Truth is Neither Right nor Left, It is Just truth

There's a strange phenomenon occurring in today's politics. It is the attribution of equivalence to matters dissimilar in degree and substance. When, for example, Democrats, especially Obama supporters, point out that McCain voted in lockstep with Bush over 90% of the time, Republicans often counter with the argument that Obama always supports his party's legislation. It isn't so difficult to see the difference.

Ever since Senator McCain co-opted the Obama change mantra, the fact that he wants to continue Bush policies makes his promise of a new way forward in Washington something of a non sequitur. Republicans in the Senate blocked Democratic legislation as a matter of course, even when they weren't opposed to it in principle, and Democrats who may have been willing to ‘reach across the aisle' were not likely to have been greeted with open arms.  Blaming Democrats for congressional inertia and excessive partisanship have a hollow ring when the facts indicate that Republicans sought to hamstring Democrats, hoping for better things in the next election cycle.

But logic demands some willingness to accept the reality of events and circumstances without attempting to turn things around as if they were similar in kind. Obviously candidates try to make the best case for their positions, but there's a difference between stating an opinion and lying about one's opponent or recalibrating a stand in order to comply with the party platform. No matter how strange a political position may seem to those who disagree with it, facts are still facts. Observations about the preparedness of a candidate should provoke discussion; inventing or twisting data to fit an oppositional point of view is dishonest.

It is neither anti-feminist nor overly partisan to question Governor Palin's suitability for a position at the top of government. Barack Obama's work as a community organizer isn't something to denigrate or set aside compared to her "executive experience". Using only that yardstick willfully ignores his eight years in the Illinois legislature, his brilliant academic credentials and his position teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago, as well as his time in the US Senate. Why is it that in this country intelligence seems to engender suspicion and derision?

And why shouldn't the McCain-Palin temperament and approach to governing be examined in minute detail? When McCain gets testy with interviewers or refuses to appear on CNN because of questions posed by one of its anchors about Palin, one has to wonder what kind of a leader he would be. In one instance, he seemed restrained as he answered a rather annoying question at a town-hall appearance only to end by referring to the questioner as "you little jerk." His impatience and feisty temperament are legitimate concerns for voters who want a firm hand on the rudder of our ship of state but not one so unyielding as to be unresponsive to sea changes.

In Palin's case, aside from her various comments in conflict with facts, denial of her support for earmarks, her original backing of the bridge to nowhere and her phony "thanks but no thanks" disavowal of that funding although the monies were kept and used for other purposes in Alaska are but a few questionable areas. Perhaps more importantly her governing style appears to have been dictatorial and overly partisan. As Mayor of Wasilla, she fired the town librarian for not giving Palin her "full support", apparently for not being willing to discuss a method for determining what books should be banned from the library. The local uproar induced Palin to reinstate the librarian without strings.

In the past, Palin said she was not one to support the notion that global warming was man-made, but as VP candidate she wiggles around that position to say that she and McCain are committed to addressing the problem as it is currently perceived - - kind of like McCain's refusal to discuss why we went to Iraq while pointing to the success of "the surge". And both seem to support the idea that Ukraine and Georgia should become members of NATO which would commit us to defending them militarily against Russia. If that doesn't make your palms sweat nothing will.

One doesn't have to be a "leftie" or a "rightie" to recognize inappropriate behavior on the part of those who are in or seek power. A lie by any other name is still a lie, and truth is neither right nor left, it is just truth.