John McCain Calls Barack Obama "A Liar"; Disputes Barack Obama's Charge He Bears Responsibility for Economic Fiasco

John McCain, the Republican Presidential nominee, called Barack Obama a "liar" in a campaign stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico. McCain told the crowd, "Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed."

Interestingly, McCain and his campaign staff have been the subject of heavy media coverage of the seeming untruths contained in the McCain campaign ads. Some newspapers have stepped beyond characterizing McCain's charges against Obama as "disingenuous" and have labeled them as out-and-out lies.

John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have decided to try to divert the presidential campaign from its recent focus on economic issues linked to the Wall St. meltdown and resulting bailout by engaging in what Obama has characterized as "Swift Boat" tactics. Swift Boat attacks come from the 2004 campaign by incumbent President George W. Bush and his allies, in which the character and military service record of Democratic nominee John Kerry were ruthlessly attacked, frequently with little basis in truth.

The 2004 campaign was the nastiest since that waged by the first President Bush, George W. Bush's father, against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. The campaign of Vice President George H.W. Bush and its allies openly trucked in racism to attack Dukakis, the unabashedly liberal governor of the liberal Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Many editorial writers have decried that John McCain is seemingly determined to surpass both the 1988 and 2004 campaigns in not just vitriol but in a willing disregard for the truth.