The truth about Larry Summers

Via Ezra Klein, it turns out that a story going around about potential Treasury Secretary Larry Summers--that in a memo he advocated increasing pollution in "under-polluted" third-world countries--is false:

So when Max Blumenthal writes that “Summers authored a private memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries,” he’s lying. Either that, or he is guilty of gross journalistic incompetence for not researching the subject enough to know that Summers didn’t write the memo and that it didn’t earnestly argue for increased waste dumping.

Just for the record, I personally haven't formed an opinion of Summers--but I thought I might as well repost this here as a good internet Samaritan.

McCain's deteriorating reputation

Richard Cohen, who describes himself as "in the tank" for McCain, has turned:

McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.

I think we're going to see more and more of these kinds of revelations from intellectually honest McCain supporters. I wonder how many it will take to get him to stop this stupid, artless lying.

The press: still not capable of calling a lie a lie

The headline in the NYT is "McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions"; it should be, "McCain Distortions Stirring Outcry". But at least the McCain-has-a-truth-problem narrative is beginning to take shape.

Things Obama should stop saying

What we've seen in the last week or so is a barrage of substantive falsehoods from the McCain campaign and John McCain himself. However, any attempt by Obama to call out John McCain for his dishonesty will be undermined if Obama commits the same sins of misrepresentation and out-and-out lying.

Fortunately, I think Obama has for the most part conducted an honest campaign. However, he has not been above misrepresenting McCain on certain key issues.

The most egregious misrepresentation of McCain's views that Obama has consistently peddled is that McCain wants the US to continue the war in Iraq for 100 years. From what Obama says, it sounds as if McCain would favor continuing the Iraq War indefinitely, even if it took 100 years. But what McCain was actually saying was that he envisioned a US troop presence in post-war Iraq for decades to come, on the model of military bases in Europe and Korea, and explicitly stated that such a presence was predicated on there being no US casualties:



Now, the idea that there should be permanent military bases in Iraq isn't exactly noncontroversial, and there are a lot of reasonable people who contend that such bases would incite violence against US troops. But that does not justify misconstruing McCain's support for permanent military bases in Iraq as support for permanent war in Iraq. (I should add that it seems that Obama stopped making this claim some time ago--however, he never admitted that it was spurious or gave any kind of apology for it).

Another misrepresentation--and one that you hear a lot of lately--is that John McCain believes that the line that divides "middle class" and "rich" is an income of $5 million. If such a viewpoint seems absurd it is because McCain intended it to be: when he said this, he was joking. He even followed his answer with the words "but seriously" and worried aloud, "that comment will probably be distorted". Judge for yourself:


It is obvious to me that McCain was shirking the question by giving a joke answer. Obama can certainly criticize McCain for refusing to answer the question seriously, but this doesn't entitle him to pretend that McCain's joke non-answer was a serious answer. And yet, that is what Obama continues to do, on the stump and in his campaign ads:


These are the only two instances I can think of where there can be no doubt that Obama is distorting his opponent's record. Maybe there are more--I'll post them if I find them or if someone points me to some.

Only by impartially scrutinizing both candidates' honesty can you begin to meaningfully argue that one is more honest than the other. Clearly, both candidates have succumbed to the temptation of misrepresenting their opponent's view and eviscerating the resulting straw man. However, I think it should be clear to any objective observer that the McCain campaign's level of dishonesty is orders of magnitude greater than that of the Obama campaign and very far beyond the pale.