I think Mitt Romney broke his own recored for telling the most lies this week. I don’t think Steve Benen even had to try that hard to find 30 enormous whoppers. Most of them have to do with statistics and the budget. Some just grossly mischaracterize what the president has said or done. Any way you look at it, though, Mitt Romney routinely lies and gets away with it. I know it’s difficult to maintain a claim of objectivity if you’re constantly forced to point out that Mitt Romney just told a gigantic falsehood, but it’s not objective to just ignore it.
Now, I just watched most of a speech that the president made today in Orlando at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) conference. I didn’t notice him tell one lie or make one gross distortion. I’m not saying he never embellishes anything. I’m just saying that he basically tells the truth about his own record and about what Romney has proposed. I’m sure a dutiful fact-checker could find some stuff to quibble with, but it would all be very minor. Maybe the OMB and CBO disagree about a figure and the president chooses the more favorable one. We’re talking strictly minor-league distortion here. But it’s nothing like Romney saying that his proposals will cut the budget deficit when they will add $5 trillion to the deficit, or Romney saying that eliminating ObamaCare will save a hundred billions dollars when it will actually cost at least that much. Did the president sign free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama this year? Yes? Then why does Romney say that the president hasn’t passed any free trade agreements with Latin America?
Maybe Obama should start a rumor that Romney was born in Mexico and is a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Then we can see if the press calls him a liar.
See, the thing of it is, if Obama has one minor distortion it is the equivalence of 30 whoppers told by Romney, therefore both sides do it so no need to report on it.
And right on time, here’s Glenn Kessler, fact checker at the Washington Post, giving the Obama campaign “4 Pinocchios” for a TV ad about Romney’s days as an outsourcing corporate raider at Bain Capital: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/4-pinocchios-for-obamas-newest-anti-romney-ad/
2012/06/20/gJQAGux6qV_blog.html
And whoops! Another Washington Post reporter basically confirms what Obama was saying and proves Kessler wrong (not that he’ll ever admit it).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved
-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_print.html
It really is aggravating. I’m tempted to start a daily twitter bomb of journo everyday ’til the election, just hastagging #whenwillmediapointoutRomneylies!!!
Sadly though, other than Maddow, O’Donnell, Rev Al, Martin Bashir and Tweety when he’s taken his Obama meds, the majority of the village ain’t doing anything.
It’s likely that we’ll have to wait until the debates when Obama and Biden can point out the many lies that Romney has gotten away with and force the media to fact-check each and every lie.
A daily tweet of Romney lies. I like it.
Andrew Sullivan, too.
But will they all fit into 140 characters?
A little OT, but I was speaking about the media, so I had to post this.
read this story and try not to laugh the description of Politico given.
POLITICO suspends reporter
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/politico-suspends-reporter-mitt-romney.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Speaking of Obama’s speech at NALEO today, this picture might just be the cutest thing ever.
http://twitpic.com/9zag5b
And since McConnell is quick to refer to Mitt as the presumptive leader of the Party now, each Mitt lie requires his respective lemmings to follow suit.
Mitt’s lies, should be a bigger storyline than Bain and offer up sound bytes that beg to become ads. They’re easy to disprove to even the denialist crowd and don’t even require a grammar school degree to comprehend.
Mitt is indeed an empty suit leading a band of ghosts.
Those are the examples that are the most bizarre. What conceivable gain is in lying there in any dimension or possible way?
Who’s gonna care about free trade agreements? Why deny such a minor piece of reality?
Mexico? The SLA?
The press would call for Obama’s impeachment before next Thursday if even a minor volunteer in an obscure community was reported to have said that.
The media for the past two decades has been all about narrative and forget the fact (verifying them is too much work and gets into “how many angels” type semantic arguments). Just look at the hash that Politifact has made.