Here we find William Saletan and Jacob Weisberg discussing the Republicans' new TV commercial that suggests the Democrats are against fighting terrorists. The discussion makes a good point that Bush's policy of shooting first and looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction later is getting tougher to defend.
The other day on Crossfire, Paul Begala challenged Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri on this ad. He quoted the line that says "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists," then asked Bond twice to name someone who's actually doing that. No names were forthcoming.
Maybe there should be a TV show during elections called "Defend Your Commercial." In it, the producer or candidate would come on and their commercials would be shown. They would be asked to substantiate each claim, and there would be a jury of statisticians to fact-check whatever they said. At the end of the show, a panel would vote on the truthfulness of the ad and would itemize the assertions they felt were false or misleading. The show would also fact-check the commercials of those who refused to come on and defend them. I wonder if a network could refuse to air any spot that declined to submit to this process.