that become his issue? It's a total non-starter.

[Steve]

"Not all lies are created equal."

I'm curious, What level of lying do you find acceptable? On what criteria do you accept dishonesty? Is it a sliding scale or a hard-fast rule? You also imply some sort of statute of limitations on lies. Please explain your criteria.

Thanks.

[Scott]

[cricket, cricket]

[Squidley]

Thank you for correcting my error. I will not repeat it.

However, I stand by the last statement: Obama does excel at self-promotion. Two autobiographies without any particular achievement to warrant them has got to be some sort of a record!

[Squidley]

By the way, Obama was in office for 143 days before declaring his intention to run for president. Who really authored those 150 bills?