The XX Factor: What women really think.

Those Mythical Mobs

Of all the newly revealed McCain camp lies, I think I love best the fact, as reported by Bloomberg, that they are evidently fibbing about crowd sizes at McCain-Palin rallies. I love it both because it’s so desperate—like inflating a movie’s box office—but also because the irony of the strategy here is so palpable: 1) Slam the Obama campaign for being a cult of celebrity. 2) Try to create your own celebrity. 3) Fail. 4) Lie.

Unlike the growing heaps of fabrications about Gov. Palin’s record—the bridge to nowhere; the earmarks; the trip to Iraq that never was; the trip to Ireland (“plain or unleaded?”)—we can actually attack the fake crowd stats without attacking Palin herself. The McCain camp has been chuffing ahead with all the lies, confident that they can make up whatever they want about Palin’s experience, and then attack anyone who questions that pretend experience as a raving sexist. Classic smoke bomb. But you can ask about fake crowds without being accused of assailing the Porcelain Pit Bull, right? Stay tuned.