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Not everything Mitt Romney says is on the level.
For those who are watching the 2012 presidential race closely, Mitt Romney's penchant for falsehoods is hard to miss. Michael Cohen summarized the issue nicely this week in a piece for The Guardian:
Granted, presidential candidates are no strangers to disingenuous or overstated claims; it's pretty much endemic to the business. But Romney is doing something very different and far more pernicious. Quite simply, the United States has never been witness to a presidential candidate, in modern American history, who lies as frequently, as flagrantly and as brazenly as Mitt Romney.
Now, in general, those of us in the pundit class are really not supposed to accuse politicians of lying -- they mislead, they embellish, they mischaracterize, etc. Indeed, there is natural tendency for nominally objective reporters, in particular, to stay away from loaded terms such as lying. Which is precisely why Romney's repeated lies are so effective. In fact, lying is really the only appropriate word to use here, because, well, Romney lies a lot.
If there are any lingering doubts about the accuracy of this observation, consider the 23rd installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. (I've been at this for several months now, and this week's list is the longest to date.)
1. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Romney claimed it's fiscally responsible to eliminate the entirety of the Affordable Care Act: "It saves $100 billion a year to get rid of it."
That's the opposite of the truth. According to the CBO and other nonpartisan budget estimates, killing the law would make the deficit go up, not down, and would cost, not save, the country hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years.
2. In the same interview, Romney said, "I think a lot of people forgetting is there is only one president in history that's cut Medicare by $500 billion and that is President Obama."
Romney says this a lot. He's not telling the truth.
3. Romney also said, "I see people holding up signs, 'Don't touch my Medicare.' It's like, hey, I'm not touching your Medicare."
Romney endorsed Paul Ryan's House Republican Budget plan, which ends the Medicare program and replaces it with a private voucher scheme.
4. In the same interview, Romney said President Obama has "never had the experience of working in the private sector."
Actually, that's not true. Obama worked at a private-sector law firm before entering public service.
5. Romney also told Hannity Obama went on "an apology tour" in his first year.
As Romney surely knows by now, he's lying.
6. Romney, trying to talk about foreign policy, said Syria is Iran's "route to the sea."
Iran doesn't share a border with Syria, and Iran already borders two bodies of water.
7. At a campaign event in Stratham, New Hampshire, Romney claimed, "Bill Clinton and so many other mainstream Democrats are revolting against the backward direction President Obama is taking his party and our country."
In reality, Bill Clinton supports the president's re-election and recently said a Romney presidency would be "calamitous for our country and the world."
8. At an event in Cornwall, Pennsylvania, shared an anecdote about a local optometrist who was forced to fill out a "33-page" change-of-address form -- several times -- at the post office.
There is no such change-of-address form.
9. At the same event, Romney said Obama is "taking away" scholarships and charter schools for "kids in Washington, D.C."
This has become a line in Romney's stump speech, but it isn't in any way true.
10. Romney also claimed, "This president has put together almost as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined."
11. Romney went on to say, "It's immoral in my view for my generation to pass on to these kids the burden of our generation. I think it's wrong. It's got to stop. And if I'm president of the United States I will get us on track to have a balanced budget."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add trillions to the national debt.
12. At a campaign stop in Weatherly, Pennsylvania, Romney said the president's "trillion- dollar stimulus" failed to "create jobs."
That's the opposite of the truth.
13. At the same event, Romney said about Obama, "He was told that one small business was having a hard time dealing with Obamacare. He said he hadn't heard that."
That's not what happened. In fact, the small business wasn't having a hard time dealing with Obamacare, and was hurt by policies Romney wants to pursue.
14. Romney went on say, "I was in Las Vegas and met a woman who was worried. She has a business renting furniture to casinos and to conventioners that come to Las Vegas. And when the president said, don't bother coming to Las Vegas for your company meetings a few years ago, her business dove."
Obama actually said, in reference to Wall Street recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility." To blame the failure of some random business in Nevada on this is ridiculous.
15. Romney added, "If we stay on the road we're on, we're going to become like Europe.... I don't believe Europe works in Europe. I don't want it here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting sort of way.
16. In his "Face the Nation" interview, Romney said of Obama's new immigration policy, "If he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with the illegal immigration in America, then this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a half years, not in his last few months."
That's remarkably misleading. Obama has pushed for the DREAM Act for years, and would have signed it into law in 2010 had it not been blocked by a Republican filibuster.
17. In the same interview, Romney said about health care, "I will continue to describe the plan that I would provide, which is, number one, to make sure that people don't have to worry about losing their insurance if they have a preexisting condition, and change jobs."
This is the kind of answer that's clearly intended to deceive. Under Romney's approach, millions of people with pre-existing conditions would be denied coverage -- and occasionally his campaign even admits it.
18. Also on health care, Romney said the president "jammed through a bill" and "didn't really try and work for a Republican vote."
This is laughably untrue. Obama worked for months to find someone -- anyone -- in the Republican Party who would work with him in good faith, including delaying progress while the "Gang of Six" engaged in pointless talks.
19. Romney also said, "I'm not looking for a tax cut for the very wealthiest."
Either Romney hasn't read his own tax plan, or he's lying.
20. Appearing via video at the "Faith and Freedom Coalition" annual event, Romney applauded the far-right group's leader: "Ralph Reed has been a real champion in fighting for the fundamental values that have made America the nation that it is."
21. In the same speech, Romney said, "When you put in place a bill like Obamacare, you attack the freedom of people to make a choice about their own insurance and what kind of coverage they want to have."
That's not true. Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers would choose from competing plans as part of a health care exchange. Romney knows this -- it was part of his own plan.
22. Romney went on to say, "[M]edian income in this nation has dropped by 10 percent over the last four years."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is fundamentally unfair.
23. He also argued, "Government at all levels is about 37 percent of the economy today -- 37 percent. And if Obamacare were allowed to stand, government would control about half of the economy of America."
That's demonstrably ridiculous.
24. At the same event, Romney said that Obama "insists" that "Israel return to the '67 borders -- indefensible borders."
25. At a campaign event in Brunswick, Ohio, Romney claimed that Obama said "if you let him borrow all that money, he'd keep unemployment below 8 percent."
As Romney surely knows by now, that's simply not true.
26. At the same event, Romney said under Obamacare, we'll get "a healthcare system run by the government."
There is no universe in which this is true.
27. At a campaign event in Janesville, Wisconsin, Romney argued, "[T]he path we're on, spending $1 trillion more every year than we take in, is leading us to Greece."
That's painfully untrue.
28. At a campaign event in Holland, Michigan, Romney claimed that, as a result of the Dodd-Frank reforms, "small banks and community banks are finding it harder and harder to make loans to small businesses."
According to community banks, this is false. These banks have actually gotten stronger after Dodd-Frank, and the president of Independent Community Bankers Of America recently said, "I am sick of Wall Street using community banks as their shills to scare community bankers into stampeding Congress into undoing provisions of law that finally attempt to deal with too big to fail and Wall Street overreach."
29. In a speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials yesterday, Romney argued that President Obama "has not completed a single new trade agreement with Latin America."
Romney does realize that Panama is part of Latin America, right?
30. Romney went on to argue, "Unfortunately, despite his promises, President Obama has failed to address immigration reform."
Actually, Obama has addressed it quite a bit, taking executive action where the law allows, and pushing Congress to pursue comprehensive reform based on a bipartisan plan he presented last year.
Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII
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Amazing all the lies listed, but coming from MSNBC? I guess it takes one to know one?
Funny how Faux News sites pay bloggers to make comments like the one above...
Yeah, and that super-lying evil paper, the Guardian can't be trusted, either, because it's not owned by Rupert Murdoch???
Ned,
Funny how all you Rethuglicans tell the same kind of Bull @!$%# lies. Do you all have online course for this @!$%#?
Go back to RNC and tell them you got caught out.
Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess. MSNBC has been caught twice recently editing tape for their agenda, but you are buying whatever they are shoveling.
Well, Eric, you ought to be jumping for joy at your good luck. Taking down all the falsehoods at MSNBC should be like shooting fish in a barrel for a highly Fox-educated wingnut like yourself.
Get to it, ol' boy. You have work to do. Let 'em have it with both barrels. (All that's required are evidence, reasoning, and documented sources. Make sure you provide those.)
@Eric,
Are you saying that the list of lies is inaccurate? They are not lies? If not - please provide your reasoning. Inquiring minds want to know.
Or that they really are lies and you have to be a liar to recognize one? Which doesn't make the lie anything other than a lie.
Respectfully, which is it?
Not sure about what MSNBC posted, not saying they are or aren't true. I just find it funny how MSNBC edited the Zimmerman tape as well as the recent Romney tale, and now want to point fingers. I would hope all the information above should be double checked.
Weak, Eric. Very, very weak.
Hey!!! Did you read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/21/mendacious-mitt-romney-bid-liar-in-chief
Both lie like rugs. Both spend (or will spend) your money and not care about debt, both endorse the fed, both are buddies with wallstreet, both support the police state (ndaa, patriot act, online bills), and both are war hogs. no matter how much democrats dislike good old GW. Obama has changed nothing and is now allowing drones to fly over america and kill whoever he wants anywhere in the world because they might be 'terrorist'. He is an iron fist with a velvet glove on. Im not for republican or democrats both have faulted to the thirst for power and money....
"...now allowing drones to fly over america..."
Uh, oh! Kook alert.
In Eric's defense, throwing up every discrepancy in Romney's speech, is picking nits.
Is saying Syria is the "route to the sea." for Iran a lie? Really? A lie as in trying intentionally mislead people? People that have instant access to Google maps? Of course not.
That one absurdity and the continual pronouncement of opinions, judgements, and disputed facts as soulsearing, malicious, and evil LIES, lacks credibility. As we can see, a couple dozen listings, of political speech, has elicited a great big yawn.
Moreover, the stage is now set to more closely examine Obama's version of "lies." It seems there's a lot less to Obama than meets the eye. As in, his public biography has holes you can drive the Rev Wright through. That coupled with the Executive Privilege desire to hide something just makes the whole setup that much shakier.
At the moment I think there's much you can say about Romney that's going to overshadow Obama's problems. Carry on.
Disgusted...,
That one is probably a Paulista.
Yeah, probably. But it's a meme that has had popularity outside the established kookatarian Ron-ulan cult, too. Guess we'll get a better idea of his particular sect if he's back with more nonsense.
Almost forgot, Obama did kill $500 billion for Medicare Advantage, and Sebellius admitted to double counting that cut to make the CBO numbers.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/04/hhs-secretary-sebelius-admits-to-double-counting-in-obamacare-budget/
I would never claim that MSNBC always gets thing exactly right the first time. The Zimmerman tape is an example. What are you referring to when you say "recent Romney tale"?
I do a lot of fact-checking for myself and all of the information listed above I find to be true.
Some don't need a lot of work.
I did have to check an atlas for #6.
Any questions regarding the Federal Budget can be answered by downloading an excel file from the CBO website. Search for "Historical Budget Data—January 2012 Baseline" and you will find the link. Also look at the "Financial Management Service" website.
Any questions regarding the stimulus can be answered by looking at the quarterly analysis reports. Again - CBO website - search for ARRA.
[Note: I have trouble pasting hyperlinks in these comments otherwise I would just paste the URLs. But things are pretty easy to find.]
Well, if it isn't our confused basketball fan at it, again. I have no doubt anybody here would welcome a fair comparison of the veracity of Obama and Rmoney's statements and assertions, especially if the assessment combined a weighting as to both the severity of the distance from truth along with a judgment of the importance of the subject matter in which the statement/assertion was made. Perform that weighted series and nobody here would fear the result.
Here's all you need to understand: Mitt Romney is a big, fu<king liar. He has to to win. Because if the public truly and properly understood that the staggering inequality we now have and the Great Recession we now have is the result of 30+ years of failed conservative ideas and policies, and that those same failed ideas are what Mitt Romney espouses to be the remedy for the results, then he wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell to win.
The confused basketball fan is now using the DailyCaller as his source.
The CBO, CBPP, and countless other have debunked the double counting. Who are you going to believe? Or even better, just go check out their argument.
Similarly on the bogus $500 Medicare nonsense. All debunked long ago. Very old news. News travels slow for the Fox-educated, however.
Here's one on the Medicare nonsense from the confused basketball fan. (Note: Romney big, big liar here):
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/dec/12/mitt-romney/romney-says-only-obama-has-cut-medicare/
Here's some on the silly double-counting charge:
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/double-counting-canard-quacks-again/
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/10/461265/gop-economist-deficit/
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/04/20/yes-health-reform-strengthens-medicare-and-reduces-the-deficit/
And here's an easy way to understand it:
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/04/dad-and-junior-wee-tale-medicare-spending-and-double-counting
@Shooter
Since you brought up Rev. Wright:
I recently heard about a book "The Harbinger" by Jonathan Cahn - highly recommended by a conservative evangelical co-worker (we avoid talking either politics or religion).
Short summary - looking at the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and the signs (harbingers) that God was displeased with Israel and would punish Israel unless the people repented and changed their ways - God would d*mn - destroy - Israel. The author points to current events - such as 9/11 - as signs that the same is going to happen to the US.
Within a few days of learning about this book, Melissa Harris-Perry had a segment about Rev. Wright that included the full context of his now-famous inflammatory quote "God d*mn America". The full context is that he was doing the same thing as the Harbinger author - taking the signs of the Prophet Isaiah - applying to current events and came to exactly the same conclusion. America has sinned and God will therefore punish "d*mn" America.
The ONLY difference between the two are the specific "sins" that have been committed.
I personally don't believe it is valid to apply Old Testament prophecy and extrapolate to current events. So I don't agree with either of them.
You can agree or disagree with Jonathan Cahn or Rev. Wright as to the relative severity of the "sins" they point to.
But that does not make either one of them somehow radical subversives.
OK guys, this is a quote from my cite which very specifically addresses the cut and double counting. Who are you going to believe, Sebelius or someone else? Is the quote wrong? I don't think so. Was Sebelius lying under oath? I hope not.
Sorry your understanding is so minimal. Maybe you should understand how the health care law deals with Medicare. Read the CBO. They understand this better, and they understand double-counting. Saying "both" is not admitting to double-counting. Read the CBPP. Read the links you've already been presented.
You really are not very good, and you've demonstrated that repeatedly. The idiocy you were espousing in the public and private jobs discussion was dispositive. Then again, when all you have to work with is FoxFacts and FoxThink, it's understandable.
Engaging in these tit for tats is worthless on the Internet , the gop just post their out of context claims , then you never see them till they are posting some other made up tripe , and running and hiding
As has been pointed out , put obama's lies since 2008 next to Wilbur's whoppers , then give the preaching a break , but you also have to look at the bush cheney record setting killing and immoral lie fest decade , and compare the 2 , obama does walk on water on that point
It is the continued gop false equivalence whine fest again , and once again conservative dishonesty comes to about 100 to 1 ...Just go by the budgets they both present , and you all come up with a major flop
When there's just a few, you can really smoke out the wingnuts' ignorance. This Shooter character is particularly funny.
So lt me see if I have this straight... you're agreeing that Romney is telling the truth in #2, you just have a problem with me pointing out the double counting.
You are blisteringly stupid. I suggest you do the following in the prescribed order:
1) Read: http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/04/dad-and-junior-wee-tale-medicare-spending-and-double-counting
(If you can't understand it after that, then give up. You are simply too stupid to understand.)
2) Read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-weird-baseline-obamacares-opponents-are-using/2012/04/10/gIQAu3de8S_blog.html
(You will get to hear Paul Ryan himself admitting no double-counting. Got that. No double-counting. Now, dumbaS$, understand on Ryan's website he claimed double-counting. Then further understand that because an answer was "both" doesn't mean there was double-counting. What was occurring was the ignorance and stupidity of Republican Congressman thinking it was double-counting, and a dim-witted nincompoop at DailyCaller mindlessly copying and assuming what they were saying had some validity. Perhaps, just perhaps, after realizing that, you'll begin to realize just how bad the reichwing media is. They're not only clueless like that nitwit DailyCaller twit, they intentionally mislead like the garbage you'll get at Fox.)
3) For repetition and reinforcement, read:
- http://www.factcheck.org/2011/01/a-budget-busting-law/ (double-counting debunked)
- http://www.offthechartsblog.org/double-counting-canard-quacks-again/ (more double-counting debunking)
- http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/10/461265/gop-economist-deficit/ (yet more double-counting discussion)
Give it up, moron. And do you realize just how pathetic you look. You have 30 lies to choose to try and debunk in Steve's list. You had to go all the way back to stuff that was debunked long, long ago. You can't even win that! Not only that, it's becoming increasingly clear you can't understand why!
Look in the mirror. And see a clueless man.
I don't care about double counting, just that Benen is wrong in #2 and Obama did cut Medicare by $500 billion.
@9:01 pm: "So lt me see if I have this straight... you're agreeing that Romney is telling the truth in #2, you just have a problem with me pointing out the double counting."
@9:32 pm: "I don't care about double counting..."
Unfu king believable.
It's time you gave up. Office hours are over. The course is over. You have FAILed. You'll just have to repeat the course the next time it is offered.
And one more thing before I simply have to forget there is someone as stupid as you as a fellow American: The quote you attribute to Klein is not Klein. It is part of Blahous' (wrong) argument.
"Blahous’s argument is this: There’s a trust fund for Medicare. That trust fund, prior to the Affordable Care Act, was expected to run out in 2016. But the Affordable Care Act partially pays for itself through $500 billion in Medicare cuts. That’s delayed Medicare’s looming bankruptcy."
You are just fu king unbelievable!
As for cuts: No. Got it? No. There is a decrease in the rate of increase of spending and that is covered by a decrease what providers can expect as increases to what they would get. There are no decreases in benefits. Got it?
To sum what we have learned in this course: Mitt Romney is a lying sack of shhit!
LMAO
Hilarious, isn't it? What else can you do? Hahahahahahahahahaha....
Sorry Disgusted, but Klein accepts the $500 billion cut as fact so you're going to have to also. So let's see, how about Mitt Mendacity #4, Obama never worked in the private sector. From Obama's wiki page...
In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2002.[43]
In the world of making, buying and selling, being a civil rights lawyer isn't private sector experience. For most, this is a disqualifier, but I understand that you and Benen can't relate to that. So at best, this is almost true. But most people would consider Romney's statement as valid.
That's two down and many more to go. Shall I continue? Heh.
Disgusted...,
For some value of stupid, yes he is, but mainly he and all of those people love to lie. Not only do they love to lie, but they obviously fully expect those who are not Ideologically Sound to accept their lies without disagreement. They serve no legitimate purpose here or on any other site that attempt to deal in reality (as opposed to Ideological Soundness). They do not have a right to be provided with a forum here.
Oh, I understand Entropy. But this one really is a true dumba$$ (which outweighs his desire to alter reality) with Absolute Pure Thought as defined by the alternate universe they live in. It is possible he's just a goon associated with a campaign, I suppose, but then what would that say about them. (I don't think even most (official) Republicans are that stupid, and that's saying something; only their followers in the masses can be this moronic.) If he were anything but stupid, he'd betray himself and make a claim or argument that wasn't entirely transparent and boneheaded. You just don't get stupider than misreading Klein's statement and attributing to Klein something he didn't say. And he fails to understand how the double-counting he was previously so excited about ties into the supposed cut, so he didn't even understand Drum's very simple explanation.
Now to the terrifyingly stupid, confused buffoon within our midsts:
"Sorry Disgusted, but Klein accepts the $500 billion cut as fact so you're going to have to also..."
Non sequitur. Even if Klein did accept it, it wouldn't follow I would have to accept it. So your conclusion is wrong. And your premise is wrong, too. Klein does not accept it. Your confusion results from your inadequate reading comprehension skills and attributing a remark to Klein when he was paraphrasing Blahous' specious argument. (You really can't do any worse on a simple assertion than get it wrong on both ends.) Blahous takes advantage of low intelligence Useful Idiots like yourself to pass misinformation into society. Low intelligence people like you are the reason the U.S. is in the sorry mess we are in.
Here's more information the basketball fan won't be able to understand, but, HEY!!, I'll try one more time:
The Affordable Care Act Takes $500 Billion From Medicare And Seniors
And, one more time, you can hear Paul Ryan tell Ezra Klein (and you) that there was no double-counting right here:
Ezra Klein - The true cost of the health-care bill, cont'd: An interview with Rep. Paul Ryan
So, out of 30 assertions, you have strained and grunted yourself to the point of hemorrhoids with an amazing fact-ignoring, reading-comprehension-deficient, allergic-to-logic, display of ineptness all in an attempt to defend the Lyin' Sack of Mitt and prove to the unwashed libtards they're liars too. You have succeeded precisely zero times. FAIL.
Time well spent, I suppose, if you're a highly Fox-educated wingnut working on your blogging application for redstate.
Ummm...Just a point of fact. The $500 billion "cut" to medicare was the cut of the Advantage plan subsidies. See the feds were paying a subsidy to the insurance companies who offered Medicare "plans" through them. This supposed to allow insurance companies to lower rates to policy holders making Medicare "cheaper" to the end consumer. Only the insurance companies were not required to lower rates, so they didn't. The Affordable Care Act eliminated the subsidy for the Advantage program. It DID NOT cute medicare benefits in any way. It was corporate welfare for the insurance companies. It should never have been continued past the first year anyway. It was just paying insurance companies for something the gov't was doing anyway.
FYI - I am a small business owner who has been able to benefit from the ACA. It has allowed me to offer health insurance because it allows me to fully deduct the cost and I get a credit (money back) for the premiums I pay. I pass this on to my employees by applying it to the next years insurance premiums they have to pay, making it cheaper for all of us. We also benefit because of the elimination of the pre-existing condition clause. One of my folks had cancer 6 years ago and wasn't able to afford insurance until the ACA came along.
Oh and also, as a small business owner, I am a supporter of single payer.
Yes, ExPatOkie, that was covered in the links I gave. Good to see some small business owners are willing to state the truth about all this. And very glad to see another supporter of single-payer. It's really the way the country needs to go.
Shooter242
how about Mitt Mendacity #4, Obama never worked in the private sector. From Obama's wiki page...
In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development,
In the world of making, buying and selling, being a civil rights lawyer isn't private sector experience.
So a lawyer in the field of economic development has no experience in private economic issues? How many things did bush and romney MAKE ? they both had hands full of cash handed to them and went and invested , while obama had to buck it up and go make a living , and you want to preach to us about real working economic experience on that note? lol
Why do you think romney only paid 12% in taxes ? Its called capital gains , he is not making or producing anything , besides making money off of corporations who employ people in china , Mexico etc , that is someone you can trust to create American jobs all right , just like bush did
How can these people be so willing to have wall st drive them off the economic cliff again , ? 2008 was not that long ago for hecks sakes
@Patango:
Easier: Who paid the salary? Answer that and that's all that need to be determined to expose yet another transparent stupidity from our resident village idiot. (Unless, of course, your object was to expose the taken-for-granted idiocy our market-adoring friends believe that people like Bush and Romney have done useful things for society simply by being the choosers of parents with lots of money and using that advantage to make a pile by never making anything.)
As each week's Mendacity Chronicle seems to be longer than the previous', I worry that by the time of the debates in October, Steve Benen will have no time for anything else.
But keep up the good work anyway!
This must be absolutely infuriating to assemble.
i am rather impressed, tho, with all the ways steve has found to call a lie a lie.
Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved jobs overseas http://t.co/8bWPXDX4
Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that moved jobs overseas http://t.co/8bWPXDX4
Now, I can't wait to hear this referenced on the NBC Nightly News...Will they bring on Rachel to comment on it?
I thought so!
Hey, I'm sure Brian Williams and David Gregory are going to be all over this all week.
They are not allowed to . They are both in the plus 10 million a year club and as a result are signed members of the 1%. Their contract with the 1% does not permit them to tell the truth. Just what is on the teleprompter please.
Filtered and neutralized so we have a horse race and can sell more pharmaceuticals on our TEE VEE shows .
Don't you people know how things work?
Benen deserves a Pulitzer for this chronicling of serial liar Mitt Romney's outrageous falsehoods.
This morning he demanded that the press report his outsourcing of jobs as "offshoring," which seems worse to me, given that some outsourcing could possibly (to now more and more rarely) go to Americans. But "offshoring" always means they were sent abroad.
Maybe he's trying to burnish his credentials with international financiers?
Guess what? I know Mitt Romney is a liar. Any chance this blog will ever bother to look at some of the crap Barak Obama is doing and be critical of that too? Or are you guys "fair and balanced" like Fox? Just asking.
Don't hold back on our account--please feel free to let the world know!
@M, can you point to specific lies or are these just the ones told to you by "FAIR & BALANCED" FAUX NOISE? I'm curious?
No, Zora, what the wingnuts expect is that anybody suggesting that Republicans lie also suggest that lies are coming from the other side in at least equal number and equal severity. So someone like Steve Benen should be forthcoming and suggest that Obama is just as big a liar as Mitt Romney. That's what wingnuts think like. If you don't do that, you're not being fair. (But of course, if you're a reichwing media outlet, it is not necessary to claim any negative attributes of rightwing counterparts to the a leftwing actor you are disparaging.)
What they seem to not understand is that two groups of people can be very different. So, Ghengis Khan might not have been as concerned with members outside his ethnic group as Mother Theresa.
Get over wingnuts. Mitt Romney is a liar. He is unequaled, outside totalitarian regimes, in American Presidential history. Eventually people are going to understand this.
M. Fehrman ... Care to post a few examples for our consumption? We'll be happy to compare quality and quantity of lies between the two candidates.
I'm surprised that this site's resident "BOTH SIDES!!!" trolls haven't been all over the place yet.
How about instead of accusing Steve of not being fair and balanced, you tell us what you think Obama's lies are. Then we can tell you how they aren't. It's not like Steve has just said they are lies and expect us to accept his position. He generally provides links to where the information is available to prove it. Have you done that?
Cathy, no I have not provided sources to confirm my assertions of the lies Obama has told. Reason: I never made any assertions about lies he has told. I am not interested in comparing, tit for tat, who has told the most or the worst lies. It is an interesting question though. If Romney has told 10 lies and Obama has only told 8 lies, does that mean no one can point out Obama has lied until he's told at least two more lies? Or the other way around?
Please read again what I said in my statement above. My point is, when was the last time this blog even gently questioned anything Obama has done? That could include (but not be limited to) his promise to close Guantanamo, his signing of the NDAA, which included that little hidden bomb about Presidential power to arrest and hold indefinitely without due process anyone, anywhere in the world. Or how about the killing of civilians just because they happen to be standing next to someone accused of being a terrorist? I realize those things probably won't meet the "quality" criteria requested by mpguy for proper comparison. (Could someone please explain to me what a "quality" lie is and how that determination is made?)
I'm well aware of how "fair and balanced" Benen is. But, this blog is called "The Maddow Blog" Says so right up there on the banner head. Rachel is always talking about how she is not interested in personalities, how she does not support any candidates or parties. If she says it, I believe it. I'd just like to see her blog be faithful to that. Or, she should stop saying it, and I'll stop expecting something other than the one sided crap like you get on Fox News.
M.Fehrman, If you can prove Obama is lying then please post it. Fair is fair. Word of warning , you will be fact checked here.
In other words, you can not back up your claim.
I say again, I never made any assertions about lies he (Obama) has told. Jeebus guys. Posting on this blog has become almost as much fun as posting on any rightwing mouthbreather blog. No one actually reads what you say, just sees what they want to see because you don't agree with what they believe. THE WORDS ARE THERE! Please read them. What f#@%ing "claim" are you talking about? The NDAA he signed? Read it. Guantanamo still being open? Did I miss it? Did they close it? The fact that innocent civilians being killed in drone strikes? Even Obama doesn't deny that, just says if they are males of military age, then they are not innocent. I didn't say he lied, I said he did and continues to do these things and when will this blog address it?
It's clear, if you are not in complete agreement with everything being stated in this blog, you will be set upon by the "keepers of the truth" and told to get in line or get out. Not criticisms of Obama , Maddow or Benen accepted. Sounds a bit like Rush Limbaugh, no?
"My point is, when was the last time this blog even gently questioned anything Obama has done? That could include (but not be limited to) his promise to close Guantanamo, his signing of the NDAA, which included that little hidden bomb about Presidential power to arrest and hold indefinitely without due process anyone, anywhere in the world."
This Fehrman fella really has no clue about the liberal/progressive mind and world, does he? Obama has taken a mountain of grief from liberals and progressives over civil liberties, over spineless negotiating with Republicans, over too conservative economic policies, over his dealing with banks, over Tim Geitner, over Guantanamo, over the NDAA, ...
Sorry pal, but if you're into internecine infighting, welcome to liberal/progressive world. If you upset with groups that accept the party line, you need to go over to Wingnut World. That's where you'll find groupthink.
I am upset with Obama over simple little things like civil liberties, selling out the American people to the advantage of the banks and Big Business, caving to the Republicans every chance he gets, killing innocent civilians, pandering to the rich, etc.... and I don't need to go over to "Wingnut World", whenever that is. I've found group think right here. Excuse me while I go throw up my dinner. This is what the Maddow Blog has come to? Thanks a lot, Steve. Rush couldn't have done a better job.
Oh, and for the record, since that will be all there is about me on the blog after this... I am a life long Democrat, I voted for Barak Obama and cried watching "the night in the park" when he was elected, I am a proud American and will vote in the next election, as I have all my life since I was of age, I am NOT a "fella" but I am a 67 year old lesbian, and, here's the important point, when Obama loses to that total piece of crap Romney (I won't be voting for him either) it will be because of people like me, because we know we are being f@#$ed over by Obama and told to shut-up about it by people like you. So, you get your wish. I'm otta here.
So why don't you read the blog and find out for yourself? Despite the claims you've made for yourself, you've convinced at least me that you are a concern tr0ll. Either that, or you are a baby bird and we're all your mommy, and you're eagerly waiting for us to burp our digested wisdom down your gob. The former is more likely, I think.
You make me very, very sad, Fehrman. It's all about you, isn't it? Never mind that Romney, Ryan, McConnell will destroy Social Security, Medicare, etc. if they come to power. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...., you just can't have it that Obama, under the severest conditions a President can face, unequaled by other than 2 or 3 other Presidents, didn't serve you up every little bit of what your heart desires. So in a big harumph, you decide that your pet peeves are more important than the future of the country, its current citizens, and the unborn generations and are willing to turn the country over to a bunch of reverse Robin Hooders because you can't stomach the process of having to make a decision of the lesser of two evils.
Hear me clearly: PHHHUCK YOU!
@M You need to learn to pick your battles dude. The story is about the lies of Mit Romney. Tune into the blog when there is an article about President Obama and see how tough liberals/progressives are on their own. Stay on the rightwing blogs where you beong.
I sincerely doubt you are who you say you are, M Fehrman. A 67 year old lesbian would be able to recognize that Obama has had the best LGBT rights record of ANY president in U.S. history. If you were truly a 67 year old lesbian you'd be well aware of that just from having lived through all the previous presidents and being able to observe it for yourself. I have many friends in the LGBT community and every single one of them is supporting Obama regardless of their issues with his other policies because the simple fact that he recognizes that they should be treated like human beings and Romney and most Republicans don't is enough to win their vote. There are going to be two candidates on the ballot in November with a chance of victory, and they are Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. You will have to choose. Imaginary Liberal Messiah is not on the ballot.
I think it is safe to conclude Romney is perfectly comfortable making false and misleading statements. But what now?
What is the next step. When will the sunday shows make it an issue? When will brian williams and the network anchors practice actual journalism .
If 'mitts mendacity' is limited to outrage to liberal blogs - he wins.
I agree! I'd be shocked if the Sunday show hosts ever raised the issue of Romney's endless lying. They're too afraid of appearing biased. The facts be damned. Their appearance of neutrality is more important to them. For me, that makes their shows pointless.
I think it is safe to conclude Romney is perfectly
comfortableSAFE making false and misleading statements. there fixed it for youNo one except a few blogs and John Stewart ever points it out .
If a tree ...etc etc
Too bad Tim Russert isn't still doing MTP. Wouldn't he have a field day with Romney and his surrogates?
I know many Mormans , i've learned many years ago that their Church says its ok to lie to a NON-MORMAN , I was told this by more than one Morman , I have witnessed this on the job many times over , The funny thing about this is , The Muslims say the same thing , they have the same policy from their Church .
The Urban Dictionary - Pathological Liar :
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pathological+liar
1.
someone who lies constantly only for attention. they lie about the most simple things. exaggerates the situation to the point of fiction. is very nutty, and does need mental help.
2.
A person ( or Presidential Candidate ) who apparently seems to believe their lies like it was true.
How can anyone ignore Romneys lies and false stories...??? He is not a real person of understanding, concerning the lives of ordinary working people...I'm sure he is a good buisness person, He has proved that...After all it's hard to say ,what all of us might have accomplished,had we been born wealthy and received a good education...He knows nothing about the ordinary man and his needs to make a living...Not to mention his lack of foreign policy...He is a disaster waiting to happen..
Yes I forgot, when Obama lies it is called the deferred truth.
You lose any possibility you have of even possibly being taken remotely seriously by combining Obama's name with Mao's. You lose incredibly hard, but thanks for playing.
He is extremely wealthy, and has been his entire life. Seriously. I think that's the answer. There's a serious glitch in almost everyone's wiring that makes them turn stupidly passive in the face of wealth/power. Which, I think, is also why Romney is so monumentally bad at lying. No serious pushback means no motivation to learn how to lie well.
Romney's whole idea for becoming president is to make more money , Billions for his kids , Mormans are all about "MONEY" his .... yours ..... mine ...! !
I sorry I am a mormon and I was always taught a lie was a sin. The church says you are in the world but not a part of it. Meaning, you do not partake of sinful ways. I am a democrat and the church does not tell you who to vote for. I'm not rich and I worry about my income as others do.
Wow, this one I did not know... I must be falling out of the loop...
He is just a smelly bag of Mitt.
The writing is in the wall libs!!! Does not look good for the incumbent come November. Too many undecideds and that is never good for the incumbent.
Maybe Maddow could ask the POTUS about his grades at Harvard. He would not dare try to assert executive privilege to his MSNBC buddies.
Pretty weak stuff you got there, Chairman. I'd suggest adding a little hot sauce to your weak sauce.
Go easy on him. He's obviously a trainee tr0ll. You shouldn't be so cruel.
Screw that. I wonder if I can make his brain melt? How about:
That's from the real Mao. There's plenty more where that came from.
A Romney in the White House ....... Would ruin you righty , It would be your worst nightmare , You only think we have problems now .
@DisgustedWithItAlll
Good call on that one Disgusted. Seems that the Chairman is JUST LIKE his/her favorite candidate, Willard Romney --- TOTALLY BLAND! LOL
Not only "totally bland", but totally dishonest and waaaaay too impressed with himself.
Excellent job again, Steve. Keep up the good work. It's going to pay off.
Dems can attack the Romney business record all they want to. At least Romney has held a self supporting job in his life time. Obama has been living of the taxpayer for the majority of his career. President, Senator, Community Organizer (WTF is that?). I guess you could give him credit as a trial attorney (those guys are blood sucking individuals as well).
I know!!!! That's why you're all over McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, ..., and all the other wingnut "leaders" for this abominable behavior.
@Maobama Critic
Perhaps instead of just asking the question "WTF is that?" you look it up.
From Wikipedia:
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time. In the ideal, for example, this can get community organizing groups a place at the table before important decisions are made. Community organizers work with and develop new local leaders, facilitating coalitions and assisting in the development of campaigns.
I think that sounds like good experience for a President.
Yep. Maybe even better that corporate raiding and outsourcing jobs.
Somebody enroll "Critic" in one of my remedial history classes, okay? There we'll learn how Romney had to sell some of the stock his daddy gave him to finance his tuition at Brigham Young University... There's a lot more on that subject, like the house he purchased in Massachusetts while attending Harvard...
Compare that with Obama's inheritance from his father...
And I don't suppose writing two books--with those royalties part of the big chunk of the 1.6 million income the Obama's showed in 2005--counts as being self-supporting.
And boyhowdy, comparing a trial lawyer--which the President wasn't; he focussed on civil and voting rights--with the ghoulish corporate vampire actions at Bain Capital is equally nonsensical.
Please go back to FAUX Noise, okay? Tell them to send a better quality of fibber folks, please? At least they provide better entertainment...
Voting rights? You mean from non profit vote buying agencies like Acorn?
Stock options from daddy? Sounds like more liberal envy too me.
Oh, for Athena's sake. ACORN? Are you freaking kidding me? Get some fresh material or get off the damn stage!
Better yet, give him the hook.
Reminds me of the 12-year-old boy in the back seat of the car on vacation, holding his finger a half inch from his 8-year-old sister's shoulder, saying "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you..."
Steve, thank you for your unending quest to chronicle Willard's whopper, but you should probably be prepared for much worse — and soon. Once the Bloomin' Turd of Rove reprograms Mendacious Mitt at this weekend's Donor-palooza in Utah, a fresh torrent of new lies will start pouring from Willard's piehole fast and furious.
To borrow a quote from the country where Willard spent his Vietnam years, "J'accuse": Not only is Karl Rove's
American CrossroadsCross Off America's Road to the Truth SuperPAC coordinating with the Mittster's campaign, the Turd is actually calling the shots. Recall, if you will, this Bloomin' Turd gem from yesteryear:Willard creates his own reality every time he speaks (the only "act" Willard is capable of is speaking out of every side of his octagonal mouth). As you've chronicled only too well in recent months, whenever Slick Willard moves his lips, he's either lying or ignorant of the subject matter, so Turd no doubt gazed upon him after the nomination was sewn up, hungrily licked his own porcine lips, and thought to himself, "Fresh meat; fresh meat."
Someone with regulatory authority really should subpoena phone records to see just how many lies Turd has written into Willard's script over the last few months.
Whether this is the right palce to put this, I don't know. Here goes:
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Read a book called "Do Not Ask What Good We Do". It’s about a meeting Republicans had at a ritzy restaurant on Obama's inauguration day in which they planned the very obstructionism we have seen these past 3 1/2 years. Since the book came out, not one Republican who attended that meeting has denied what's in the book, and Senator Jim DeMint's office has acknowledged that he attended the meeting. Who else attended? Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bob MacDonald (Governor Ultrasound), Lyndsey Graham, Jim DeMint, etc.
Out of that meeting came McConnell’s statement that their first “priority was to make Obama a one term president”. First and main priority? Really? Wasn’t it supposed to be JOB, JOBS, JOBS?
This was planned. This was not an accident. This anti-Obama conspiracy started even before he was in the WH, as he was being sworn in as President.
This is Treason.
Pelosi had a perfect opportunity to throw Karl Rove in prison after he outed Valerie Plame, but she decided not to pursue it. Obama decided not to go after Bush, Cheney, et al, for war crimes, etc. Had he done it, the country would have backed him 100%, but no. And yet, now, we see a convicted felon (Darrell Issa) sitting in judgment of Democrats and "investigating" them now for anything they can hang them on. It's disgusting.
There is a word for this:
Lese-majesty (from the Latin laesa maiestas, "injured majesty"; in English, also lese majesty or leze majesty) is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state or, in this case, the person and office of the President.
Filibustering
Obstructionism
Wasting time of frivolous wedge issues rather than the serious business of Job creation
Voting down any and all Jobs Bills presented by the President. What happened to JOBS, JOBS, JOBS, GOP?
The relentless disavowal of their own ideas the moment Obama accepts them.
The determined campaign to repeal not only Obamacare but any and all advances in Rights that Obama may have signed.
The acceptance as Truth of any and all lies, conspiracy theories however farfetched or slanderous. they may be from whatever source.
A willingness and, in fact, stated objective to obstruct and destroy the People of America, the Economy and anything using the power of Congress that may make Obama look good.
The tacit acceptance of any Slanderous, Libelous lie against the President however farfetched it may be.
This is NOT politics. This is personal. This is an organized, deliberate campaign planned behind closed doors, a witch hunt against Obama and the dignity of the Presidency.
Perhaps, the entire Republican Party should be cited in Contempt of Congress, an institution meant to pass Bill that benefits the People and not themselves in their campaign to oust the president. It is Contempt for the President, Contempt for the Presidency BECAUSE of who holds it: Obama.
Lese majesty? Maybe not. After all there is no Majesty in America. But Lese Presidency? Definitely.
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I, really, would like an answer.
@from TO
You started off with this statement:
"Whether this is the right p[la]ce to put this, I don't know. "
I would respond that there is no wrong place to put this.
Very well stated! Should be repeated anywhere and often!
Bravo TO, Bravo. It needed to be said, though Republicans are all like those drones in Orwells 1984. They cannot think for themselves, only what fox news and Republican politicians tell them.
@ from TO
This is the type of stuff we should be hearing from the lame stream media, but they are too afraid. I also noticed that not one person that attended this meeting deny that this was their agenda.
Well said TO.
PLEASE PLEASE People, lets not cloud our republican friend's minds with facts.
thank you for this service to your country
Hey Steve... I still take exception to item 8. The guy wasn't talking about a U.S.P.S. change of address form. He was talking about a form to continue receiving payment for Medicade/Medicare services. Other than that, the list is fab, as always, and I look forward to it each week.
@Cathy in IL There's an update at the bottom of his original post that links to thr relevant form
Wow! All this bickering over a habitual lying politician. No need for it folks, in fact Washington DC is so full of liars, republicans in general, that it should be renamed, MENDA-CITY.
Not like Mitt Romney. That boy's in a class all by himself.
This horrible person can't lose quickly enough. Go home Mitt!
@Steve Benen-
Great - as always - but you missed one that he said at least twice and probably more. He said to NALEO "For two years, this President had huge majorities in the House and Senate – he was free to pursue any policy he pleased." And to Bob Schieffer he said a similar if not identical thing. He clearly was not free to break the filibuster, as he had a 60 vote majority for only 50 days, during which time the country was focused on urgent immediate issues.
Of those 50 days, Congress only worked half of them. They only had the 60 vote majority for 24 session days.