Words Matter (Don't They?)

I need to get into bed earlier tonight than I've been doing, so I've just got a couple of things tonight. First of all, it was nice to see Obama respond to Palin's claims about earmarks. The Obama campaign had been following a very defensible strategy of ignoring Sarah Palin, insisting that it was running against McCain at the top of the ticket rather than the candidate for veep, but as she's been getting more and more attention, it's been getting more and more difficult to pay no attention. The response he made was measured and reasonable:

She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up.

Words do mean something. I just hope that makes a difference this year, but any difference it makes will be with the public and not with those running on the Republican ticket. In response to Obama's statement, same claim about the Bridge to Nowhere that's been well debunked by this point: "I told the Congress thanks but no thanks on that 'Bridge to Nowhere.'" She didn't even bother to phrase it any differently than she's done before.

So words matter? I guess we'll find out.