"Everyone knows the Facts"--except Sen. McCain

I know. The 2008 election is over. McCain lost. He's not our president. I know. But he is a US senator. He was the 2008 GOP presidential candidate. Somehow, I just think he should at least, if he doesn't want to gather facts for himself using The Google, get staff who do.

I completely understand why he thought Abdulmutallab had a one-way ticket, and why he thought that paying cash was so weird--that was the immediate news response. It was only more in-depth reporting later that de-bunked the earlier claims. So if he paid attention to the former, and not the latter, it would result in the hearing-fail you just saw in the clip. What bothers me is that he didn't look into the follow-up information. If the security issue with the Undie-bomber really concerned him (and all kidding aside, it concerns me, too--I've been on the odd intercontinental flight here and there), it just seems like he would want to make sure of his facts before he went out there being so sure of his facts.

This isn't a complete slam on McCain, or his credentials regarding national security issues. I think I want to blog about it as a cautionary tale. With our 24-hour news cycle and constant access to on-line news sources, it is completely too easy to develop an impression about events that is (to follow Stephen Colbert's example of "truthiness"): "facty". Sometimes things that sound plausible get reported as "facts" but aren't--but because of their plausibility, they stick in the imagination. They aren't "facts" because they aren't true. But they have details--sometimes they even have numbers. They're facty "facts". (They can support "truthy" conclusions.)

Thus, the constant struggle to see what really is. Or to break down and use The Google.