Facts, Fables & Fibs

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have built their political careers--and then laid claim to the White House--on the idea that each disdains and would not practice the gutter partisan politics of the past. Yet what was once expected to be a more high-minded campaign has quickly eroded into something disappointing and familiar. Both candidates have trampled the truth, overlooked the details, trashed their rival's records and then hijacked each other's words miles away from the proper context. And each has made a minor specialty of attacks that have more to do with character than with any new direction the nation needs to go. Obama's ads systematically portray McCain as old, forgetful and out of touch; McCain's present Obama as a lightweight "celebrity" who will stop at nothing to win.

Who's the best at the worst in politics? Like squabbling children, each campaign seeks to justify its behavior by pointing fingers and insisting that the other team lied first. But in the main, McCain has been far quicker to throw the truth overboard--both in advertisements and on the stump. There are so many charges and countercharges about who distorted things first that we decided to spread the highest profile allegations, good and bad, across a grid measuring both accuracy and substance so you can be the judge.

Click here to see the grid.