Let’s start with a hero. The man posted on DailyKos, and he must feel at least a little bit lonely there. He’s a veteran, voted for Bush twice, and is an evangelical Christian. He’s also decided to vote for Barack Obama and castigates John McCain, his Bushiness, and his campaign of lies in his post of DailyKos. I’m sure he doesn’t want to get personally attacked by the GOP, so he’s written under the alias ex VRWC:

ROTC Cadet, Air Force Captain, Free Republic diarist, James Dobson quoting conservative, 2 time Bush voter. Church worship leader. These all describe me. And there are more just like me. My evolution to progressive awareness has been a slow one, but is has never gone faster than in the last 3 or 4 months. How do I describe myself now - a progressive conservative, of course (if there is such a thing)!

So why am I and those like me out here? I am out here because I see through the hysteria that the right wing has become. I know the abandonment of principles when we see it. I despise in today’s Republican Party what I was always told were the worst traits of the ‘left’ in years past. I know better these days. I have come to the realization that in many ways I left my brain turned off for far too long. I listened to those I was supposed to agree with, and never tried to be, as Rush Limbaugh says, a ‘truth seeker’. Well I am a truth seeker now, I find truth much more often when I listen to Rachel Maddow that I ever did on Rush. I am able to see (on the right) political opportunism, shameless lying, rampant political positioning, and a party leadership that has forfieted all claim to trust.

Nothing has shamed me more than the evangelical groupthink around the Sarah Palin pick. People I used to respect for their strong stand on the family and values have completely abandoned their principles to back someone whom they think offers a slim grasp at victory. I will not participate in it, nor will my church, for which I am thankful. Trust me, the groupthink on the right is not as rampant as you may think. There are those of us that recognize that our so-called conservative and Christian leaders in this country are almost universally bankrupt, and we are outraged and ashamed.

The sins of the right in this campaign and of the last 8 years do not go unnoticed. The racism, the shameless lying, the demeaning, the assumption that the ‘base’ is composed of idiots - I see through these things. I see through the rabid assertions that question patriotism or imply sympathy with terrorism. I see through the thin veneer of declaring ‘victory’ in Iraq. I see the right wing totally ignoring the very real issues we face - the housing crisis, the mortgage meltdown, the looming bank bailout, the sellout of the economy in the name of ‘globalization’. I saw the disregard for fellow humans that was Katrina and its aftermath, even to this day. I see the eroded stature of our nation that 8 years of ‘maverick’ foriegn policy has wrought. We are not stupid.

He’s tired of Republicans, of a party that claims moral values yet couldn’t act with morals if they were paid to do so by lobbyists. Oh, wait, the lobbyists pay all the time, but they’re paying for access. And a whole bunch of them work for John McCain.

Now for the Whack Job, Dana Perino. Yesterday, on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, Dana Perino stated to all the press that Osama bin Laden was not the mastermind behind 9/11, evidently trying to blunt the criticism that the Bush Administration, after seven years, has not captured Osama. Really, the President’s Press Secetary, likely on orders fromt he political types in the White House, claimed that Osama bin Laden was not that important. I am not afraid to call her a whack job, but the mainstream media won’t focus on this, of that I can be sure. From ThinkProgress, with Dana Perino’s exact words from the press conference:

Q But Osama bin Laden is the one that — you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11 –

PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.

I’m expecting John McCain, when pressed on the fact that he’s supported nearly every Bush policy over the last eaight years, will echo these talking points previewed by serial liar Dana Perino. Facts don’t get in the way of these people, after all, as Paul Begala points out in reference to Sarah Palin’s record on the Bridge to Nowhere. From Crooks and Liars:

ROBERTS: That would appear, Paul, to end any argument over whether or not she supported the bridge initially. But why can’t Barack Obama make that point stick?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Because the press won’t do its job, John. I criticized Barack Obama when he hasn’t been tough enough. Barack’s job is to run against John McCain, right. Don’t shoot the monkey when you can shoot for the organ grinder. His job is not to focus on number two but number one. But it is the media’s job when a politician flat out lies like she’s doing on this bridge to nowhere so call her on it. Or this matter of earmarks where she’s attacking Barack Obama for having earmarks, when she was the mayor of little Wasilla, Alaska, 6,000 people, she hired a lobbyist who was connected to Jack Abramoff, who is a criminal and they brought home $27 million in earmarks. She carried so much pork home she got trichinosis. But we in the media are letting her tell lies about her record.

ROBERTS: Hey, OK. We got to let Alex respond to that. Flat out lies, Alex?

ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Let’s be a little gentle. Look, every elected official in this country works under the system we have, which is you try to get a little bit of your tax money back. You just don’t want to leave it all in Washington. The amazing thing about Sarah Palin is when she became governor she actually stood up and said no. And she made it -

BEGALA: That’s not true.

CASTELLANOS: She took a strong stand. That is rare and that never happened.

ROBERTS: All right.

BEGALA: That’s just not true. You know, John, the facts matter. There’s lots of things that are debatable who is more qualified or less experienced or more this or more passionate, whatever. It is a fact that she campaigned and supported that bridge to nowhere. It is a fact that she hired lobbyists to get earmarks. It is a fact that as governor she lobbies for earmarks. Her state is essentially a welfare state taking money from the federal government.

So, everyone in the left end of the Blogzome has chronicled the lies of the McCain campaign, whether they be about Sarah Palin, about a lipsticked pig, which our own Dan DiRito exposed as the same Republican tactics as they used two years ago, or about McCain’s own record. What’s tomorrow’s lie by McCain?

Today will be a bit of a truce in the campaign, or so it is billed. Both Barack Obama and John McCain will attend a ceremony and both will make speeches in which they have promised not to be partisan. Sure, they’ll get a chance to outline their vision for fighting terrorism, but that’s policy, not partisanship. First, if thrown into any situation where he must be spontaneous while at the nationally televised forum at Columbia University, I’m betting McCain goes on a partisan attack. The guy has a temper, after all, and he’ll let loose, no doubt. The trigger will likely be protesters or something. I expect Barack Obama to stand tall and away from partisan attacks, but tomorrow’s lie will be the McCain campain accusing Obama of using the event for partisan purposes. After all, their whole campaign is based on lying about what are facts, and I don’t expect them to give up their central immoral driving force anytime soon. They’ll attempt to make a false controversy out of an event millions of Americans will witness.