Leave it up to our British friends to tell us what we already know; John McCain is a liar.

Call it the reverse Al Gore syndrome. Gore, you'll recall, had a reputation for being an exaggerator. Consequently, it was - and is - considered acceptable for journalists to note that Gore falsely claimed he had invented the internet even though he never said any such thing. By contrast, John McCain is a known straight-talker - so if he lies it's ok.

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has argued, for example, that "McCain's true virtue is that he is a lousy politician. He is not a convincing liar, and when he adopts positions that are not his own, they infect him, sapping him of what might be called integrity energy." Indeed, it might be called that. Alternatively, pundits could note that whether or not McCain's lying convinces people is going to have less to do with whether or not the Richard Cohen's of the world personally find it convincing than with whether or not major media organisations like the Washington Post clear up the record. Cohen, clearly, is determined not to - waiting just three paragraphs after acknowledging McCain's dishonesty to proclaim him a man who "staked his life on his principles."

Under the circumstances, it's no wonder that McCain has decided that lying all the time is a good strategy. Sometimes the lies are trivial as when he was asked about a line from his disastrous June 9 "green screen" speech, and then told the reporters who asked about it that he'd cut the line even though he delivered it and the correct text is available on his campaign's website but nobody in the press noticed.

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If it isn't ouright lying, it might be that he can't remember from one day to the nezt what he said the day before. Memory loss would be even more troubling--early Alzheimers? Reagan had that problem with Iran/Contra.

"I can't recall"

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