Media finally recognize John McCain has been playing fast and dirty with the truth...

MSNBC's First Read blog carries an overview of some of the more notable media analyses of John McCain and his campaign's resort to distortion, deception, and outright lies -- abuses that caused the steadfastly non-partisan truth-in-politics organization, FactCheck.org to describe McCain's lies and distortions as a "pattern of deceit."

Their quote from the Associated Press' Charles Babbington gives some historic perspective that makes McCain's descent into lie-telling and distortion seem all the more pathetic:

"Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain's skirting of facts has stood out this week. It has infuriated and flustered Obama's campaign, and campaign pros are watching to see how much voters disregard news reports noting factual holes in the claims. McCain's persistence in pushing dubious claims is all the more notable because many political insiders consider him one of the greatest living victims of underhanded campaigning. Locked in a tight race with George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, McCain was rocked in South Carolina by a whisper campaign claiming he had fathered an illegitimate black child and was mentally unstable."

But their quote from Paul Krugman really hits the nail on the head:

“But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful -- you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.”