Two of McCain/Palin’s most effective (and vile) smears about Obama are
are that he voted to raise taxes on those making $42,000 a year, and
that he voted to “cut off funding for our troops in the field.” Obama
refuted McCain on the later in the first debate, but he let the second
one slide. Obama can learn a lot from Biden about how to diasrm this
line of attack.

First on taxes:

The charge is absolutely not true. Barack Obama did not vote to
raise taxes. The vote she’s referring to, John McCain voted the exact
same way. It was a budget procedural vote. John McCain voted the same
way. It did not raise taxes. Number two, using the standard that the
governor uses, John McCain voted 477 times to raise taxes. It’s a
bogus standard.

Now, on funding for the troops:

With regard to Barack Obama not quote funding the troops, John
McCain voted the exact same way. John McCain voted against funding the
troops because of an amendment he voted against had a timeline in it
to draw down American troops. And John said I’m not going to fund the
troops if in fact there’s a time line. […]

John McCain voted to cut off funding for the troops. Let me say
that again. John McCain voted against an amendment containing $1
billion, $600 million that I had gotten to get MRAPS, those things
that are protecting the governor’s son and pray god my son and a lot
of other sons and daughters. He voted against it. He voted against
funding because he said the amendment had a time line in it to end
this war. He didn’t like that.

These smears are so transparently false, it’s almost suprising that
they’re still repeated ad nauseum. Almost because attacks and smears
are all the GOP has left. The troop funding one really irks me. While
it’s technically true that Obama voted no on a funding bill that
provided money for the troops, he didn’t vote against it on that
basis. Biden did a hell of a job pointing out that McCain “voted
against funding for the troops” too when he voted against the bill
that included a timeline. But that’s a fundamental difference between
Democrats and Republicans. While you can twist and distort a vote to
accuse your opponent of hating the military, the Democrtats choose not
to. I wish McCain’s “honorable” campaign compelled him to adhere to
the same standard.