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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Looks like we now have a brain wiring explanation for why conservatives think the way they do:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/altriusm-brain-temporoparietal-junction_n_1679766.html
I wonder if they ate too much junk food during their brain development phase?
Steve, your list would be a lot shorter if it was a list of what Willard told the truth about.
Mark Twain quote " a lie can travel half way around the world before the truth gets it shoes on."
What's MITT hiding?
The same thing his billionaire church is hiding.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18944097
Blue Lake Paradise?
I don't care what Mitt has to say, till he answer's the questions concerning his tax returns, all other have released the last 12 years of their tax returns, and Mitt has chosen not to, he is hiding something and until he releases his tax returns I will not listen to another one of his BS speech's or comment on his problems.
Mitt your lying to America and screwing the very people that support you, give up your tax information NOW, we want you to explain why your scared of releasing simple finical documentation?
Mitt release your tax information now.
Romney can't tell the truth without proving he has no business running. It's about time that telling a lie in a political address or ad becomes a felony requiring jail time in a maximum security prison. Sadly, because that would jail every Republican and a pretty good minority or Democrats, it'll never happen.
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I do believe that Romney is seriously, Preaching to choir, That falsehood, Of a Moronic wishy-washy, White-Bred liar, He should be punished for criminal activities, On basic medicare and medicaid, For defrauding the Damion company, In loss investments. He needed to be in jail. Not in a presidential election. He ought leave the white house for ethic violations, On 15 charges, Of crimes against human rights! He needs to leave the country in the U.S.A., And for good reasons, To be not a president anymore.
AMERICA KNOWS
America knows that rape is rape. You can’t parse rape. To say that a woman who was raped and then subsequently became pregnant wanted the rape is absurd. Every rapist ever arrested has said “She wanted it.” I have to wonder if Todd Aiken was saying what he was saying about rape to clear his own conscious – publicly.
This idea of “legitimate rape” is beyond anything a normal human being could possible conceive, yet there we have it. Mr. Aiken, a candidate for the United States Senate said it. His overall position regarding abortion mirrors that of the Republican Party, in particular the current candidates for President and Vice President.
I truly admire the Republican Party’s capacity and ability to convince people to oppose things that are good for them. A recent example: Affordable Health Care. Now they are trying to convince us, and in particular rape victims, that rapes resulting in pregnancy are not “legitimate rape” (whatever that is) because the woman wanted it. Okay ladies maybe its time those of you who were raped, and I’m sure there are as many Republican women who have experienced this nightmare as their are Democratic women, its time to show up at Mr. Romney’s and Mr. Ryan’s campaign appearances and as the Godfather would say, “Explain it to them.”
Ladies no man can ever understand or know the trauma you experienced. To say you wanted it is tantamount to saying a prisoner of war wanted to be captured. Let’s ask John McCain if he wanted to be captured. I know this is a crazy analogy, but then the belief that a woman raped wanted it is insane. By its very definition rape is unwanted forced sex. It is not a crime of passion; it is a crime of violence. I suppose everyone who has been assaulted or mugged - wanted it? Will this now open the door to rapists for release? Will Republican governors now release all the rapists in their prisons except in the cases where the women raped did not become pregnant? Is that the new criteria for determining rape?
I think reasonable people find this thinking to be an aberration. But if it is part of the overall thinking and mind set of the Republican Party, and its candidates, then We the People must respond at the ballot box.
I try to stay neutral when writing about the presidential campaign, but something like this transcends neutrality. The Republican Party and its candidates have traveled beyond the sphere of reality. Is the country going to be duped into putting men with bizarre beliefs in power? Are we going to support men who believe women who are raped wanted it?
This issue goes beyond the economy, it goes to the heart and soul of America. Republicans are great for touting family values, yet to what party do sexual deviates generally belong? Elected Republican officials have been caught with same sex partners even while on committees that oppose gay rights. How hypocritical can you get? Family values are a smoke screen behind which sexual misconduct is disguised as righteousness. Do we really want these people running our country?
The rest of the civilized world must look at us and laugh until they cry; all the while praying that sanity will prevail. After all the man we elect has the little black box by his side. What if he goes off the rails?
Using the logic of the Republican Party the Jews must have wanted to go into the concentration camps. Why else would they have been there? And what about the people in New Orleans victimized by Katrina, and every other disaster - including loosing their jobs? These Bible thumping, family values people ignore the basic principles of the Bible while wearing them on their sleeves. To describe them as disingenuous is too soft. The right language to describe them would not be allowed on television.
Comparisons to this kind of incomprehensible thinking are reminiscent of NAZI thinking and policy. If the Nazi’s could declare Jews as less than human then they could act on that thinking. What might we expect from the current Republican Party if it treats women as second class citizens? It is no longer an American values party; it is a party whose only focus is obtaining power.
If history has taught us anything it’s that influential people will manipulate the thinking of those with lesser intellects to use them to gain power. Unfortunately the influential people are planning to use the just plain folks for their own agenda. It’s a course of action that precludes things like equality and justice for all.
And what’s next?
A Romney/Ryan administration will turn this country upside down. They will take away our social safety nets: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade among other things like food stamps and unemployment. Would they replace these things? No.
Social Security would become fodder for Wall Street. Medicare and Medicade will become Medican’t. Food stamps or SNAP would be eliminated, and “sold” to Americans as a way to reduce child obesity. As for unemployment we all know that people collecting unemployment are fat lazy beer and wine drinking bums who mostly live in the back hills of every state, and they don’t want to work. Of course the fact that the unemployed earned their benefits by having a job, oftentimes for decades, that was taken away from them, in part, by companies like Bain Capital isn’t considered.
Let those who want a college education borrow from their parents. You know, the parents whose 401ks or IRAs were decimated to the tune of 50% or more. That is if they haven’t had to use that money to survive over the last seven years. Of course the parents could sell their home and…oops! They can’t sell their home because too many are upside down in them.
Mr. Romney and his circle of friends don’t face those issues. So they can sit back, be smug, and advise the just plain folks, “just do like I do.” How does this man sit?
Question for all the statistitions here. Keeping the Mittax in the back of our minds I believe the bigger question may be religious in nature. Since the Catholics have been mentioned and are part of what needs to be pondered with regard to insurance....what about the majority of members of The Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and the number of children each family bears? Something I was told 30+ years ago haunts me more now that ever. A cousin (Mormon) who had sent a Christmas card with all of his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren....had asked me if I thought he really paid taxes to our Federal Govt..."with all those kids, I don't pay". Well, is this not the same as welfare? Aren't we all subsidising this religion if indeed very little tax is being paid based on the size of the family? Personally I was blessed with the average 1.5 kids and fortunately able to pay my fare share of taxes. Is it no wonder Utah is the richest state in this Great United States? Can someone out there explain this phenomenon? I'm also curious if this part of the fear of the LDS faith in this Presendential election?
Notice the convention clip with Romney mocking Pres. Obama has been edited.Where he claims Obama said he'd raise the seas,etc.Instead of the snotty look he wore(all he lacked was eye roll)it cuts from convention to Romney walking away or something.Probably because it caused people to wish they could bitch slap him,he was so condescending and disrespectful.
In a news story from Minnesota, there is a potential lesson -and hope- for candidate Mitt Romney. The very same Mitt Romney, who in recent remarks, abandoned nearly half the people in America.
It’s a story about a 4 year old Pekingese dog, appropriately enough named Mittens, and an abandoned kitten.
Mittens' owner, Pat Weber, says the kitten was just days old when her grandson found her in the family's barn and brought her into their house in early September. Weber says the 2-inch kitten was "ice cold," ...She wrapped the animal in a warm towel and it started meowing, which attracted Mittens.
The kitten, now named Bootsie, began suckling on Mittens. Weber says her dog, which had a litter two years ago, has nursed Bootsie ever since. "Mittens has been mothering this baby, as far as she is concerned it's hers," she said. "And as far as the kitten is concerned, this is her mother”.
Mr. Romney: What a wonderful, heart-warming lesson for you. For if Mittens the dog can find it in her heart, not only to adopt Bootsie the cat, but to actually start lactating for her....then perhaps you too, Mitt, can start lactating a bit with the milk of human kindness and understanding,.... and try to run as President for ALL the people - not just a potential President of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.
Think about it Mittens, ....I mean Mitt.
Romney has no business saying anything about foreign policy since he's shown he doesn't really understand much. In a dangerous world we need a "leader" not a "script reader."
Contrast the ham-fisted, U.S. on its own and against the world approach of Bush and the Republicans in Iraq vs. the smart, goal oriented foreign policy approach Obama used in Libya. In Iraq we jumped into a civil war with our eyes closed and on our own, costing thousands of American lives and leaving a trillion dollar bill for American taxpayers. A foreign policy based mainly on saber rattling, threats and bombs left us with few friends and only strengthened our enemies all over the world.
In Libya. despite Romney's pathetic and almost treasonous effort to make a bad situation worse after the American ambassador was assassinated, pro-American Libyans stormed the headquarters of the militia they thought were responsible and burned it to the ground.
Romney's foreign policy "advisors" who tell him what to say are the same ones who told Bush what to do - something Romney hopes people won't notice.
I am TERRIFIED by the idea of "President Romney!" This is no joke. Who is going to protect us from the greed, lack of empathy, disgust for those who need help? I am confused by the 50% of the country that doesn't get how dangerous this guy and his vice presidential pick Paul Ryan are. What are people thinking? Are they so racist that they are willing to throw the country under the bus rather than give Obama more time. Notice we hear nothing from the president who got us in this mess to begin with. He's on his ranch collecting his oil profits and watching everything go to hell.
Romney and Ryan they've been a lying. Now Obama, he's like your Momma, he'll take care of you.
When Romney goes to his Bishop to renew his temple recommend he will be ask if he was honest in his business dealings. Right now his business is trying to get elected. He will again have to lie to his Bishop and say yes or he will not get his temple recommend. This coward would sell his soul to the devil to get elected. What a desperate individual he is. Sad, very sad.