At a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday, Barack Obama said, “You know, I’m not going to be making up lies about John McCain.” If true, this represents a new flip-flop in Obama policy, as he’s based a crucial tenet of his campaign on a big fat lie about his opponent. Namely, that John McCain is “willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq.”

McCain actually said he could envision American troops in Iraq for 100 years in a peacetime scenario where, “Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.” But that didn’t stop Obama from repeating the lie over and over again and it didn’t lead the mainstream media to declare Obama’s campaign the most unscrupulous and dishonest bid for the presidency they’ve ever seen. The lie simply gained traction as accepted fact.

As with Obama’s switcheroos on off-shore drilling, the Second Amendment, the embargo on Cuba, Jeremiah Wright, troop drawdowns in Iraq, and so much more, this policy reversal shows evidence of a sharp and ambitious mind learning about responsibility and reality. He should be applauded for adopting this new approach. Let’s hope he sticks to it.