The Washington Post headline is not as strong as I might like, but it says what needs saying: McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence.
For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.
And the WaPo is not alone — Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty also notes that the McCain folks made up their accusation, as does (believe it or not) Andrea Mitchell, who on multiple MSNBC programs has pretty clearly stated that the McCain ad is utterly false:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LifsuCdTnXo[/youtube]
And Jake Tapperweighs in.
So the work that the McCain campaign has been doing for the past three days is to create this lie, try to pass it off as gospel, and (more importantly) use all of the free media they are getting with this thing to smear Obama’s patriotism and character. Based on a lie. John McCain gets his spokespeople and surrogates to endlessly repeat a lie that they apparently didn’t think the media would factcheck. Not exactly the honorable behavior that they constantly try to claim. Not exactly the civil campaign that they promised.
Today, though, McCain campaign blogger (?!) Michael Goldfarb tries to walk back that lie, substituting it for a charge that the Obama campaign is too calculating about its image. Which is likely true, but in comparison to the McCain campaign who is squandering every bit of McCain’s old reputation for some honesty and honor, you’d think that the candidate himself ought to be looking to trade in his staff for folks who have more up their sleeves than the politics of personal destruction.