McCain Scoffs at TWI Question On Truthiness

[kevinmc]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Here is what happened at the press conference Sen. John McCain just held -- accompanied by his wife, Cindy, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist -- outside the Marriott Hotel here. After not taking questions for more than a week -- and what a week it was -- the press corps was raring to go. McCain took questions on whether he could fairly criticize the grid-locked Congress, of which he is a part and has been MIA for a long time; the recent negative tone of his campaign, and if the new "The One" video could offend religious voters -- answer: His campaign is just having fun.

There was also one from yours truly -- on what his response was to FactCheck.org's frequent reports that indicate his ads spread false or misleading information. McCain's answer: he literally scoffed, before saying he doesn't "respond to Websites where I don't know what they're talking about" and his campaign has been "fair and balanced" (Shout out: Fox News). He then reaffirmed that he is "very proud" of his campaign before launching into a list of talking points. There you have it folks. He's got no regrets. Quite the opposite. I guess it's safe to infer that McCain stands by everything in his ads, and we can expect more of the same in the future. Here's the full exchange:

Me: Senator, FactCheck.org, the nonpartisan fact-checking Website, has cited nine -- eight or nine -- of your recent ads as containing false or misleading information. I was wondering how you would respond to this, and how do you reconcile it with your pledge to run an honorable campaign?

McCain: I don't respond to Websites that I have no idea what they're talking about. I'm proud of our campaign. We have been fair. We have been balanced, and we have clearly pointed out the differences between myself and Sen. Obama. I’d be glad to go through those with you. He wants higher taxes, I want to keep taxes low. He wants the government to run the health-care system in America. I want the families to make the choice. He says he is opposed to offshore drilling. I am in support of it. We could go down the long list, and those are part of the advertising we’re doing. So I have no idea what a Website is referring to. I’m very proud of our campaign, and it’s very interesting to me that we are now neck-and-neck and pretty well tied. So we’ve got a lot of tough campaigning to go ahead of us.

[FrenchieCat]

1. I saw that.

I wonder when the media is going to start doing follow ups.