Perusing various blogs to get reactions to Thursday's vice-presidential debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden it was clear, unsurprisingly, that blogosphere reactions to the candidates coming out of the debate reflected the various views going in to the debate. So if you google "McClennan McKiernan correction" you get over two thousand hits as every pro-Obama blogger felt compelled to point out one of Palin's errors. Meanwhile Pro-McCain bloggers felt compelled to point out Biden's errors (e.g. Hamas won the elections on the West Bank).Actually, these days the candidates don't mis-speak, make errors, or engage in puffery or exaggerations. They "lie", or so would have you believe the multiple blogs that catalog these "lies" and castigate the candidates for "lying." Some few are, in fact, outright lies (Senator McCain especially has been responsible for some egregious misrepresentations), but most often the examples cited are merely the candidates indulging in simplification, exaggeration, hyperbole, or puffery! Ah, but in this era of video someone will find a snippet on YouTube "proving" that the candidate is "lying"!
