First helicopters and then restaurants. Why do politicians lie about silly stuff?

On more serious stuff,  pundits have lots of questions about Joe Biden’s assertion that we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanaon and that they advocated NATO deployment: “Is he on drugs?  Exactly when did this kicking occur?  Has anyone alerted Sheikh Nasrallah?” Just imagine if Sarah palin had said that.

And it is not only foreign policy and local color. Yuval Levin takes us through the egregious lying on health and tax policy.

Just in case you were wondering, the networks are wary of their exit polls also.

This ad is precisely what Republicans need. The question remains — why isn’t John McCain saying the same thing? Pro bono ads are available!

And Barney Frank gets heat for a personal conflict of interest. Somehow I think this would be on the front page if it were a Republican.

This stunt — a letter asking Palin to come to Michigan — strikes me as unhelpful. If the campaign made a decision and she won’t go then she looks weak and even worse, insincere in her offer (made in the Carl Cameron interview) to go back to Michigan. If she does go it looks like the campaign is indecisive or inept.

A fun statistic: the Palins gave $8000 to charity in two years. TaxProf notes that this is “over ten times greater (on a percentage basis) than Joe Biden’s miserly charitable contributions.” (The Palins also had much less income than the Bidens.) Someone should ask the VPs if giving to charity is patriotic.

If you like comparisons: “An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night’s debate between the vice presidential candidates.” You mean she didn’t just wink?

David Broder catches Lindsey Graham telling the truth: the McCain camp foolishly tried to hide Palin from view. The good news: it likely hasn’t been and won’t be the deciding factor in the race. The bad news: she could have helped when McCain needed it most.

You knew this ad on Obama’s record on the Born Alive Infants issue coming. It does seem odd that we have gone through two debates with no question on the subject.