Associated Press
After winning several more presidential primaries this week, Mitt Romney delivered a speech his campaign billed as the unofficial kickoff of the general election. And while making his pitch as the presumptive Republican nominee, the former governor said President Obama intends to "run a campaign of ... distortions."
I very nearly fell out of my chair. After watching Romney closely for years, I've never seen any candidate in either party run a campaign of distortions as shamelessly as this guy, and this claim seemed to take the "I'm rubber, you're glue" tactic to new levels.
To appreciate the scope of Romney's distortions, consider the 15th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney argued in Pennsylvania earlier this week that President Obama has "apologized for America."
The fact that Romney continues to repeat this lie every day is pretty depressing.
2. The Romney campaign argued this week that college tuition costs are going up because "this president decided to take over the student loan market."
As a matter of policy, that's ridiculous, and as a matter of accuracy, it's completely untrue.
3. Romney continues to push the line that under Obama, "the number of new business start-ups per year has dropped by 100,000 per year."
That's not even close to being true.
4. Romney said in New Hampshire this week that he wants to help rescue "the mom and dad who never thought they'd be on food stamps."
He neglected to mention that he endorsed a budget plan that slashes food stamps.
5. He also said he wants to look out for "grandparents who can't afford the gas to visit their grandchildren."
Romney plans to turn Medicare into a voucher program, which increases costs for seniors. He's also vowed to bring back Medicare Part D's "donut hole," which will quickly raise prescription drug costs for grandparents nationwide.
6. In the same speech, Romney said, "With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy."
That's the opposite of the truth.
7. Romney added that under Obama, "we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society."
No one can seriously believe such nonsense.
8. Romney vowed, "[W]e will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next."
That's misleading in important ways. Romney's platform calls for massive tax breaks that he can't pay for, which necessarily means growing the national debt.
9. The Romney campaign argued this week that the candidate hasn't endorsed "self-deportation" as an immigration policy.
Romney, earlier this year, explicitly endorsed "self-deportation."
10. The Romney campaign argued this week that under Obama, "the youth unemployment rate is double the unemployment rate for all Americans."
That's wildly misleading, too.
A few months ago, Fox News' Brit Hume, reflecting on Romney's flip-flops, said, "You're only allowed a certain number of flips before people begin to doubt your character."
I'm curious -- is Romney also allowed a certain number of falsehoods before people begin to doubt his character? And if so, what is that number?
Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV
Leave a Comment:
Any ideas on how we can organize to put pressure on the mainstream media,local and national, to investigate and report the lies?
Hit them in their money. Plain and simple. All the political machinations, spin, lies, and propaganda is done to get more profit, more money.
I don't have cable TV, I won't buy the commercials and negative ads and pump them into my home. I get all my information off the 'net which is so far still free until the Republicans shut it down with a next-gen SOPA.
Can you imagine if half this nation stop buying TV, stopped listening to Yack Radio, boycotted Koch products and advertisers? Then all the carefully designed crap ads and political propaganda would be going only into the homes and minds of those already brain washed.
Sweet.
We, the People CAN send the message, we can "hurt" the media, we can "hurt" these bad folks in their wallets. We can make a HUGE statement if we make the "sacrifices" of not buying their garbage any more. It isn't really a sacrifice at all, but some folks won't give up their special toilet paper, even to save our democracy...
I constantly hear complaints about how the Democratic Party isn't doing this or that to get our message across, well guess what. WE ARE DEMOCRATS TOO, lol, and we have a HECK OF A LOT OF POWER. We have millions of us in number and we have our money, the VERY THING these bad folks want. And they can't force us to give our money to them.
YOU HEAR ME? They can't force us to give our money to them. And our money is what the Republicans want, the Koch's want, the Murdocks want, Fox wants, the Limbaugh's want, etc, etc, etc...they can't support those million dollar salaries if the money isn't coming in, now can they?
WE CITIZENS HAVE THE POWER AND NOW IS THE TIME!!
Democrats CAN fight the media monster...if we weren't waiting for someone else to do it. I've started, no TV, no satellite radio, no special toilet paper...
Respectfully....
PS: Is not Rachel on the internet...???
You can't spell REPUBLICAN without L-I-A-R. Interesting how RMoney personifies that, huh?
Thanks for exposing this dishonesty, Rachel!
STEVE!
So Obama wants to create an America where anyone can prosper and Mitt Romney who worked hard to prosper is evil? The pres and VP attended private prep schools all their lives but they are working class? Romney's out of touch with average Americans but Biden's been in Washington for 30 years. And I don't know a whole lot of average Americans who, like our president, attended an exclusive private school in Hawaii paid for by his bank vice president grandmother, then went on to attend Harvard. Real regular Joe stuff. And Romney's the liar. And as far as the BS about the mainstream media not doing naything, no major network carried Romney's BRILLIANT New Hampshire speech but puked up hours of adulation for Barry's degrading, pandering stint on Fallon the same night. So.......
FACT CHECK!!
Mitt Romney paid for his college with stocks. Does that sound to you like he "worked hard to prosper"? Sounds to me like he was already prospering BEFORE he started working.
The cost to attend Cranbrook is $28,200/year. The cost to attend Punahou is $18,450 a year today and I assume the differences in costs held in back in the days when they were both attending private schools. You think there might be a difference in the wealth of the families there???
President Obama used student loans, scholarships and help from his grandmother to attend college. Do you think Romney ever got a student loan?
What does Biden have to do with anything? Isn't this a comparison of Mitt Romney and President Obama?
Yes, President Obama's grandmother was a bank vice president. Did you know she never earned a college degree and started at that bank as a secretary and worked her way up? BTW do you know how much vice presidents get paid??? Definitely not as much as bank presidents and MOST DEFINITELY not as much as CEO's of car companies!
The rest of your post shows your bias and it speaks for itself.
Sunshine Stater, if you need to vote for Romney, America is still free, and it's your right. But why are you comparing Romney to a man, judging by your post, to whom you've paid no serious attention or given any real consideration.
President Obama has done some good things with his time in office, all his work is required to be recorded and documented in Washington and is available for public consumption (you included). Anyone who isn't already cemented in their opinions can actually read up on what Obama has done for this nation before deciding which box to check.
Romney's time in office is equally documented, perhaps you might wish to read up on him as well, before checking that box. Because now is not the time to vote by party loyalty, now is the time to vote for the man who will work for YOU, not the rich, not the corporations, not the special interests. YOU.
Respectfully,
How is paying promising to buy everyone a pony and paying for it with someone else's money working for me? How is spending more time fundraising than any of the last 5 presidents working for me? How is accepting more money from Wall Street while rhetoricaly siccing the dogs on Wall Street working for me? The man is an evil, naive, arrogant child and he's never actuall worked a day in his life. Unless you count completely dividing the country (which he explicitly promised to end while campaigning) work. But I don't know why I'm even bothering. Progressives like feelings and intentions, Conservatives live in the real world.
Q: How can you tell when Mitt Romney is lying?
A: His lips are moving
Well, I guess the cliche exists for a reason...
For a democracy like ours to function, an educated, well-informed citizenry is required. That is the media's job.
However, when media cozies up with politicians, establishes a camaraderie & are part of the Washington fraternity, the "news" becomes secondary or last on the list of priorities. By attending social events & hobnobbing with the very people, the politicians, the press corps are supposed to be reporting on makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the media to be objective. In fact it is worse: politicians, like Mitt Romney, knowing they will not be challenged or held accountable, freely mislead, deceive, lie, distort their own records and/or their opponents' records. And the general voting public left to their own devices will go to the polls none-the-wiser.
The media's job is to inform, educate & enlighten the public on events taking place here & abroad & within our government & the private business sector. But the corporate-owned for-profit media are focused on revenues, ratings & advertisers so they will not run any story their advertisers object to especially stories about corruption & fraud at the highest levels of private enterprise and/or government.
Since Romney is favoured by big business, I suspect they will put the skids on negative news stories & shield him from media scrutiny which means his lies & falsehoods will be downplayed or ignored.
This huge conflict of interest is close to destroying all journalistic integrity. Big money is destroying our election process. Ultimately together they will destroy our democracy, too.
Does Mitt lie?
If we take out the omissions where he glosses over his past record (which he doesn't really discuss), we take out his personal opinions and world view (which for him shouldn't be lies), we take out his observations and statements about President Obama (since Mitt needs to win this election and he can't do that by saying he thinks the other guy is great), and we take out his formulated political/religious/privileged wealthy guy talk (the boiling cauldron of these segregated "ideals" in which religion pits itself against wealth and Republican politics pits itself against governing a diverse and free nation), what do we have left?
A guy with nice hair and an ability to look presidential in photographs. The perfect Republican candidate.
I feel the day approaching when I will be compelled to call this man a "pole cat". I should spend this time I have now pondering all the adjectives required to do it well. Suggestions are always welcome.
First, I want to thank you for leaving these chronicles here so that I could go back and read them I'm up to 16. I'm new here only been here for a couple of weeks and commend all of you for telling us the truth. I can't understand, why all reporters are not reporting the truth. They will tell you, the people deserve to know the truth but why are they not telling us all the truth. My daughter had not even heard about the abortion and pregnancy being god's will until I told her and she watches the news twice a day. It is not fair to the American people to withhold the contradictions of his statements. These should be on every station we turn to. Thank you again and keep up the good work.
What about flooding their emails (the news stations)to complain about their lack of reporting on the contradictions that he himself has said? I'm truly disgusted by this.