You can always tell when you've scored points against a liberal candidate. He and his minions, following the combined examples of Bill Clinton and John Kerry, immediately assume counterattack mode — rather than addressing the allegations — and accuse the accusers of "Swiftboating," by which they mean smearing with false charges.

John Kerry's handlers adopted the technique when Kerry's fellow Swift boat veterans unveiled his true military record after Kerry brazenly made his record an essential campaign issue. They attempted to turn the table on the truthful Swiftees by painting them as liars.

The episode proved that the mainstream media will go to any lengths to save a floundering Democratic presidential campaign, including conspiring to manufacture a new word for our political lexicon designed to discredit and silence the accusers. Henceforth, "Swiftboating" would describe the untrue smearing of a political opponent.

The irony and injustice is that the Swiftees — not John Kerry — owned the truth. Never did Kerry or the mainstream media refute any of their allegations. But the Swiftees did expose Kerry — objectively — as having lied about his record in a surprising number of particulars. Kerry never even attempted to answer the allegations, despite repeatedly promising that he would. He didn't because he couldn't. The only option left open to him was to launch a diversionary and fraudulent counterattack.

Which brings us to the present campaign. The Democratic Party, acting like a man in heat who is driven by anything but his rational mind, lusted after Barack Obama and made him its nominee when it should have known better.

Even before the primary season was over, it was obvious not only that Obama was an unknown quantity but also that what we did know about him was very troubling. And many Democratic primary voters were beginning to realize it, which is why Hillary Clinton won the majority of the late-term primaries.

Every week, a new disturbing revelation surfaces about Obama, each arguably more damaging than its predecessor. Having no substantive response, Obama and the liberal media are reduced to accusing the McCain forces of dirty politics, when any reasonable person knows there is nothing unfair about exposing your opponent's character flaws and policy weaknesses.

Increasingly, these desperate Obama defenders have been accusing McCain of Swiftboating Obama, which signals that McCain has been scoring heavily with incontrovertible allegations.

The most damning one yet is Obama's disgraceful record on abortion. Obama enabled infanticide while in the Illinois legislature and has been dissembling about it.

David Fredosso, author of the excellent new book "The Case Against Barack Obama," points out that Obama has repeatedly made the false claim that he only spoke out against an Illinois bill that would have recognized premature abortion survivors as "persons" because it would have negatively affected Roe v. Wade. Yet "every single version of the bill was neutral on Roe. Each one affected only babies already born, not ones in the womb."

Obama's own words, circulating in transcript form and on YouTube, are even more incriminating, as he articulates his opposition to the bill seeking to protect a baby born alive as a result of a botched abortion. "Essentially, adding an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation to come in and make these assessments is really designed simply to burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion."

Translation: Obama will not theoretically burden a woman's right to abort her child, but he will actually burden an already-born infant's chances of surviving.

Obama is so slavishly obedient to the abortion lobby's cultish protection of a woman's right to terminate her own offspring's life, that he opposed measures designed to protect an already-born baby's chances to survive. And you wonder why we say pro-abortion liberals have made abortion a ritualistic religious sacrament!

On "Hannity & Colmes," Democratic strategist Bob Beckel indignantly stated: "Are you suggesting Barack Obama wants babies to die? … I've never thought the Republicans would go this far. … This is about as low as you can go."

Yes, Bob. Barack Obama was the only member of the Illinois Senate to speak against a bill that would have granted legal protection to already-born babies still alive after a failed abortion. He used his power to prevent those innocent babies from having the best chance to survive. The evidence speaks for itself. It doesn't get much colder than that.

In the face of this latest smoking gun, Obama and his beleaguered defenders have no arrow left in their quiver except to attack their accusers and label them as "Swiftboaters."

Because Swiftboating really amounts to truth telling, the targets of those accusations should consider this an affirmation that the Obama forces know the charges are true.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His book "Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party" was released recently in paperback. To find out more about David Limbaugh, please visit his Web site at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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