Obama Takes First Direct Shot At Palin.

I talked yesterday about how many of the things which Sarah Palin claimed during her speech to the Republican Convention were simply false.

She did not sell a jet on Ebay.

She was not against earmarks.

She did not oppose the bridge to nowhere.

Now, Obama has taken his first punch at the lies which Palin pushed when speaking to the convention.

Speaking to 800 people at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds in Terre Haute, Ind., the Democratic presidential nominee ridiculed John McCain and his running mate, the Alaska governor, for describing themselves as agents of change at this week's GOP convention.

"Don't be fooled," Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. "John McCain's party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge" for nearly eight years.

"I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she's change, and that's great," Obama said. "She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up."

McCain has vowed to wipe out earmarks, which are targeted funding for specific projects that lawmakers put into spending bills. As governor, Palin originally supported earmarks for a controversial Alaska project dubbed the "bridge to nowhere." But she dropped her support after the state's likely share of the cost rose. She hung onto $27 million to build the approach road to the bridge.

There has been much debate amongst the Democrats as to how to deal with Palin whilst avoiding the charge of sexism. Personally, I think Palin has already told enough lies to hang herself and that Obama's team only need to point out that almost nothing this woman claims is true.

And the very fact that the Republicans are still keeping her as far away from the press as they can proves that they are unsure of how she will deal with hostile questions and fear that she might blow their campaign into smithereens if allowed examination by the national press rather than the local boys that she is used to.

Obama then turned to McCain and his recent discovery that he is actually an agent of change:

"And suddenly he's the change agent? Ha. He says, 'I'm going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.' Who is he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who's one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington?"

"I mean, come on, they must think you're stupid," Obama said as the crowd laughed and cheered.

I noticed during McCain's dreadful speech that what he promised to change was Washington and the way it works, rather than the results which Washington produces, because deep down McCain is perfectly happy with the Iraq war and the current economic outlook.

It's ironic that the man who used to attack Obama as being "just words" now employs the most vapid rhetoric of anyone else in this entire election cycle.

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Tags: Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin, US election 2008, change