John McCain is leading Barack Obama in the Gallup Poll for the first time since they’ve gone head-to-head. Americans are upset at the democrats for going after Sarah Palin so hard – that’s why McCain picked her, so she could play the victim; and it’s worked perfectly. Americans are also succumbing to the barrage of McCain attacks that Obama will raise taxes. There is no basis in fact to support this claim. According to the plans set forth by both camps, unless you’re in the top 1%, McCain’s policies will mean higher taxes for you.

But politics is all about perception, and McCain has been flooding the airwaves with this:

Virtually every word and every image in this commercial is false. Other bloggers have done a fine job of going point by point comparing the candidate’s economic plans, so there’s no need for me to be redundant. But one thing has been overlooked by my friends, or possibly it’s so obvious no one’s felt the need to address it.

See the old white guys representing the tax-and-spend democrats in Washington? Well, gues what? They were all on the job back when we HAD a balanced budget, under President Clinton. Before Bush’s irresponsible tax cuts for the richest of the rich. The tax cuts Maverick McCain once opposed, but Candidate McCain now wants to make permanent.

The facts couldn’t be any plainer. Barack Obama will keep your taxes lower, significantly cut the deficit, and grow the economy. John McCain will keep the richest of the rich’s taxes lower, increase the deficit and ride our economy further into the ground. But politics is all about perception, and the GOP knows how to manufacture a lie and sell it to the American people.

And way too many Americans are gullible enough to believe those republican lies.