McCain this morning on the economy:

The man most responsible for the financial services and banking deregulation that made today possible, fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm, is the man John McCain wants to put in charge of the whole economy.

Gov. Sarah Palin still won’t say whether she endorses the re-election of her state’s GOP stalwarts: Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young.

Remember Joe Biden? He’s got some pointed new rhetoric on what McCain’s campaign tactics say about the way he will govern. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

As Greg Sargent reports, the Obama campaign is launching its first ad hitting McCain for his lying and his mendacious adver-sleazements.

Now Army Times finds another McCain lie.

Edsall ….

The McCain campaign, in running TV ads which defy prior political standards, is gambling that the traditional rules governing what is permissible in presidential contests — as defined by the mainstream media — can safely be discarded this year.

The normally cautious and even-handed Associated Press on Thursday declared, “Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain’s skirting of facts has stood out this week.” The controversies have surrounded McCain television commercials and stump speeches asserting that Barack Obama “supports” comprehensive sex education in kindergarten, that Obama called Sarah Palin a “pig in lipstick,” and that Palin stood firmly against the “bridge to nowhere” — despite videotape evidence that the Alaskan governor provided support for the earmark before she opposed it.

So far, based on polling over the past two weeks, McCain’s roll of the dice has paid off. Not only has McCain made substantial gains, pulling modestly ahead in most national polls, but his assaults on Obama appear to have damaged the Democratic Party as well, raising Republican hopes of minimizing House and Senate losses.

The Obama campaign has now clearly taken the leap into openly attacking John McCain for the series of lies and fraudulent statements he and his campaign have now told over the previous two weeks. The evidence is beyond question and even mainstream news organizations which place balance over accuracy in reportage have confirmed his deceptions. Presumably they will soon move to the obvious and more consequential corollary. If voters can’t trust John McCain to tell the truth about even the most basic facts of the campaign, how can they trust him when he says he’s going to bring change?