The best part about this story is drawing attention to the very important point that McCain's ad blatantly lied about what was actually a very good policy that Obama supported. The worst part is that it trivializes what is a hugely significant breach of ethics by McCain through the way the story is written. The comments to the source article are also a good read. Whether the downplaying is intentionally malicious or the author's attempt at making the article more infotaining is not clear.

McClatchey has a reputation for getting it right about Iraq and about the abuses of power by the Bush Administration. They are right about this story as well, for all the difference it makes.

This is another in a series of McClatchy fact-check articles that use a referee analogy to grade political ads. This one employs a review of legislation, previous attacks and earlier Obama statements to debunk the McCain claim that Obama supported comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners. While I believe that it is good journalism, I question the impact that fact-checks have on the electorate. Joseph Goebbels is credited with observing that if you tell a lie often enough, people believe it -- and that apparently worked for the Nazis.

I am trying to think of a McCain/Palin ad that was completely truthful. If all they can do is lie and accuse, won't people see that.

A tongue-in-cheek censure of the McCain campaign's distortion of Obama's voting record on K-12 sex-ed. The McCain campaign falsely claims that Obama voted in support of 'explicit' sex-ed for kindergarteners and this author criticizes them using a sports-penalty analogy.

Funny story on an un-funny topic. Political mud sticks. So, despite the fact that the charge is false, and the media is thankfully stepping up to the plate to do their job and unmask the lies, the charge will stick. Wish I knew a way to change that. Because the article is right, it's unsportsmanlike conduct. And no way to run a democracy.

This is one "below-the-belt" dirty trick from the McCain-Palin campaign that can't go unnoticed. This story covers it relatively well, although there are other, darker, racist implications in McCain's ad which are completely out of bound. Personally I liked the way the Huffington Post covered it better.

The neocons are using the big lie technique to try to smear the most decent candidate in decades. It is part of the Rove attack philosophy to attack a person's strengths and try to protray them as weaknesses. In this case they are doing it by using lies and distortion of the worst sort. Talev calls them out on it. The humor may make it more palatable for some readers, but more outrage would seem appropriate.

Well presented article.

Seems to me that Obama voted for sex eduction. I'm not sure what the difference is between age appropriate and comphrensive. Also the ad criticized Obama for being a slave to the teachers' union. Obviously Obama will never reform education if he takes his cues from the teachers' unions.

I hope everyone reads this article and sees the nasty "Karl Rove- Politics as usual" that John McCain is using. And McBush has the AUDACITY to talk about his "honor!" He seems to think that since he was a POW FORTY YEARS AGO, he deserves a free ride to the White House. Well, give him enough rope to hang himself, because that's exactly what he's doing. Both he and his "third wife" are going to lose....or was it his "soul mate?" OR was Joe Lieberman his "soul mate?" I keep forgetting.

I think that this story is a good source of journalism. It was very timely to get on top of the story regarding the newest anti-Obama ad from McCain. I think it's an important piece of good journalism for various reasons. For one, it shines the light on an, I feel, important Obama policy regarding sex education. Children deserve to know how reproduction happens and deserve to know how to protect themselves from those looking to exploit them. For another, I feel that it is the job of the media to filter the ads, comments and so on from the candidates to fact check them, and inform the voting public of any lies, mistruths or half-truths they are releasing into the public discussion. I think that it is important to point out that ... More »

Short and to the point. Focuses on facts, instead of trying to achieve a false sense of "balance" by quoting lots of surrogates and turning it into a he-said-she-said story.

I think that it is okay for kindergartners to know something about sex education. The whole abstinence thing that President Bush is preaching is not working at all. Young people are still having sex and having babies in the United States. Take Sarah Palin's daughter for instance she is 17 with a child on the way. What does she know about taking care of a baby? Even her mom said that the whole family is behind her because she knows that it is hard. So I don't understand why young children can't know about sex on their level. They know more than we think that they know. Its all in the media these days. There are not predators in person but they are even online now. If we teach children early what to do about them but the time ... More »