It seems like just yesterday that every media outlet within the country would have you believing that Senator Obama was going to be the next President of the United States, and that he would win the election in a major landslide.  Now with about a month and a half before Election Day, many major polls show Senator McCain leading Senator Obama, including today's Gallup Tracking Poll which has McCain leading Obama by a margin of 48-47% (Source Gallup Polling).  It seems that Senator Obama's fall from grace is the result of a culmination of many individual factors aligning against him all at once.

The first factor is: The Sarah Palin Effect -  Aside from the timing of announcing her as the VP nominee (during Obama's convention) I really didn't believe that Sarah Palin would do much for McCain's campaign.  I figured what would a relatively unknown governor from Alaska bring to the ticket?  Not having too much pride, I can readily admit that I was wrong on all counts about Sarah Palin.  Not only has Sarah Palin delivered a boost to Senator McCain, in my estimation she delivered a key to the White House.  The Sarah Palin effect started before she was even announced as McCain's running mate, it started the day Obama selected his VP nominee, Joe Biden.  The Hillary Clinton supporters, especially the females, who expected Obama to pick her as VP, took the snub as a slap in the face and became even more disenchanted to Obama.  When McCain announced that he was picking Sarah Palin as his VP nominee, it gave many of the females who supported Clinton a female to align themselves with in this race.  Furthering her impact on the ticket, Sarah Palin helped to unite the Republican party.  Senator McCain alone did not appeal to many Republicans, especially the more conservative breed, however, with Sarah Palin on board it helps that more conservative Republicans support this ticket.

While on the topic of Vice Presidental nominees, Joe Biden - Why Senator Obama selected Joe Biden

Since securing the presumptive Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama has released his first campaign ad entitled "Country I Love". In the ad, Senator Obama discusses his values and then uses his legislative record to illustrate his values in action. In the ad, he says "That’s why I passed laws moving people from welfare to work, cut taxes for working families and extended health care for wounded troops who’d been neglected." While reading that line, the advertisement shows bills that were passed relating to what he is reading. (See Video Below)



When he mentions "[extending] health care for wounded troops who'd been neglected." The ad references Public Law 110-118, which started out as bill H.R. 4986, as a law that he helped pass to ensure that wounded troops got the care that they needed. Which is a bill I myself support, and am grateful that it passed 91-3. However 91 + 3 = 94; meaning 6 Senators didn't vote, guess who was one of the 6? Senator Obama. (Source: U.S. Senate)

This wouldn't be such a major issue to me had the ad been put out by a 527 group or a P.A.C., but the fact that it was released by Senator Obama's campaign directly (Sen. Obama approves the message at the end of the video) shows that Senator Obama is willing to lie to the American people about his record in order to gain votes.

It is my belief that everyone is entitled to mistakes every now and then and I would be more than willing to write this fallacy off as a mistake, had one of the two conditions been true: 1) If Senator Obama acknowledged it as a mistake or 2) If Senator Obama hadn't shown the tendency to lie previously. The first condition has yet to be seen and the second condition can never be the case considering that this isn't the first time that Senator Obama has lied to the American people.

The most notable case of Senator Obama misleading the American people is his flip-flop on campaign financing. In a November 2007 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire released by the Midwest Democracy Network, Senator Obama is asked if he will forgo private funds in favor of public funds if the Republican nominee accepts public funding as well. Senator Obama replies "Yes" and that he is a "long-time advocate of public financing" and if he is the Democratic nominee that he will "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election". (Source: Midwest Democracy Network, Question I-B) However, fast-forward to June 2008, and Senator Obama is opting out of the publicly-funded campaign system in favor of private funding, even though Senator McCain has already stated that he will go with the publicly-funded money. (Source: CBS News) The fact that Senator Obama's words are so ductile should give the American people a good idea of how Senator Obama's character is.

Senator Obama's lies in terms of finances do not end with his flip-flop on public financing either. In April of this year, USA Today released an article which showed that Senator Obama's fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million to lobby the federal government in 2007, and that those 38 members of his fundraising team pledged to raise a combined $3.5 million for Senator Obama's Presidential campaign. (Source: USA Today) This of course contradicts his frequent mantra that he's the only candidate to not accept money from lobbyists. I'm sure Senator Obama knows where his campaign money is coming from, especially when it is as substantial as $3.5 million, the fact that he feels the need to lie about where his campaign money is coming from is an insult to the American people.

The question I have (and my subsequent answer) is: Why does Senator Obama feel the need to lie? My theory is that he lies because he knows he can do it without any scrutiny from the media. The fact of the matter is, there is a liberal bias within the media today, and the opinion of the American people backs up that sentiment. In a poll conducted by Sacred Heart University, Americans found CNN (44.9% of voters), the New York Times (41.9%), National Public Radio (40.3%) and MSNBC (38.8%) to be "mostly or somewhat liberal". The poll also found that 45.4% of Americans found broadcasters and journalists in general to be mostly or somewhat liberal. The only news outlet to be voted as "mostly or somewhat conservative" was Fox News with 48.7% of Americans agreeing that it was "mostly or somewhat conservative". Ironically, in the same poll it was also voted the most trusted news network for accurate reporting. (Source: Sacred Heart University) With this known bias amongst the media, Senator Obama knows that he's got the media on his side and that they would never go after him for his lies. So as long as he's going to keep getting a free pass from the media, he will keep lying and twisting his words in order to secure votes based on empty promises and false pretenses, which is why the American people will need to look beyond the media in order to get the full story on Election 2008 and its candidates.