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It was heartening that Mitt Romney's habitual dishonesty generated far more attention than usual this week, but the scrutiny doesn't appear to have discouraged the Republican frontrunner, who had an incredibly mendacious week.
Indeed, Jamelle Bouie noted the other day, Romney "is running against policies that haven't happened and an Obama that doesn't exist. Exaggeration is normal in politics, but this goes beyond garden-variety embellishment."
To help drive the point home, take a look at the 11th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. Unfortunately, it's one of the longest editions to date.
1. Romney argued this week, "There's no question that when [President Obama] ran for office, he said he wanted to see gasoline prices go up."
2. Romney told Fox News, "[President Obama] said that energy prices would skyrocket under his views and he selected three people to help him implement that program: the secretary of energy, the secretary of the interior, and the EPA administrator."
That's not even close to being true.
3. Romney also told Fox News' Bret Baier this week about President Obama, "This is a president [who] simply does not have experience in tough situations."
That's ironic coming from a coddled multi-millionaire from a powerful, wealthy family, but it's also blatantly untrue. Obama has experience leading the nation during a time of multiple ongoing crises. Love him or hate him, the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the strikes on bin Laden and al Qaeda, and the offensive in Libya count as "tough situations" -- tougher than anything Romney has ever seen in his entire life.
4. In reference to Iran, Romney told Fox News, "It's quite clear that the president wants to avoid in any way a discussion about a military option."
It's quite clear Romney's not telling the truth. Obama recently told AIPAC, in a speech Romney heard and critiqued, "I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power: A political effort ... a diplomatic ... an economic effort ... and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency."
5. In making the case against the Affordable Care Act, Romney said, "Now we find out from the Congressional Budget Office that [Obama administration officials] underestimated its costs -- multiple trillions of new federal spending is simply not something people can afford."
That's just not what the Congressional Budget Office said.
6. In the same appearance, Romney said his first problem with the health care reform law is the "$500 billion cut in Medicare."
Romney loves this line, but it's simply not true.
7. In his University of Chicago speech, Romney said, Obama administration "bureaucrats" are telling "farmers what their 15-year-old sons and daughters can and can't do on the family farm."
That's plainly false.
8. In the same speech, Romney said, "Under Dodd-Frank, [entrepreneurial pioneers] would have struggled to get loans from their community banks."
Romney has to know that's not true.
9. In the same speech, Romney promised, "Instead of raising taxes, I will cut them."
Well, he'd cut taxes for most folks, but for those working families struggling most, the Romney plan calls for a tax increase.
10. In his victory speech in Illinois after the primary, Romney said, "The government would have banned Thomas Edison's light bulb. Oh, that's right. They just did."
This isn't just a lie; it's a dumb lie.
11. Romney told voters in Maryland, "[O]ne of the things that just broke my heart was watching the president go around the world apologizing for America."
12. Romney told a Wisconsin radio show this morning that Paul Ryan's budget plan "does not balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the elderly."
That's the exact opposite of reality.
13. In the same interview, Romney said the Ryan plan "preserves Medicare."
Actually, it ends Medicare, and replaces it with vouchers.
14. Romney argued in a separate appearance this morning, "The Catholic Church is being told that they have to provide insurance that covers morning after pills, sterilizations, and contraceptives. Despite the fact that these very features violate the conscience of the Catholic Church itself.
He's lying. That's not what the Catholic Church -- or any other house of worship -- is being told at all.
Rachel argued this week that Romney lies "all the time, really easily," adding, "He says things that are not true with unnerving frequency, arguably more than any modern candidate for major office, and there are a lot of creeps among them. Some dishonesty in national American politics is frankly routine. It's too bad, but it's true. Romney-style dishonesty is a sight to behold. It's different. He's bending the curve."
And as this morning's lies help demonstrate, the candidate doesn't even seem to care about being caught. I've never seen anything like it.
Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.
Leave a Comment:
I just hope the Democrats are saving all of the clips of Romney clearly saying things and then later claiming he never said them, along all the other lies he regularly tells. They will make great campaign ads for Obama. Romney is a twisted man and he scares the heck out of me.
Scarry Clown.
Can't wait to read your book 'Drift'.......Governor Ultrasound has problems.....I love you Rachel!
Hasn't the "apology" thing happened now? Didn't he apologize for the Koran burning? Not that it was unwarranted, but does it change the fact-checking? Or was that invented as a right wing talking point, too?
I think they should have another Giraldo special like the Al Capone thing again. This time he could hook Rmoney up to a lie detector test. He could captivate the audience, and then Rmoney could give Giraldo a lie detector test. Do you think Rmoney will agree to the test? Sounds like an SNL skit. Hell, we could line all of them up to take the test.
How fascinating is it that we have thousands of different charitable groups formed in America, traveling all over America, all over the word; groups formed to provide housing, food, clothing, medical care, educating children and people, trying to correct otherwise inhumane sitations...And right under our nose we are watching a campaign that has done nothing but take our rights of humanity apart piece by piece...millions of dollars spilled into campaigns that have a goal of placing women in a time machine and ejecting them back 100 years...holding out their religious rods over the waves of Americans to part and separate; to once again divide by race, creed, class...to form a stairway so high that any middle class American will be extinguished..."Mystery Mitt"seeks the White House for one reason only...when you are that wealthy you have to aim high for your next conquest...us...Are you kidding me??? The reptile commeth....
new to your blog - anyone thought of attaching the name "Zelig" to MR yet?
When one grows up seeing parents, siblings, church authorities, and peers saying that they "know" that their church is true, the prophets talk with god, and the Joseph Smith story is "true" does that make it easier to lie about anything that fits one's "belief", or something that one wants to believe? Or just to lie about anything?...
Why does Mitt lie with such impunity? Think about it. He's got Faux News backing him up. Turn on Faux News anytime of the day, any show, and you're likely to hear that Obama wanted gasoline to go up. Take any subject, Iran, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, taxes, light bulbs, apologies, contraception, etc, and Faux News repeats the lies over and over again. Day in and day out.
It begs the question, is Faux repeating Mitt's lies or is Mitt repeating Faux News' lies? Many of the lies are then repeated by Rush, and all the Rush wannabees on right-wing raidio, and in Congress by Boehner, McConnell and their minions. It's a coordinated effort to create an alternate reality through propaganda. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
In one of the Republican debates, Romney literally lied about his own first name. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-11-22/news/30431181_1_willard-mitt-romney-wolf-blitzer-michele-bachmann Seriously.
It's simple, really...make the lie big, make the lie simple, and keep telling it long enough and people will believe it.
When Romney first became governor in Massachusetts, we were told that he was coming to Salem to announce that he would do something about the polluting power plant here, and even given the location he was going to make his announcement -- Collins Cove, right across the water from the plant. So a bunch of us from the local environmental groups and Salem Access TV rushed down there to tape him saying that because the pollution from the plant was responsible for 53 premature deaths a year (that was a Harvard study), he was going to stop that. He took questions, and although I was running the camera, I asked about renewable energy projects. He smiled and said he thought that would be a great idea.
One year later he was working with the power plant helping them stay open. That was the first lie that he told that I was aware of, although now I know there were already many before that (and, of course, he never started any renewable energy project here).
I can dig up this video, it's in our local archives at Salem Access Television.
Hurry and tell Obama's campaign staff and PBS for the sake of this country!!!
When will someone for once and for all talk at length about the parallels for falsehood on the part of the Mormon Church and the part of Mitt Romney. He came by his propensity to lie very naturally as an elite of the Church, which was founded on lies which are perpetuated until this very day.