“. . . Biden’s “gravitas” is derived almost entirely from the fact that he can lie with absolute passion and conviction. He just plain made stuff up tonight.” – Jonah Goldberg
I also noticed Biden flat-out lying (or, as Jim Geraghty partially assumes, hallucinating) last night. The McCain campaign quickly produced about 14 instances of what Churchill once called “terminological inexactitude.” Among the bigger whoppers:
1. TAX VOTE: Biden said McCain voted “the exact same way” as Obama to increase taxes on Americans earning just $42,000, but McCain DID NOT VOTE THAT WAY.
2. AHMEDINIJAD MEETING: Joe Biden lied when he said that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmedinijad of Iran. Barack Obama did say specifically, and Joe Biden attacked him for it.
3. OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING: Biden said, “Drill we must.” But Biden has opposed offshore drilling and even compared offshore drilling to “raping” the Outer Continental Shelf.”
4. TROOP FUNDING: Joe Biden lied when he indicated that John McCain and Barack Obama voted the same way against funding the troops in the field. John McCain opposed a bill that included a timeline, that the President of the United States had already said he would veto regardless of it’s passage.
5. OPPOSING CLEAN COAL: Biden says he’s always been for clean coal, but he just told a voter that he is against clean coal and any new coal plants in America and has a record of voting against clean coal and coal in the U.S. Senate. (RWL note: Here’s Biden’s “No coal plants here in America” moment).
And . . .
9. AFGHANISTAN / GEN. MCKIERNAN COMMENTS: Biden said that top military commander in Iraq said the principles of the surge could not be applied to Afghanistan, but the commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force Gen. David D. McKiernan said that there were principles of the surge strategy, including working with tribes, that could be applied in Afghanistan.
Here’s the kicker; Joe played so fast and loose with the truth that McCain’s campaign couldn’t even keep up with them all. Adam Yoshida (my fellow blogger at the Canadian Western Standard) blew apart a Biden assertion about Afghan/Iraq funding:
Biden is telling absurd lies about Afghanistan tonight. In particular, he’s repeatedly claimed that “we’ve spent less in Afghanistan in seven years than we spend in a month in Iraq.”
He’s made that claim, or claims to that effect, repeatedly. It is, to put it bluntly, a complete Goddamned lie.
According to the Congressional Research Service, spending on the war in Afghanistan since 2001 has been $172 Billion. Spending in Iraq is, as the Democrats repeatedly mention, a little under $10 Billion a month.
In other words, Biden’s number is off by, oh, something like 2000%.
Geraghty also has one that caught my ear on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty (rejected by the Senate in 1999, emphasis added):
Biden: “Number two, with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime. John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported.”
I have no idea where Biden gets this “every Republican has supported” claim, as 49 other Republican senators voted ‘no’ with McCain.
When the roll was finally called on October 13, the resolution to ratify the CTBT (including the six safeguards that Daschle had submitted as an amendment) was defeated by a 51-48 vote with one abstention. (See the voting record.) Forty-four Democrats voted for ratification as did four Republicans: John Chafee (R-RI), James Jeffords (R-VT), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). Fifty Republican senators and one independent (Robert Smith of New Hampshire) voted against ratification, and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) voted “present.” The treaty fell 19 votes short of achieving the necessary two-thirds majority necessary for ratification.
I would also note that two of the forty-nine included Biden and Obama’s favorite GOP senators – Chuck Hagel and Dick Lugar.
Lest anyone discount the importance of this, keep in mind the first Bush-Gore debate in 2000. We tend to remember Gore’s haughty demeanor, but he was caught on more than a few questionable statements he made during the exchange. In the days following, Gore became the “serial exaggerator,” and his poll numbers plummeted.
