Taboo?

This from a WaPo article today about campaign "untruths" becoming fact (emphasis mine):

Fed up, the Obama campaign broke a taboo on Monday and used the "L-word" of politics to say that the McCain campaign was lying about the Bridge to Nowhere.

So it's taboo to call a lie a lie? Since when has politics been genteel and polite? A few sentences later, no mention of taboo when an McCain aide calls an Obama assertion "a lie."

Ironically, it was a strategist for the Christianist Party (oops, I mean the Republicans) who referred to the "bigger truths" of Palin's candidacy. Remember that the Christianists believe in absolute truth, not the relativism that creates "bigger truths." In that context, something is true or it isn't.

I've learned that there are six types of deceptions: If it's a fabrication (like Palin's position on the Bridge to Nowhere), it's a damn lie. If it's an omission of facts (like Troopergate), it's a lie. If it's a rationalization (like Alaska being right next to Russia) it's a lie. If it's grandiosity (like Palin's "executive experience"), it's a lie. If it's minimization ("even though we only met with Sarah Palin the day before we selected her for VP, we completely vetted her"), it's a lie. And if it's a seemingly irrelevant decision (like McCan't's putting his arms around George W. Bush before telling the world that he's a reformer/maverick), it's a lie. McCan't is an expert in all of them.

Keith Olbermann was heard off-mike during the Republican National Convention telling Joe Scarborough, "Jesus, Joe, get a shovel," because of all the bullshit spilling from Joe's mouth. It was the right thing to say. Being polite and acting gentlemanly when someone is taking advantage of national exposure to spew filth, bile, and lies just validates the filth, bile, and lies. Saying something is "far from accurate" or "outside the boundaries of spin" lacks power. And power is crucial to winning this election. McCan't is perceived as powerful because of his branding as a maverick "straight talker." And, like it or not, Obama is branded as an elitist partly because he deems himself above the fray.

So let's not get caught up in what's acceptable when it comes to exposing lies. Can you imagine Obama on some reporter's show saying, "John McCain's campaign is lying about their candidates' records, about my record, and about Joe Biden's record"? Without smiling. And repeating it over and over again until it sticks. Now THAT would be powerful.