Is It the Truth McCain Has Utter Contempt for? Or Simply Our Ability to Pay Attention?

Grandpa Absolute 100 Percent Truth McCrankypants was on fire this morning, flinging out four or five not exactly true statements about his mavericky leadership and Barack Obama's total suckage on the economic crisis in the span of under thirty seconds on Fox News and then CNN This Morning.

"I suspended my campaign, took our ads down, came back to Washington, met with the House folks and got on the phone, and also had face-to-face meetings."

No, you didn't. You said you were suspending your campaign on Thursday night, but you went ahead and gave what amounted to a stump speech to the Clinton Global Initiative on Friday morning, and your ads countinued to run everywhere. You did come back to Washington... 22 hours after you said you would depart immediately. From New York.

"I came back and suspended my campaign and got the House into the negotiations at the table, which they had not been before. We were able to get a large increase in the number of Republicans who voted for it.

Except that it's a Senate bill, and Senate Republicans were not the sticking point in the original bill's failure. That would be the House Republicans, who have yet to take up the new Senate measure. Your coming back to Washington did little but turn what had been a weeklong process, culminating in a done deal, into a political circus blown up by grandstanding House Republicans.

McCain said Obama's approach was to "phone it in" -- in regards to working with congressional leaders.

Sort of like... you did, when you spent most of your time on the phone from your Arlington condo--when not dining with Joe Lieberman, of course--rather than stalking the halls of Congress showing the kind of in-your-face leadership that has led most of the people in your own party to loathe you?

So "I suspended my campaign" means whatever John McCain wants it to mean, even when the reality that translates to is more along the lines of "I said I suspended my campaign, the Couric interview and CGI speech and numerous statements that I was putting Country First^TM by myself and my surrogates notwithstanding." Just like everything else, repeat it enough times and the American voter will start to repeat it in his sleep. John McCain suspended his campaign! Barack Obama will raise taxes on everyone making $42,000! Sarah Palin said thanks but no thanks!

Always completely 100 percent double-dog truthful, that John McCain. How do I know? Because he says so, that's how.