The Sept. 11 memorial bells chimed with beautiful clarity Thursday, from Shanksville, Pa., to ground zero and beyond, a reminder of tragedy and our nation's real enemies.
What a welcome respite, that serene sound, after days of presidential politics that roared and sputtered with a cacophony of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.
It got so bad the day before the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that FactCheck.org -- one of the nonpartisan journalism websites heroically trying to strain truth amid all the sound and fury -- had to put out an extraordinary news release.
It chastised John McCain's campaign for -- now get this -- distorting FactCheck's debunking of distortions.
News organizations and these admirable truth-squadding outfits, including PolitiFact.com, do not collaborate. But in independent news reports and commentaries this week, they seemed to reach a consensus to say "enough" to the McCain camp's efforts to demonize Barack Obama.
I'm not saying that Obama hasn't told a few whoppers -- like suggesting McCain's proposed corporate tax breaks are tailored specifically for oil companies or that his opponent seriously believes anyone making under $5 million is middle-class.
But it's McCain and his foot soldiers who have really fouled the election airwaves in recent days, provoking the first flickerings of a backlash from the media.
Give credit to PolitiFact.com -- an online endeavor operated by Florida's St. Petersburg Times along with Congressional Quarterly -- for unequivocally knocking down one of the McCainites' biggest fabrications in recent days. You know, the one where Obama supposedly called Republican V.P. nominee Sarah Palin a pig.
For the half-dozen of you who haven't heard about this kerfuffle: It began this week when Obama belittled McCain's suggestion that McCain would bring change to Washington.
"That's not change," Obama told a responsive audience. "That's just calling something -- the same thing -- something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig."
McCain operatives puffed themselves up with outrage about Obama's "sexism." Then they released a Web advertisement, disingenuously flashing text on the screen -- "Barack Obama on: Sarah Palin" -- while cutting to Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark.
As noted on PolitiFact, the ad gives no context for Obama's remark -- context that made it clear the Democrat was belittling McCain's claim that he is an agent of change.
