Attack Ads Prove GOP Needs 'Education' in Straight Talk

Two ads from the McCain camp and one from the Republican National Committee represent the worst in presidential politics: lies, distortions and Rovian distractions of the most despicable kind. Maybe these tactics will work; they surely did the candidates Bush no harm. But McCain, who has campaigned as rejecting politics as usual, invokes them at his own peril. For one thing, the video-juxtaposition war is one McCain-Palin will lose; they don't want a battle of flip-flops. More to the point, though, there are flip-flops on policy, and then there are flip-flops on principle. You will recall, in his acceptance speech, Sen. McCain told of his humiliation and self-loathing, when after years of heroic defiance against his Vietnamese jailers, he finally signed a phony, coerced confession. Isolation and torture had broken his resolve, and he was blameless. Now, it appears that nothing more is required to break him than presidential ambition. And this time, the confession is not coerced: "I'm John McCain, and I approve this message."