Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has presented the political world with an important test. I'm eager to see whether we pass or fail.
First, a little background. Some Republican governors this year asked the Obama administration for some new flexibility on welfare standards -- the governors had some ideas about moving folks from welfare to work and needed the White House to sign off. Obama agreed -- existing work requirements would stay in place, but states, if they want to, can take advantage of new flexibility when it comes to experimenting with existing law.
This is the sort of shifting-power-to-the-states policy that Republicans are supposed to love. As of this morning, however, it's the basis for a new Mitt Romney attack ad.
It's important to realize this is as dishonest an ad as you'll ever see -- in 2012 or in any other campaign cycle.
For those who can't watch clips online, the ad shows President Clinton signing welfare reform into law in 1996, "requiring work for welfare." The spot then argues, however, that President Obama "quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements." The voiceover tells viewers, "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check.... and welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare."
We then learn, "Mitt Romney will restore the work requirement because it works."
Romney's lying. He's not spinning the truth to his advantage; he's not hiding in a gray area between fact and fiction; he's just lying. The law hasn't been "gutted"; the work requirement hasn't been "dropped." Stations that air this ad are disseminating an obvious, demonstrable lie.
All Obama did is agree to Republican governors' request for flexibility. That's it. Indeed, perhaps the most jaw-dropping aspect of this is that Romney himself, during his one gubernatorial term, asked for the same kind of flexibility on welfare law that Obama agreed to last month. Romney, in other words, is attacking the president for doing what Romney asked the executive branch to do in 2005.
The entire line of attack is simply insane.
And that brings us back to the test for the political world.
How are we to respond to a campaign that deliberately deceives the public without shame? This lie about welfare policy comes on the heels of Romney's lie about voting rights in Ohio, which came on the heels of Romney's lies about the economy; which came on the heels of Romney's lies about health care; which came on the heels of Romney's lies about taxes.
The Republican nominee for president is working under the assumption that he can make transparently false claims, in writing and in campaign advertising, with impunity. Romney is convinced that there are no consequences for breathtaking dishonesty.
The test, then, comes down to a simple question: is he right?
The cynical response to an ad like this is that the lies are routine -- it's just something "everybody" in politics does. That's wrong. An ad this dishonest is a genuine scandal and it's time for political observers treat it as such. Reporters within earshot of the candidate shouldn't ask, "What about the gaffes?" They should ask, "Why are you lying about welfare policy?"
Also note the larger context: if Obama were as awful a president as Romney claims, the Republican attack machine wouldn't have to make stuff up -- the truth would be so brutal that voters would recoil and flock to the GOP candidate naturally. What does it say about Romney's strength as a candidate that he has to make up garbage and hope voters don't know the difference?
Postscript: I'd be remiss if I neglected to mention the racial subtext of an attack ad like this one. For decades, Republicans used "welfare" as part of a racially-charged message ("Democrats want to give white people's money to lazy black people who'll get checks for sitting around"). I can't speak to Romney's motivations -- I'm not a mind-reader -- but the language in the ad harkens back to the kind of ugly and racially divisive rhetoric we heard from GOP candidates for far too long.
It's quite likely Team Romney would prefer to spend the next several days debating whether or not his new attack ad is racist -- it'd beat talking about his secret tax returns -- but that's not much of an excuse.
Indeed, it's what arguably makes this ad, not just painfully dishonest, but also disgusting. If Romney has any shame left, now would be a good time for him to take a long look in the mirror and come to terms with what he's become.
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SOS from Republicans. First they like it, then they don't. That's part of the reason nothing gets down. One has to have an idea to believe in one.
PLEASE take the time to read this article.If the American people do not see through this constant barrage of lies, they deserve to have Romney and his congress finish ruining our country, as started by Bush- Cheney..Shame on us
All that need to be remembered. 'ROMENY DID NOT PAY ANY TAXES FOR 10 YEARS".
Why don't they just come out and say Obama is the devil and be done with it? This new ad is ridiculous. And since when does the GOP like Clinton? When did that happen? Didn't they try their Jesus-loving best to get him fired from his job? And people on welfare have to fill out Rocky Mountain levels of paperwork, jump through hoops, go to classes on how to write resumes and how to dress for job interviews, and get next to nothing to live on, all the while applying for part-time minimum wage level dead end jobs that everyone else is applying for, too...so sign me up, that sounds heavenly. Where are the super-crazy Democratic attack ads? Surely they are far more creative than Romney's team.
Lordy.... the repugs really got nuttin'!
What Romney has "become"? No, it's what he's always been.
Are political ads exempt from truth in advertising laws?
More or less. They're not actually selling a product. One of Canada's major networks won't carry Fox News just for that reason. I also think Canada has a law about news and telling the truth, but who knows how they enforce it. I would speculate Fox News would just tell the lie, pay a fine and say a retraction with the equivalence of burying it on the back page to disseminate their political agenda.
More than just the campaign, those ads where Bain capital came in promising the workers would keep their jobs, pensions, etc then they were stripped of them, that wasnt just a sales pitch. Obviously Romney ran Bain the same way he runs his campaign, the same way he will run foreign relations, the same way he will run this country.
It is now official. Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment are running the most outrageously dishonest, false, and baseless campaign of partisan attacks in American political history. The Romney folks cannot cut a TV or web ad without it being chock full of misquotes and falsehoods that are routinely pointed out to them, with apparently no effect. Romney apparently thinks he can only win if he slanders his opponent and lies to the American people. He is probably right. If Mitt had to run a clean campaign, he wouldn't be in the race. He did it in the Republican primary, now he's doing it again. Time to call him out. Principled Progressive
This is a real question... Can a television station refuse to air an advertisement that is as untrue as this one?
I know stations have rejected political ads before. The exact reasoning of those rejections, I'm not sure about.
Suppose Politi"fact" will give this one a Pants on Fire rating?
I guessing after some tortured logic on Politifacts' part, they'll rate it half true because Clinton actually sign the bill in 1996.
And the ad gets Obama's name right.
That has to count for something, right?
It's been well established that Politifact is a biased organization with an equivalence problem.
The images of workers are also misleading. At least two are men, while over 90% of welfare-to-work recipients are women. It's just about impossible to find a family-wage job in this economy and recipients need a lot of support, including child care, to get their foot on that first rung of the ladder, with the bottom two rungs missing.
Not a chance.
This is how it's describe by James Downie at the WaPo's Plum Line blog which is described as "opinion blog with a liberal slant".
It's just as you feared, Steve.
Wonderful, is it not?
Finally, a reference to attack ad and Romney in the same sentence.
That's the beauty of being a sociopath. You never have to feel shame for your lies.
As with rumors and unfair lawsuits, promulgation of false information hits the media, and word of mouth, but corrections, and truths to amend the false information seldom follow. Once heard, remembered. It is a sad statement, but I fear that for many, it is the rumor that sticks.
Some things are just a sin before the Lord and all else Holy. Is there no filter on the media that would require it to declare at the end of each ad they run something like: "This netword believes this ad to be (1) a blatent lie (2) misleading, (3) taken our of context, but we air it in the interest of free speech (and our bottom line)." President Obama may lose this election. But it ought not to be because the media continues to knowingly air one Romney lie after another. Media (and its pundits) have the right to sell its soul to the devil. But to chance putting the soul of our country in the hands of a serial liar by not calling him out? Really? Is this what it has come to?
The problem is, the political world is too polarized. If one side says one thing, and the other says the opposite, people just blow it off. I have close friends who are intelligent but still believe the lies about Obama, and no matter what fact I show them, they come up with a counter "fact" from their side. It is like in statistics...you can create your own reality by the questions you ask and who you ask them to.
You're forgetting that facts often don't mean a lot to many in the far right Republican base now, in fact, they seem to not like them at all, thus, make up their own. Those folks will vote for Romney no matter what comes out of his mouth. He could wipe his bare tuckus with the American flag on national television and these folks will still vote for him. There is such an inbred hatred for Obama, they'll vote for anyone else, knowing he's a liar, knowing he may have cheated on his taxes, knowing he'll be a really bad president, he's still not Obama, and therefore, he gets their vote.
Romney: A fork-tongued Palin in Pants. Pass it on. 'We won't get fooled again..'
i can not believe that this country is so culable to believe the lies of mitt romney, and that people are not well informed to see and realize the flip flops, lies this men spews out, he only wants a trophy and this is the white house, his wife made this quiat clear in one of her iinterviews like it is owned to them, bull gacke if people wanted to you be a president they would have voted for you 2004, you reversed 180 degrees from your believe, god help us all, if he gets it, obama care is romney care, and this gop chairman is a idiot; here is said it look in the mirrow, i believe that mitt has something to hide, he is a whiner, thief and a puppet for the teabaggers that this country is so diveded is the gop's fault kantor and his bunch of nothingdoers that includes mitch connel truth is known this is the most racist bunch of people going back to the middle ages and half of the americans don't want to see it, lets go back to the 1800's and perform abortions with clotheshangers have 20 kids and to hell with the women oh yes and get us back our slaves we used to have, and say to hell with the sick they cost us to much had to say what i think, of the gop their whining but at least it is truthful when they get attacked but most of the attacking comes from them,hope the democrats find a way to get back at them and defend themself would be very proud of them. but mitt romney and his people are compulsive liars and don't think nothing of it. so democrats get up and fight for what you standing for
I posted this link on Mitt's FB wall where he shows this ad - I may get lucky and have a few of his supporters check out info that doesn't come from Fox News -Ha!
The scandal is that Mitt Romney was the CEO of Bain Capital which provided funding to Clear Channel and he's going down with his media coverage.
It's the new teapublican plan! For those who don't remember, it was a Republican Gov. of Nebraska who asked President Obama to delay the Keystone Pipeline. Then teapublicans across the country attacked the president for being anti oil & stopping American jobs.
I've always wondered if the President was set up by Gov Heineman.
I have done what I can a this point. I passed this along to the KC Star and told them they have a responsibility to address this issue.
Republicans know what is going on but to them the means justifies the end. If lying will get Obama out, to them, it is ok.