In the past month we have discovered the following: Palin told one interviewer that she asked her daughters for permission to accept McCain’s veep offer; she told another that she had accepted the offer immediately and unblinkingly without asking anyone. The first version was, it turned out, a lie. But it sounded good for the 10 seconds needed on national television.

She insisted back in Wasilla that she did not fire the police chief. When the reporter called the cop to check, he read a termination letter, signed by Palin, over the telephone. Despite her claim to Couric, Palin has not met any trade missions from Russia.

She did not oppose the “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska; she lobbied for it. She said she sold a state aeroplane on eBay. She did not. She claimed her Teleprompter failed in her convention speech. It did not. She said Alaska’s state scientists had concluded that polar bears were in no danger. A journalist’s legal request to review the report showed that she had lied and the scientists had indeed said the bear was endangered. Palin said Alaska provided “nearly 20% of the US domestic supply of energy”. It does not. The gas pipeline she touts as her main “mission accomplished” has not broken ground and may never do so. She says she took a pay cut as mayor of Wasilla. She did not. And on and on.

These lies are not in any dispute because they are factually checkable. To avoid any engagement on these subjects and the untruths she has told, she refuses to hold a press conference of any type.

I'VE BEEN VOTING NOT BUSH MY WHOLE LIFE

I CAN SEE RUSSIA FROM HERE.