Just last night, Rachel reported on Mitt Romney's new campaign offensive -- based entirely on a President Obama quote that's been taken out of context -- and stepped back to consider the larger context, which leads to a subject near and dear to me.
"There's also an interesting conversation to be had," Rachel noted, about how much you can get away with and still be considered a viable candidate for president." This conversation can be built on straightforward question: "Are we so inured to the idea of everybody calling each other a liar, that when somebody actually really does blatantly lie it doesn't matter anymore? Ultimately, that is not a question about these guys fighting it. That is a question about us."
Before you answer that question, perhaps consider the 26th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. The Romney campaign argued this week that Fisker Automotive "got over half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy, which did not result in jobs being created in America, but actually jobs being created overseas in Finland."
This has been debunked over, and over, and over, and over again. It was a lie when it came up a year ago, and now it's been downgraded to a rather pathetic lie.
2. At a campaign event in Bowling Green, Ohio, Romney said Obama intends to "raise taxes on small business."
No, actually, he doesn't. In fact, it's a detail that generally goes overlooked, but the president has actually cut taxes on small businesses several times.
3. At the same event, Romney added, "This president said he'd cut the deficit in half. He's doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double" means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times, Romney's lying.
4. Romney also argued, "The president and his administration said they are going to usurp your religious freedom by demanding that you provide products to your employees, if you're the Catholic Church, that violates your own conscience."
Neither the Catholic Church nor any other house of worship are required to "provide products" -- in this case, contraception -- to their employees. Churches are exempt from preventive-care requirements. Romney knows this, but continues to lie anyway.
5. He went on to say, "There's only one person I know who has cut Medicare by $500 billion, and that's President Obama."
Romney says this a lot. He's not telling the truth.
6. Romney told WTOL in Ohio that, when it came to the rescue of the auto industry, "My plan was absolutely right." (thanks to reader F.B. for the tip)
7. The Romney campaign said repeatedly this week that it's "standard" for a presidential nominee to only release two years' worth of tax returns.
8. At a rally in Irwin, Pennsylvania, Romney said, "The Chamber of Commerce went out to their members and surveyed them and said, 'What's been the impact of Obamacare?' And three-quarters -- three-quarters -- said they are less likely to hire people because of Obamacare."
The "survey" is a joke. The Chamber, a pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses is fundamentally dishonest.
9. At the same event, Romney claimed that President Obama promised "he'd hold unemployment below 8 percent."
As Romney surely knows by now, that's simply not true.
10. He also said, "When you increase the number of regulations that are created three times that of his predecessor ... you don't add jobs."
This is based on a dishonest premise. Obama approved fewer regulations in his first three years in office than Bush did in his first three years.
11. Romney went on to say, "When you put in place regulations that don't allow coal to be able to be mined or to be used, these things kill jobs, and that's got to stop."
In reality, coal production is up, not down.
12. Romney added, "I'm ashamed to say that we're seeing our president hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors.... That kind of crony capitalism does not create jobs, and it does not create jobs here."
There is no universe in which this is even remotely true.
13. At the same event, Romney said Obama blamed "ATM machines" for economic problems.
As his lies go, this one's just dumb.
14. Romney also argued, "We won't forget, by the way, that Congress was in his party for two years with a supermajority."
That's demonstrably untrue. In Obama's first two years, Democrats did not have a supermajority for 20 out of 24 months.
15. Romney went on to say, "You can look at what [Obama] said. And what he said was this; he said, and I quote, and he's speaking, by the way, of business like this one; small businesses, big businesses, middle-sized businesses, mining businesses, manufacturing service businesses of all kinds. He said this; 'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.'"
16. He added, "The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor, that Papa John didn't build Papa John Pizza, that Ray Kroc didn't build McDonald's, that Bill Gates didn't build Microsoft, you can go on to list.... To say something like that is not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America, and it's wrong."
The only two accurate words in that quote are, "It's wrong." The rest is ridiculously untrue, since Obama never said economic pioneers didn't build their enterprises.
17. Romney said, "Look, President Obama attacks success, and therefore, under President Obama we have less success."
For one thing, Romney has never been able to point to a single instance in which Obama has attacked success. For another, we're having a hell of a lot more success now than we were four years ago.
18. Romney went on to say the president is "trying to take work out of welfare requirements."
This is untrue to a jaw-dropping degree.
19. He added that Obama "wants Americans to be ashamed of success."
If Romney can produce any evidence in support of this lie, I'll donate a bucket of cash to the charity of his choice.
20. Romney said "in the last three and a half years, we've seen ... higher taxes keeps us from achieving what we can achieve."
Taxes haven't gone up; they've gone down. In fact, Americans' federal tax burden has down, reaching a 30-year low after Obama cut taxes in 2009.
21. Romney spoke about trade agreements and said, "Do you know how many this president's put in place? Zero. Zero."
I don't know why Romney keeps telling this lie, but he does.
22. Romney vowed, "Slow growth means fewer jobs, and that is why as president of the United States, I will get America on track to have a balanced budget."
There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary. 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.
23. The Romney campaign argued this week that Obama "told the businesspeople of America they shouldn't take credit for building their businesses."
Not only did Obama not say this, the president's argument was later endorsed by Mitt Romney.
24. The Romney campaign also claimed that the president "never really held a private sector job in which he earned a real paycheck."
This is a common attack, but it's not true. Obama worked at a private-sector law firm before entering public service.
25. The campaign also argued that Obama has accused Romney of "not paying taxes."
That's wrong, too. Team Obama has said there are all kinds of unanswered questions about Romney's finances, since he keeps his tax returns secret, but neither Obama nor his campaign has ever said Romney didn't pay his taxes.
26. The Romney campaign also released a video that tied together two separate Obama sentences to make it seem as if he was making an argument he did not make.
Even by 2012 standards, wrenching presidential comments from context this ridiculously was outrageously dishonest.
Finally, Romney told Fox News this week, "A campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty does not have long legs." We'll learn soon enough whether that's true.
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, XXIII, XXIV, XXV
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Pop quiz: Name the first nominee for President of the United States from a major party to have had a secret Swiss bank account.
If your Memory Isn't There Today (MITT), then here's a hint: He needs to take his flip-flops off before he sticks his foot in his mouth.
Why not just call Mitt what he is?
A pathological liar.
Not pathological, just doing what it takes to win. He -and his staff- know that the media will not call him on it, and they also know that the small percentage of voters that are even listening are doing it with half an ear.
As evidence I offer the percentage of Americans that still think Obama was born in Kenya.
If it can't fit on a bumper sticker, then it does not, like that tree in the forest, make a sound.
No. He is going well beyond that. I mean it is true that there is no way in h*ll he could win on his non-platform, his Swiss accounts etc. But there is something much more sinister and much more pathological about him.
He clearly has no conscience whatsoever. He lies the same way serial Ted Bundy lied to get those women he killed to trust him.
Imagine him as head of state: what other nation on earth would believe a single word he said???
I won't comment on all of Benin's claims at "lies" he said Romney made. First, on contraception, the Catholic Church, through it's charitable affiliates, is being ordered to provide free contraception to it's employees. The charitable affiliate adhere to Catholic principles, which include banning contraception. The Pres tried to work around this by ordering insurance cos to pay. But, many affiliates are self insured. Therefore, the Pres is ordering Catholic affiliates to go against their principles.
Second is the $500 billion being taken from Medicare. Almost half of the payment for the ACA was to reduce Medicare by that amount by, purportly eliminating "waste and fraud". We must have some pretty incompetent administrators when that much has been allowed to exist. Then, the control board who is going to control the increase costs. No one cqn define their role or how they will do this, since their charter is toothless.
I could go on, but I don't have time.
We have ample evidence of what passes for conscience in the Catholic church in their treatment of pedophile priests, and you have picked just one of Mitt Romney's ongoing pattern of lies to address. There is a separation between church and state in this country, and the Catholic conscience is on the other side of that wall under our Constitution. They need to stay on their side of the fence. Working for a Catholic affiliate should not make a person into a second class citizen by forcing them to accept poor health care. Next thing you know, they will drop dental plans because there were no dentists mentioned in the bible.
One of the difficulties here is that once someone has made a decision about a candidate, it seems the other guy becomes an enemy and in the blindness that results from the decision, people begin to defend the lies of their candidate. This series by Benin, while admittedly biased in that it focuses on the lies of Mr. Rmoney is nonetheless accurate, in that Mr. Romney does, in fact, tell those lies to his supporters, who cheer him on and fail to call him on it. For example, your first point seems to be that affiliates adhere to doctrine, which, while accurate, seriously misses the point. The point being that the employee, the one who is covered by insurance, may not adhere to doctrine. That employee is being denied a benefit because his employer doesn't believe in it. In that sense the employer, not the government, is interfering with the employee's freedom of religion. The employee is always free not to utilize the benefit. To argue otherwise is a lie. Some organizations do not believe in contraception, some do not believe in vaccination, some do not believe in some vaccines, some do not believe in blood transfusions, some argue against the provision of needles. The provision of the benefit is what is at issue here, not the allegiance to someone else's doctrine.
Your second point, as stated, is simply inaccurate, and in that sense, is also untrue, and, as stated by Romney is a fabrication, a lie. But repeating the lie gins up the base, doesn't it, which reinforces its ideological hatred of the administration, particularly the president, and that ginning is really Romney's goal and the purpose of your post.
Romney knows he's lying and so do you.
Yes, but Romney is telling the lies he wants to hear.
Liar? Obama promised to cut the deficit in half and then almost doubled it, he flat out lied about knowing what happened in Libya, claims it was about some video! So everybody knew it was a terrorist attack but the President? Really? Romney has a record of doing what he says in Mass. Balanced budgets, #1 in the nation in education. Passed a health care bill with support across the board! Obama has record of doing nothing that he promised. He assure us that unemployment would not go above 8%. Romney a Liar? Are you kidding me? Obama will bury this county so deep we will never recover!
I think the Obama campaign should buy an hour of airtime on all the major networks, even Fox, and go through Steve's list of Mitt's Mendacity. Tackle them one lie at a time, showing exactly what Mitt said, followed by the proof that it is a lie. Finish with the President speaking directly to viewers about whom they can and cannot trust in this election. It may be difficult to get through the list in a single hour, but imagine the impact it could have on the undecided and independent voters.
And the audience will be who?
(Remember Ross "Chart Man" Perot, and his half hour TV extravaganza?)
Maybe they could get all the cable channels that wouldn't be showing it to help foot the bill for the airtime.
But you know what, there is a large constituency that thinks all these lies are the truth. Romney is crafting his strategy to take advantage of just these folks that are uninformed and too lazy to do research on their own. And it sickens me. Romney is crafty and wily and knows exactly what he's doing. Just as he knew how to shelter his income and just as he's banking on the American people not following through on greater transparency about his tax returns.
I hope the Obama campaign is keeping track of this series, Steve, because they will be able to use it in the debates. But then, the people Romney is targeting will probably be totally brainwashed by then.
Welllll, I'd say there is a "large constituency" that likes those lies and will eagerly repeat them.
How much of this is causing cognitive dissonance on the part of his supporters? I'm guessing that most of the people you're talking about really know deep down when Mitt is uttering a falsehood. At least some of them are bothered enough by the knowledge that he's a pathological liar to question his suitability for office. .
However, they want to vote for him--or, at least, against Obama--so badly that they can't acknowledge that fact publicly. The result is a lot of weird justifications and denial of reality necessary to "accept" (at least at a conscious level) the patent nonsense Mitt is putting out.
Let Romney's video's of him being on both sides of an issue do all the talking. You don't have to do a thing but play the video.
Robem lies more then a old rug.
On another thread today, relating to the "mistaken" ABC report on the identity of the alleged CO shooter, they were quick to issue an retraction and apology for the "mistake." Now, as I said on the other comment, what prevents them from exposing the Romney lies that are absolutely verifiable? And, if they want to be absolutely "fair and balanced," do the same with the opposing side. I have no problem with that. I think the list of lies will be quite telling.
Oh, what a relief that would be!!
And put Rush on that show. He claims to do research, so let him do it (research) (perform) where people can see how he actually does it. All I hear from the Rush fans is that BOTH sides only talk from talking points and no one bothers with facts. SO sad. This is what so many believe!
So support the plastic man because he's "like us"!! HA You can't fight that logic with truth!! Believe me, I try!
The Obama administration has forbidden new power plants to use coal. By itself this must inevitably lead to reduced employment in the coal industry. If you think that CO2 causes global warming, reducing the use of coal is good, but you can't avoid the reduced employment in the industry. You can't have it both ways, saying that Obama's reduction of coal use is good for both the coal industry and for the environment. Possibly you could say that the slack in coal employment will be taken up by that in the natural gas industry. Has the Obama administration actually done something in some other energy industry that would make up for the reduction in employment in coal? That would be a good thing.
mmm, other than supporting alternative energy companies, giving grants to support alternative energy research, approving projects, etc?
Well you are dead wrong about that . It is the abundance of cheap natural gas (ironically through fracking) that has dethroned coal . It is cheaper to use natural gas, it gets piped in so there are no transportation costs .
Sorry, but you're just flat out wrong. And I knew it before I even bothered to google the question because I learned to identify the smell of coal industry flack bull@!$%# decades ago in my first job.
The EPA has proposed (not implemented) regulations to reduce CO2 emissions. Here's a summary.
http://epa.gov/carbonpollutionstandard/pdfs/20120327proposal.pdf
They don't say what kind of fuel you can burn. The proposed regulations would just regulate how much CO2 can go into the air per megawatt hour generated. The standard is based on the emissions from current natural gas plant technology (which is how the Clean Air Act works--as written by Congress, it requires that the EPA write regulations mandating the use "best available technology" to reduce regulated pollutants in new or expanded power plants).
If the coal and power industries can find a way to keep enough CO2 out of the air to meet that standard, they can burn all the damn coal they want.
And it's a funny thing. Every single time the EPA has regulated and air pollutant, the affected industries have insisted that they can't possibly meet this burdensome new regulation and they wail and gnash their teeth and spend tens of millions lobbying against it, and litigating and running ads demanding that people write their Congressman. And then, when the regulation finally goes into effect, wouldn't you know it? It turns out they've already got the technology to do the thing they said the couldn't do ready and waiting to go.
Steve's comments are exactly correct (I work in the industry). Meet the EPA emission standards and you can burn all the coal you want, plus those new standards are not enforceable yet. The electric industry has been working on installing and retrofitting new equipment (scrubbers and such) for 10+ years now. It is expensive to do so. Natural gas is abundant and much cheaper In the meantime, so THAT's why coal plants are being retired or switched to gas.
So skeptonomist, your statement that the Obama Admin is forbidding coal is wayyyyyy off base. The coal industry is doing fine anyway. Why? Because demand from other countries is up. That means prices per ton are up too.
thank you for this service to your country
Unfortunately, its service to Rachel's choir.
This needs to hit the MSM so hard the conservative propaganda juggernaut can't suppress it.
I'm going to print this volume and mail it to every paper's editor in the US who's address I can find, starting with the Boston Globe. The cost of a few stamps could well get this information out to the resisting half of this crazy nation.
NeedMoreCoffee -
Don't forget to include the links to the supporting info. :-)
Please do send this out. That way everyone can see how much effort Rachel and her followers put in to twisting simple facts into total nonsense. The whole concept here would be funny...like this video..
http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/lists/shark-pool-official-movie-trailer
if what we were discussing wasn't the most monumentally important election in the history of our country.
Well, as far as I know, Rachel, and perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell, have been the very few who have called Romney an outright liar. Everyone else pussyfoots around this, using every single alternate word in the thesarus to avoid saying "liar". I don't think he's been called a liar enough.
How can anyone even contemplate voting for this man ? Romney is lying every time he is seen on Television and every time he is giving print interviews. How can some people not see this ? The chosen ignorance about who this man is -- and the greed and tax fraud he stands for at the cost of the rest of America -- is beyond belief. ( this accidentally got posted on the article about Rep Grmm. I menat for it to post here. )
hello Hope, like your avatar.
Because they don't know he's lying. The media doesn't tell them -- just take a look at the NYT or any network news -- and they aren't paying attention.
Hi Pilotshark. Thank you. I went to an Organizing For America meeting yesterday where I live and this poster of President Obama was up everywhere. It is one of my favorite images of him. I hope all is well with you.
And Disgustedwithitall you are so right about that. People only know what the media feeds them. MSNBC gives people a lot of really important information as does Mother Jones, Politico, Huffington Post etc. But only people who give a damn about the truth pay any attention to it !
I am well thanks.
and it seems all is well with you?
As well as can be expected. Thanks for asking. It was so good to be at that meeting yesterday in a large room full of Democrats who care about our society and about this next Presidential election which is so very crucial for the future of our Democratic Republic.
yes,
and its good to know there's people like you and others who will take the time to stay informed.
this is so true! just how our founding fathers wanted it to be, you know the best of all things.
Democratic Republic
With Liberty and Justice for All ! Not that this has ever been a perfect social experiment where there actually has been liberty and justice for everyone -- but at least we have something to strive for and fight for !
Roger That!
I just wish I thought that it mattered that Mitt's lies are chronicled here for the world to see. At least 45% of the voting public doesn't care, and will never care, no matter how much evidence is presented to them.
I was going to say the same thing . He lies because he gets away with it .
Did anyone , anyone see a balanced report on the MSM about the "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen." quote
And now the man with the biggest pair on the planet is going to issue an ad with the heavily edited video and I can guarantee there will be somthing like a 30second spot .
"democrats disagree with Romney commercial"
Now a report on Tom and Katie
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/romney-turns-misleadingly-edited-obama-video-into-ad-buy.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
Mitt=LLPOF
How can americans really believe that the president is responsible for the bleek job situation in this country. Congress is the legislative branch who is to create laws (job bill) and then send to the president to sign. Have the Republicans put a job bill on the table? The president did last September which is still on Boehner's desk. They have no intention on helping to move the country forward except to win this election and that has been their goal since 2009. Heaven help us if they should win.
As to the issue of Warren quote, the President flubbed it. Sorry, but he did. He said and I quote: "If you've got a business you didn't build that". I assume he meant to say "You didn't build that on your own".
He also went on to sort of attack entrepreneurs by saying of them: [ If I was successful ] "it must be just because I was so smart" and "...because I worked harder than anybody else". Mean sounding and unnecessary.
So in this case, his flubs gave the Romney campaign all the ammunition it needed. he should have stuck to the simple message that Elizabeth Warren laid out. That was a gem! As you, Rachel, pointed out, Romney takes enough of the President's words out of context or lies outrightly. Let's not make it easier for Romney to use the President's own words against him.
please go back and read the entire quote. when he said that, he was referring to infrastructure, not someone's business.
@Daviderata
So unfair that I can't give this one (post) 10 arrows up!!!
Whatever Obama says can and will be used against him!!
50% of USA has an IQ LESS than 100 points. We get the government we deserve and we fail to adequately educate in this USA. I thought the purpose of public education was to have informed voters! First, students have to be taught to question, to search for truth and then to THINK! If they can't write cursive, then they can't read it either!
If 50% of the country has an IQ of less than 100, doesn't that say something about our teachers and public education?
No, it does not. But your question says something about your education.
Tom, IQ scores are determined by standardized testing. 100 is set as the average score, and population IQ follows a bell curve. Hence, approximately 50% of the population will be of below average intelligence.
How do you know if Willard is lying? His lips are moving.
RM, To your Romney campaign...offensive?? I'm not sure. On a related subject, may have an example of "Chrome Capitalism":
Yesterday TRMS, Beiber/Fisker story, Questions, as follows:
To get up to speed...Justin Beiber caught speeding...100mph+...in silver/chrome 100K electric Fisker roadster...whose manufacturer recvd funding from Obama Admin program, Greenster Al Gore, The Megster Whitman, and others. Oh, Baby, BABY!
Hey, I just remembered...I have a set of silver Fiskers. Yeah, baby. Question: Does this mean that I should be expecting...calls from superpacs and political fundraisers?? If so, how much will they ask for? I already invested...about $10 for the Fiskers...a silver set of Fisker silver sissors, at Staples. Staples, oh, no! Does that put me on the donation-call list as a Romney supporter/donor? I was also planning on getting 2% back next quarter, as a long-time Staples Rewards member. But I cannot recall ever recvg or participating in an upfront equity distribution or profit sharing, or having any Staples stock placed in my IRA account.
Also, if I wanted to attend a Romney dinner/campaign fundraiser, like the one at Cheney residence...can I carry forward my recent $10 Fisker purchase at Staples? Then, I will only have to make up the difference...about another $49.990, give or take, for a seat at the table. And would that include a candidate photo-op, or would that be an additional $50,000? Would it be a smaller donation if I asked for a photo-op with one of his dogs...sort of a Dog Day Afternoon deal?
Oh, Almost forgot, I also purchased some GoodGrip kitchen implements at Staples...made of same synthetic rubber material as used in Beiber's Fisker roadster tires. Let me know. I will try to call/stop by early,upcoming week. END. All above fictional. Any similarity to real person(s), event(s), and/or place(s) coincidental. Not responsible for errors. Strong week of TRMS.
Read a discussion of Mitt Romney's possible psychopathic behavior here : http://danger-clearandpresent.blogspot.com/
Obama has to do what Clinton/Gore did and have a truth meter every time Romney says an untruth, and get it out there right away. The only way Republicans win is by cheating, Bush/Gore, lying, the swit boat campagin, and stealing, with the Koch Bros. buying it.
They can't win it on their Ideas: Individual mandate, loosen enviornmental protection, and food inspections, more for the job creators, privatize social security, medicare vouchers, more for the military, another war in the middle east, drilling every where, fracking in every state, and doing away with the saftey net.
I hope all these Colorado victims had health insurance!!
Where is the group that shouted at the repubs. "Let them die!" if they don't have insurance. They sure are quiet NOW!
And they said ...young people don't need coverage, so don't ask them to buy it. Maybe the young will have a 2nd thought ~ like could've been ME!
All these victims weren't old insured people, some were quite young!!
RE: Bane/Bain (not a new thing or word!)
"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a
wolf when the wolfbane blooms ... and the autumn moon is bright."
This famous poem from the 1941 classic film "The Wolfman" speaks of plants
that signal a time of magical transformation. Those unfortunates attacked by a
werewolf change under the light of the full moon into the very beast that bit
them.
How can you tell if Willard is lying? His lips are moving.
Sorry, double post not intended
It isn't that Romney doesn't know what "double" means, it's that he doesn't know what "middle class" or "small business" mean.
He perhaps has never encountered either.
He's certainly never considered the effect of any economic idea on them.
.
I've compiled the the CMM's into two downloadable files. I would have gone ahead and done them as one, but I figured this way, no one would have to worry themselves with whether or not the files are clean. I created these by providing the links. The files were generated by the service.
http://readlists.com/3bc093f6
http://readlists.com/4a0ee2fc
The can be downloaded in epub format or sent to a Kindle or i-device.
You do some good work, Steve, but issue a side note on number 25 in this list. According to this ad approved by Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMo5pykT4uw
they actually do raise the question of whether in "some years he paid any taxes at all." While the ad is clever not to word it as a formal accusation (even though that's the impression they want to leave with the viewer), it's evidence that Romney is not pulling the idea out of thin air or misrepresenting it.
The only minor critique you could make of Romney in this instance is his choice of words. "The Obama campaign is urging viewers to wonder whether I pay any taxes at all," would be a slightly more accurate statement - but he's not in "lying" territory on this one.
What really bothers me about Romney isn't the contortions of fact (not to mention the outright lies) in and of themselves. It's the emotionless recitation and repetition. He seems almost sociopathic; like there's no conscience, empathy, remorse, or anything else resembling true feeling.
I expect a certain amount of "spinning." But I also expect ANY candidate for public office to demonstrate some respect for the truth. And at least a good approximation of interest in, and concern for, the people he's striving to serve. So far, Romney has lacked both.