THE Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have come under intense pressure over distortions and half-truths.

A dozen columnists and editorials took Senator McCain to task over the weekend over an advertisement that claimed that his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, wanted to "teach children about sex before they can read". Senator Obama supported a bill for sex education in schools from kindergarten to year 12, but the early years of the program focused on stranger danger and inappropriate touching.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe have also carried investigative reports on claims made by Mrs Palin as Alaskan Governor, and during her six years as Mayor of Wasilla, a town of 7000 residents.

They painted a picture of a tyrant prepared to sack long-time staff and surround herself with ill-qualified classmates.

The New York Times reported that one of these, a former real estate agent, was made director of the State Division of Agriculture after citing her childhood love of cows as a qualification. The paper said it had interviewed 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.

Virtually every media group in the country has now concluded that Mrs Palin exaggerated her claim in her acceptance speech that she said "Thanks, but no thanks to the Bridge to Nowhere", a notorious federally funded project that involved building a bridge to a remote island in Alaska.

Throughout the campaign Senator McCain has cited it as the most egregious example of pork-barrel spending.

But while running for governor, Mrs Palin supported the project, which was backed by the Republican senator Ted Stevens. She later withdrew state funding after the project became a liability and its costs blew out.

As for being a cost-cutter, The Boston Globe reported that Alaska's spending had increased substantially under Governor Palin and she had added $US4 billion in new capital projects over two years and salted away $US6 billion in reserves. This was possible because of high oil prices and increased collections from the industry.

And then there are her claims about her overseas travel. The Boston Globe revealed that she made it no further into Iraq than the Kuwait-Iraq border checkpoint to meet troops.

 Senator Obama has set another record in fund-raising, with the campaign reporting it raised $US66 million last month and added another 500,000 donors.

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