False advertisement is illegal, isn't it? So I don't understand why political ads aren't under the same rules. I just received an e-mail from President Bush. Yeah, me and him are buds. Well, okay, actually I signed up on both the Kerry and the Bush campaign sites, so that I could see what they are each telling their supporters.
Mostly, they are asking for money. Kerry has guest e-mailers like Clinton, Howard Dean, and one of the guys that served with him in Vietnam singing John's praises and asking for support.
I haven't been on the Bush list as long, but so far he seems to be continuing the smear tactics against Kerry. Now, instead of exploiting the war and our troops, they are exploiting the gas prices. His latest e-mail is about how Kerry "supported a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax.” He's asking everyone to forward along his attack ad, called "Whacky," which is about how Kerry supported a 50-cent gas tax, supported gas tax increases 11 times, and has this "whacky" idea that taxing gas will make us drive less.
The problem is that, as with their ads claiming Kerry doesn't support our troops, or that he voted against body armor needed in Iraq, this is a complete manipulation and confusion of the facts. It's as close to an outright lie as you can get and still claim that, technically, you were sorta telling the truth in a weird sorta way.
In this case, apparently John Kerry did make a statement about supporting a balanced budget (something Bush obviously knows nothing about) in which he said to do so he would support a recent proposal for a 50-cent gas tax, which would be phased in over multiple years. This was way back when gas was about $1. But in fact, he found other ways to support a balanced budget and never voted for or sponsored such a tax increase.
And the 11 tax increases Kerry supposedly supported are really only a couple of small gas tax increases. The Bush administration was also counting times Kerry didn't vote for removing them, or didn't vote at all.
And Bush's own chief economic advisor actually did support a 50-cent gas tax increase, claiming it would reduce traffic, boost the economy, and reduce global warming (oooh, awkward, especially since the Bush line is that global warming doesn't really exist...).
The Kerry site also rebuts with, among other things, "while they are happy to use the gas tax for political purposes, George Bush and the Republicans have NEVER ONCE supported lowering the gas tax on middle class families, despite the fact that Bush promised to during his 2000 campaign."
Isn't that whacky? Unfortunately, the average voter won't know all this. All they will see is yet another flashy ad that basically lies to them, playing on their fears and the difficult economic times. Way to bring morality and integrity to the White House, George.
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