Facts Are Stubborn Things

John Adams had a famous saying, “Facts are stubborn things.” Never has it been more important to separate fact from fiction than during an election campaign when bumper stickers and sound bites become accepted truths.

The average person does not have the time to verify everything that is said during a campaign. The sad result is voting based on half-truths, distortions and outright lies. The campaign managers know this and use it to their advantage. As Mark Twain said, "A lie gets half way around the world before the truth puts on her boots."

The result is that some people still believe that Obama is a Muslim despite that fact that he is a practicing Christian. Others believe that John McCain is still a maverick in spite of the fact that he is parroting the Bush administration’s policies right down the line. The media keep reaffirming this view by bringing it up in spite of the fact that McCain has voted with the Bush administration almost all of the time and would keep the same policies if elected.

Polls indicate that more people believe that John McCain would be the strongest candidate to protect us as Commander-in-Chief. This perception seems to be based on the fact that he was born into a military family and that he served and was captured. It IS a fact that he was a prisoner of war and knows what torture is. It is NOT a fact that this makes him a better candidate to be Commander-in-Chief. If so, our best presidents who won wars would have been military men. Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer, but his leadership helped the North win the Civil War in spite of being burdened with some really bad Generals. Franklin D. Roosevelt was crippled by Polio and was physically unable to be in the military. Yet with their leadership they won wars. Only two Presidents have actually taken to the battlefield. George Washington and James Madison (who lost the battle). (Wickpedia).

Therefore, military experience is not a necessary, or even a desirable, characteristic for a President. What he must possess is excellent judgment, intelligence and knowledge. Many factors come into play in keeping a country safe. They are too numerous to mention here, but if you use your own thinking cap you will realize that knowing WHEN to go to war is one of the more important ones. (Or, as they say, when to hold and when to fold.) McCain still actually maintains that going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do.

John McCain knows that his military experience is his best playing card and so he is trying to portray Barack Obama as being weak and lacking in knowledge. (That's a hoot when you realize that McCain said there was a border between Iraq and Pakistan). McCain is making false statements about Obama’s record. Here are some of the misstatements on his recent ad followed by the truth.

• Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan.
  

Barack Obama is on the Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe. Afghanistan is not in Europe. Afghanistan was not in his area of responsibility.
Fact: McCain is the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has missed every hearing the past two years.

• He (Obama) hasn’t been to Iraq in years.
  

While McCain has been to Iraq he was so protected that there is no way he could have known what was really happening. Instead, on his last visit he gave a Pollyanna view of everything being just peachy keen there. It sure as heck wasn’t, as it turned out. Where is his judgment?

• He voted against funding our troops
  

This is an outright lie. Obama voted for funding every time with the one exception when they were trying to force a timeline on withdrawing the troops.

• He made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops.
  

This distortion of what really happened has been covered by the media. Obama didn’t cancel; it was never on his schedule. Obama did visit the military hospital in Baghdad with no fanfare. The McCain ad makes it sound like Obama was just having fun at the gym and ignores the fact that the troops were there and he was actually visiting them in Kuwait.

• John McCain is always there for our troops.
  

This is the one that really sticks in my craw. McCain has actually voted against, or has not shown up for, funding for the troops nearly every time. He voted against the GI bill, against the funding for armored vehicles bill, against a bill requiring adequate rest between deployments, a plan to draw down troop levels, against funding for outpatient treatment for Vets, against increasing Vet's medical services, etc. (Source, www.Vets For Common Sense,org.)

• McCain. Country first.
  

Yeah, right! That is, if you believe that the country can survive another 4 to 8 years of the current policy.

• John McCain approved this message.
  

Please question, question question when you listen to campaign ads whether left, right or front and center.

John Adams was correct; facts are stubborn things.