A Good Time To Lie

One of the big stories today was Senator Claire McCaskill claiming Obama had a huge block of officially undeclared Congressional superdels in his back pocket. We've been hearing these sorts of rumors for a while now, and it's gotten me to thinking, what is the downside of claiming this, even if it's not true? It raises the stakes on undecided superdels and dares them to go out on a limb and back a probable loser. Sure, if it turns out to be a bunch of baloney, Obama loses credibility. But if it turns out to be a bunch of baloney (and in fact he has very little support from remaining undeclared Congressional superdels) he's probably lost anyway.

What's the downside?