by Evie Stone

This morning the McCain campaign released an ad called "Original Mavericks" (as an aside, can two different people really both be the "original" at something, 30 years apart?) highlighting, as the release puts it, the ways that "John McCain and Governor Palin have used their careers to bring change."

CBS (among others) points out that the article this ad cites when it says Palin "stopped the bridge to nowhere" doesn't actually say that she stopped the bridge to nowhere. It describes Palin's reform efforts, but what it actually says about the bridge project is that she asked her administration to "seek fewer congressional earmarks after Alaska's 'bridge to nowhere' became a national symbol of pork barrel spending." In fact, it's been widely reported that she had supported the funding request during her gubernatorial campaign. And as NPR's own Peter Overby reported last week, Palin did officially cancel the bridge project, but she still took the federal money — and has used it on other transportation projects in Alaska.

Those pesky facts haven't stopped the McCain campaign, a parade of convention speakers, and Palin herself from repeating the claim that she opposed the bridge earmark. Similarly, the campaign has repeatedly misrepresented Barack Obama's tax plans for the middle-class, and his stance on Iran, despite a smorgasboard of fact-checking evidence to the contrary. Don't get us wrong — we appreciate that spin is part of the game both teams are playing. But these repeated distortions seem awfully...brazen.