Do you remember Barack Obama's recent attack on free speech? One commenter criticized our post suggesting:
Let me see? Obama supporters in Missouri want to expose lies about their candidate made by the McCain Campaign and his supporters, and all the preceeding (sic) comments say Obama defending himself against lies with the truth is shameful, dictatorial,
As it turns out, Obama has been caught in blatant distortions of the truth:
An Obama-Biden radio ad hammers McCain for being opposed to stem cell research. Not true. Meanwhile two spots from the McCain-Palin campaign, together with the Republican National Committee, describe McCain's support for the research; they're largely accurate.By saying that "John McCain has stood in the way - he's opposed stem cell research," the Obama ad seriously misstates the view that McCain has held on this issue since 2001, when he began backing embryonic stem cell research, a position that was out of step with that of many of his fellow Republicans.
The McCain/RNC ads would probably lead listeners to believe that Palin shares McCain's views on this topic. That's not true. But we find that to be a minor flaw compared with the misrepresentation in Obama's ad.
There really is no way that Obama could have believed this fabrication to be accurate. McCain was one of 14 GOP members of Congress who signed a letter to Bush asking him to lift restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, citing its potential to lead to treatments or cures for deadly and crippling diseases and conditions. Obama supporters should see this ad as embarrassingly false and exploiting those suffering chronic and incurable disease.
Personally, I am very disappointed in McCain's support of embryonic stem cell research since it involves the destruction of human lives in the name of science. In addition, to motivate this unethical experimentation, researchers have completely oversold both the immediacy of therapies and the potential their research holds.
Meanwhile, adult stem cell research continues to (ethically) produce tangible results with significantly less hype and fanfare.
Getting back to Obama's false campaign ads, do you see the hypocrisy of scaring critics with a team of lawyers while at the same time boldly publishing lies about one's opponent? A little substance in this shallow campaign would be refreshing.
