DEMOCRATS ACCUSE MCCAIN OF DECEIVING VOTERS

By AGENCIES
September 15 2008

Democrat Barack Obama went after White House rival John McCain’s core belief in honour and integrity Monday with a new ad accusing the Republican of stooping to deception, sleaze and lies.

The 30-second television spot quoted Mr McCain as saying during his failed bid for the Republican nomination in 2000: “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.”

It then cited an array of media commentaries damning McCain’s own ad onslaught on Obama as being “truly vile,” larded with “dishonest smears” and amounting to the “most disgraceful, dishonourable campaign” yet.

“After voting with (President George W.) Bush 90 per cent of the time, proposing the same disastrous economic policies, it seems deception is all he has left,” the Illinois senator’s ad concluded.

It was a stinging attack on the Vietnam War hero who prizes his own honour and, in 2000, lost the Republican nomination to Bush after a hate-filled campaign leading up the year’s South Carolina primary.

Last week, in one intensely controversial ad, the McCain campaign accused Obama of wanting to teach sex education to kindergarten-aged children.

The bill he voted for

In reality, the bill he voted for as an Illinois lawmaker mandated warnings for young children about sexual predators.

The Democratic National Committee meanwhile launched a new “online counter” and web page to chronicle the “lies and distortions” of McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

DNC spokesman Damien LaVera cited at least 51 instances of non-partisan organizations crying foul over attacks on Obama from McCain and Palin.

“John McCain’s decision to run one of the most dishonest and dishonorable presidential campaigns in history is one more reason to reject his promise of more of the same failed policies and broken politics,” he said.

Palin is now accused of saying she visited Alaskan troops inside an Iraqi war zone when it emerged her trip was to an Iraq-Kuwait border post.

She is also taking heat for repeatedly saying she blocked a notorious multi-million dollar project to build a bridge to a sparsely-inhabited island in her state, when she initially backed it.