McCain's STILL telling the "she sold the jet on Ebay" lie.
I decided a couple of days ago to Google to look into the notion that Palin sold Alaska's jet on Ebay, as the story sounded far fetched to me, especially as the jet was bought for $2.7 million.
I was interested to find what she got for it as I couldn't imagine anyone making that kind of bid on Ebay.
As I reported in this story it turned out that she didn't sell the jet on Ebay at all, although I noticed at the time that she phrased the claim carefully, "I put it on Ebay", which she did, she simply didn't sell it on Ebay. She simply phrased it in such a way that this would be the inference of what she was saying without actually saying it.
I said at the time:
She also seems to have a strange inability to tell the truth, and a love of narrative that fits in with the kind of Mother Teresa lies which have epitomised the McCain campaign.Now others are catching on to this particular porkie regarding Palin's background:
For instance, she claimed that she put the luxury jet on Ebay, which I hardly think is a sign of good managerial skills, rather it's the kind of rash behaviour that McCain displayed when he hired her.
For what's missing from this story is the fact that she was unable to sell a jet in this stupid manner and that she had to use much more conventional means. But the narrative matters more to Palin than the reality, so "I sold the jet on Ebay" is the very deliberate inference which she implies, whilst carefully choosing her words to give the lie cover.
But in fact, the jet did not sell on eBay. It was sold to a businessman from Valdez named Larry Reynolds, who paid $2.1 million for the jet, shy of the original $2.7 million purchase price, according to contemporaneous news reports, including a story in the New York Times.Indeed, one would think that someone in McCain's staff would have tipped him off to the fact that the story is wrong and she, in fact, sold the plane at a loss. But no, McCain is still telling this lie:
Is it conceivable that McCain doesn't know that this is a lie when he says it? Palin obviously does, which is why she phrases the claim so carefully, but McCain has just come out and told an outright lie. And it's not the first that the McCain camp have been pushing.But that hasn't stopped Palin, or John McCain, from implying -- and, on Friday, claiming outright -- that Palin did sell the jet on the Internet.
"You know what I enjoyed the most? She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay -- and made a profit!
I strongly suspect that McCain also has a love of narrative which exceeds his love of truth. Which is perhaps why Rick Davis is arguing that this election will be fought on the candidates stories, rather than on policy. McCain's whole campaign is the story of his time as a POW. And, both he and his wife have shown that they are not averse to adding a large lump of sugar to a story if it makes the story better.
One of the greatest lies I have ever heard of in any political campaign, and certainly the most cynical, was the one told by Cindy McCain that she adopted a child because she was asked to do so by Mother Teresa. A cynical lie on that scale by Michelle Obama would have sunk the Obama campaign without a trace. And yet not one mainstream paper carried the story, they simply backed away from it.
So, whilst it's nice to see a national newspaper finally expose the lie of the Ebay jet - can someone email a copy of it to John McCain? - it would be really nice to see some scrutiny of the kind of people who would do something as marvelous as adopting a baby from Bangladesh, and introducing her to as fabulous a lifestyle as that enjoyed by the McCain's, but who simply couldn't resist adding the lie that they did so at Mother Teresa's request to give it that added kick to please newspaper editors.
A story like that really would make people consider the McCain's relationship to the truth and how tenuous it can sometimes be.
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