Steven Waldman

Is The Ninth Commandment* A Lesser One?

Monday September 15, 2008

Several conservatives have been willing to criticize McCain for his dishonest campaign ads. Rod Dreher said the McCain lipstick ad was "totally unfair, and a distortion." Senator Orrin Hatch agreed that Obama wasn't calling Palin a pig: "I'm sure he...
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Comments
frgough
September 15, 2008 6:57 PM

The lipstick on a pig comment was a deliberate double entendre. It seems the only one who didn't get it is liberal bloggers. Obama's audience certainly got it.

Lyn Kelly
September 15, 2008 11:08 PM

I'm becoming so tired of politics and can't wait until this all over. I really was hoping we would not have another candidate that believes that Jesus Christ is coming back in their life time. Or that because of the spelling another candidate last name and the fact that this candidate has exposure more just the US, he's a "Muslim". BTW why would that be a sin in this so-called country that has freedom of religion to have someone as president who is a Muslim?

Jim
September 16, 2008 2:35 AM

Thank you for writing a much needed article! Maybe the writers at GetReligion will read it.

Without truth Christianity is meaningless.

Obama has stretched some fact; however, McCain/Palin false statements are unbelievable. McCain surrogates go TV and aggressively push lies despite others exposing the falsity of what they are saying. A few media have started getting more aggressive with the blatant lies.

http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Count_the_Lies

Robin
September 16, 2008 7:30 AM

I guess thou shalt not kill is not on your list of commandments since Obama voted against helping children of botched abortions live. No matter where you stand on the "when life begins debate" when a baby sucks in air it's alive and human. If you let that child die that is murder. Obama voted four times against letting those children live. No my kind of person.

Bryan Morton
September 16, 2008 7:43 AM

The Republocrat candidates must keep up the circus in order to distract us from the real problems they've caused over the last 100 years - Inflation, caused by the Federal Reserve's printing of fiat currency, which had devalued the dollar by 95% since its inception in 1917, an enormous national debt, $9 trillion to which they admit, and over $45 trillion when you include the unfunded liabilities of Socialist Security and Medicare, the building of an empire which costs billions of dollars and American lives as well as the destruction of lives and wealth overseas, an expensive drug war which by all standards has failed miserably as prohibition always does, an erosion of rights including the right to freedom of association in the market place, the suspension of Habeas Corpus, no knock searches, and theft by Eminent Domain.

It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The Republocrats have been violating our trust and driving this country to ruin since before any of us were born, and yet we continue to go to the polls and vote for them thinking this time, yeah, this time it'll be different. Yeah, this guy won't be like the others. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we continue to let them rule us to death. It REALLY is time for change. This time around, please, for the sake of this country and the future and our kids, please don't vote Republocrat. Write in Mickey Mouse if you must, but don't vote Republocrat.

Linda
September 16, 2008 3:55 PM

Robin,

You are wrong about "Obama voted against helping children of botched abortions live." It is a lie being spread by the McCain campaign.

Does Obama Support the Killing of Infants? (Kmiec on the Born Alive Bill)
http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/09/does-obama-support-the-killing.html


RG
September 17, 2008 12:29 AM

It's a sad thing to see, but there was a article in Slate that stated that McCain is gaining in the polls simply because he's lying, and Obama needs to lie more. It went on to say -since there's no penalty for lying , the problem is that Obama simply needs to lie enough to catch up, which would take a lot of doing.

This is what it's come to. During the Clinton years, smearing him was an industry, and a busy one. He was accused of murder, molesting his daughter, and pretty much anything anybody could make up. And it had a decided effect. Then Bush came in , and soon the press was being told 'you'd better watch what you say.'

And the McCain campaign has just carried on in this tradition. Lying to the press, and bullying the press, has become the game. They have carried lying farther than any campaign in living memory.

The bearing of false witness is not a sin to many people now. More like a job description. The Republicans have carried this as far as they can go, and it's sickening to watch them do this and then talk about the culture of life and what Christians they are.

Do Democrats lie? Yes, they do , but to compare the two is like the difference between doing 75 mph on the freeway, and doing 130. The Republicans are simply going all out , with no restraint at all. They act like the person who knows the police won't pull them over no matter what they do.

Ann T.
September 17, 2008 6:40 AM

Mr. Waldman, yours is the first article I have found on this. And I wonder why? I am a Christian too, but not a "joiner". I do however believe the Bible is the word of God. It amazes me that the Religious Right has no conscience problem about bearing false witness - not even the "leaders" (I use the term loosely). While parading their religion, they have none. They are frauds. The Bible says, "by their fuits you will know them". Intentional, systematic, continual strategic liars can not be Christian. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. They also don't seem to notice, that whatever faults others may have, they are not setting themselves up as the arbiters and enforcers of morality. Abortion is something no one likes, but no one intentionally, continually has them - the way these liars lie. They should pull the beam out of their own eye. Secular Americans see right through this lying-fraud, and then it's wondered why they're not interested in hearing about being saved? I'm quite sure God is not mocked either. They are the prostituted hybrid of political power and the church. They should be ashamed. Instead, they're arrogant. But we were told of this 2,500 years ago, and described perfectly. "Come out from among her my people... "

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