Late last week, Mitt Romney ran into a little trouble on one of his biggest vulnerabilities. Campaigning in Ohio, the Republican said he'd seen a story that Jeep may be moving "all production to China." Romney wasn't telling the truth, as Chrysler itself made clear.
When most candidates get caught telling a falsehood like this, they have decide how best to minimize the damage, possibly with an apology. Romney, however, plays by his own set of rules -- he turned the falsehood into a television ad airing in Ohio.
Everything about Romney's ad is deceptive, and he surely knows it. Jonathan Cohn tears the ad to shreds, but I'd just add a few related observations.
Note, for example, the way in which the ad weaves together clear falsehoods and claims that are technically accurate but wildly misleading. Romney has "a plan" to help the auto industry? If he does, he's hiding it well. Romney is supported by the Detroit News? The paper endorsed him, but called Romney's approach to the auto rescue "wrong-headed."
As for China, the ad leaves voters with the impression that Chrysler is moving operations abroad, which is plainly false. The company is going to build Jeeps in China for Chinese consumers, but American jobs are staying in America. Indeed, Chrysler is adding to the domestic workforce so it can -- you guessed it -- build more Jeeps here in the U.S.
Asked to defend the transparently deceptive ad, the Romney campaign referred Sam Stein to the Bloomberg News article the candidate referenced last week. But as everyone, including Romney and his aides, now knows, that's the right's interpretation of the article is wrong. But therein lies the trick: the Republican campaign just doesn't care.
Even for Mitt Romney, this level of mendacity borders on nauseating.
It's important, on a substantive level, for the public to understand that Romney is trying to mislead them about the underlying policy, but it's also important to appreciate the larger context: Romney simply doesn't respect voters enough to be honest with them. For the Republican candidate, it's an era of post-truth politics, in which he no longer even cares about getting caught lying.
As for why he's so eager to deliberately mislead the public, Obama's successful rescue of the American auto industry is a very difficult issue for Romney to deal with, especially in a state like Ohio that benefited so directly from the president's accomplishment.
Remember, when Obama initially gambled, Romney said we could "kiss the American automotive industry goodbye" if the administration's policy was implemented. At the time, Romney called the White House plan "tragic" and "a very sad circumstance for this country." He wrote an April 2009 piece in which he said Obama's plan "would make GM the living dead."
We now know, of course, that Romney was wrong and Obama was right. When the American auto industry, the backbone of the nation's manufacturing sector, stood at the brink of collapse, it was the president's rescue that worked, which was the opposite of what Romney said would happen.
Unsure how to proceed, Romney has been reduced to a gamble of his own: blatantly lying to voters and hoping to get away with it. In this specific case, it's just sad to see what this candidate is willing to do to advance his ambitions. In general, it reinforces a larger problem -- as Rachel noted on "Meet the Press" yesterday, "There's been a truthfulness problem with the Romney campaign that connects even to the very basic issues."
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If it wins elections who cares? Certainly not Romney and the Republicans , certainly not the Corporate News Stenographer Corp...who will frame this as Romney sez....Democrats disagree .
I'm with Jon Stewart ...make it stop!
It won't stop until the Amurrican Peepul make it stop, and so far, they show little sign of being willing to do that.
Got that right . More concerned with American Idol and football than their future
America : too stupid for democracy
Take a good look at the band conductor at Team Lie Your Ass Off:
Stuart Stevens' Shady Past Clients, Revealed | The New Republic
As my wife says, "they are bottomless". There is no "too low" for them. God, how I'd like 5 minutes with this s.o.b. in a "quiet room" (only it wouldn't be very quiet, once he started screaming "help!")
To paraphrase and adjust an old saying, just as youth is wasted on most young people, and wealth is wasted on most rich people, freedom is wasted on most Americans.
The same can probably be said of most national groups, but that's another discussion.
The aggressive lying is so peculiar, I don't know whether the Romney campaign has simply taken the Big Lie to heart as a strategy, or whether it indicates a very, very odd psychopathology in this very odd man.
If romney is elected he will apologize for all the campaign lies. If Romney loses he will self deport himself to his lajolla underocean cave.
No he won't apologize.
To paraphrase an old saying, there are 3 degrees of mendacity: "LIES, DAMN LIES, and REPUBLICAN TALKING POINTS!"
My current favorite is: "Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, and Fox News Statistics"
I think I know when Mitt finally went over the edge. It was 1964 and Mitt buckled under the stress of an approach- approach conflict, Ginger or Maryann. Being too anxious over the decision he began to pleasure himself with images of Thurston Howell. The rest is history.
BORDERS on nauseating???
The only reason I'm not cleaning barf out of my keyboard right now is because, like a sailor in choppy seas, I have trained my esophagus very well.
But I still threw up a little in my mouth.
If Pres. Obama had shown up to all three debates with moves to the middle that were complete denials of his statements and policy positions, everyone would have been on fire going after his LIES. In order to match Romney, these examples are extreme shifts to the right (if it isn't obvious), because Pres. Obama is actually already in the middle with sound policies. Some Headlines:
Obama denies he signed a bailout of the auto industry, says he will prove it next time by letting Detroit go Bankrupt. Obama shows he was never a last resort President and declares war on Iran at debate. Obama says he was always against teachers unions, plans to fire teachers to save money and proposes going back to one room school houses. Obama denies he was ever pro-choice by holding up a Bill he promises to deliver to Congress the day after the debate, which makes abortion illegal, without any exceptions. Obama says he never wanted to raise taxes on the rich and presents 150 blog site studies supporting the plan he declares he has always had to lower the upper income tax rate to -15%, says its time we started paying them.
I hope you tell us what you're trying to say with all these nonsensical statements.
-"Obama says he never wanted to raise taxes on the rich and presents 150 blog site studies supporting the plan he declares he has always had to lower the upper income tax rate to -15%, says its time we started paying them."
Explain this please.
These are the sort of radical statements president Obama would have to make in order to match Romney's lies about being a moderate that he is nowhere near being. I know it can seem jarring, but nowhere near as jarring as Mitt Romney's actual shifts. The 150 blog sites refers to Mitt Romney's claiming 6 so-called independent studies prove his economic plan can work when it turns out that the majority of them were conservative blog sites with no expertise beyond propaganda and they're not even that good at that.
What he is saying is, had The President denied everything he ever campaigned on like Mitt did. The Press would be all over his 'lies". And he gave examples of what could have happened if he had done so. Those nonsensical statements was an attempt to show how blatant and stupid Mitt's lies are, and that the Press seldom calls him on them. Because instead of calling them what they are, they're moves to the middle. When in fact they're just flat out lies from a guy who has done nothing but lie.
Romney is the slow footed guy who cant jump. When he gets the ball he dribbles to the right then dribbles to the left. When he sees no one is guarding him he charges for the basket . He double drivels, travels and throws up a brick. Romney screams foul and claims the referees are obviously liberals. Romney storms off the court amid a tumultous(his pet word for the mideast)shower of booze. Fox news has a different account of what really happened and what Romney really meant to say.
I can't think of anytime the teapubs have spoken the truth for over 30 years. Why should Willard be any different? Truth doesn't win elections for teapubs, lies do. When they aren't suppressing votes, or stealing votes, or throwing votes out, or.......
Not only does the Republican campaign not care about Romney lies, but apparently the public doesn't either. Romney has gone from"severely conservative" to "moderate Mitt" in the span of months, and voters are still supporting him, including women.
George Bush took the country to the edge of a cliff. A Romney presidency will finish the job.
And those on the right will blame "heinous liberals" all the way. :-/
The connection that needs to be made in people's minds is: if he's this careless with the truth as a candidate, how will we be able to trust him as president?
Are Democrats hammering this point home?
Far too many people don't care about RobMe's lies as long as he tells them the lies they want to hear and because he is white.
DUCK!!! Incoming Kitchen Sink!!!
By the end of the week Obama will be responsible for Sandy and the fact that the earth is moving farther away from the sun.
how many times does this have to happen before we realize that the republicans are on to something, that they're ahead of the curve. the guiding spirit of that party is a helluva lot more joseph goebbels than abe lincoln. they've concluded that vicious bile of ignorance, tribalism, religious intolerance, and racial bigotry that lives in all of us and most of us try to overcome makes a considerable part of the electorate amenable to the most bald faced lies, hence limbaugh and fox news. to that add a credulous segment who accept that lightweights like david gregory are capable of incisive reporting and that his opinion of paul ryan as a very serious person is fair, and viola!, you've got a george w. bush or willard romney and grover norquist rejoices. the future of america is not bill clinton or barack obama; it is karl rove.
like he said.
How fast will Pat Robertson now say he directed this Hurricane Sandy into the East coast, especially with Republican governors in some of these states? It is the same crap from Pat Robertson as it is with Romney liars and deceivers. And both are religious hypocrites.
Another preacher beat Pat to the punch. Said it was LGBT's and Obama's fault and to some extent Willard's. I wish these bible-thumpers would use their bibles to thump their own heads.
These religious hypocrites need to stop talking about premonitions or speaking for God, because they have not even come close to the real realities of what those gospels are about or how premonitions even work.
"Romney simply doesn't respect voters enough to be honest with them"
Bingo. And the only ones who can answer that question are the voters themselves. Is Romney right? Are voters just that gullible? Is the media just that compliant? Guess we'll find out next Tuesday.
This is pretty funny. Obama accuses Romney of killing some guys wife while, you erupt over who makes Jeeps where? Really? That's the best you have?
The really ironic part is that Boeing wanted to add a plant in South Carolina... and the Obama administration declared it illegal. Even though nobody in Washington State was laid off.
Meanwhile here's the misleading quote found down the cite trail...
So now the really interesting part is how Romney saying "I saw a story today" comes to be the big fat lie deserving of all this verbiage. Then there's the new accurate but misleading charge. Just like the Obama "you didn't build that" accurate but misleading quote. Apparently this blog can't accept factual at face value. Cognitive dissonance.
I can hardly wait to see what this blog produces when Romney wins. I predict the left suffers a complete meltdown blaming Obama's loss on national racism. It will be the moment the left goes missing for a good long time.
Seeing you accuse people of Cognitive dissonance is just about the funniest thing I've read here. Ever.
LOL!
When a person makes an honest mistake, they correct it or apologize. If Mitt's campaign had simply followed up on the correction from the Detroit News with a correction of it's own, fine. To make and air and continue to air a commercial that exploits the misperception, is the problem any reasonable person would have with this particular statement.
The fact that it is just the latest in a long series of such abuses, makes it clear that this is not a mistake, but part of a strategy.
One side stops the ad. The other ignores it and goes full steam ahead.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Again, take a good look at the assscum leading the charge at Team Lie Your Ass Off:
Stuart Stevens' Shady Past Clients, Revealed | The New Republic
All in the quest for the much desired pluto-theocracy banana republic. Pluto banana republic for the 1% and theocracy for the sheeple masses docile in order to keep the pluto's in power making all the decisions.
Shooter
The problem with posting links and pulling out quotes is that occasionaly people read them and look at the source material...
Here is your quote:
The Bloomberg story, however, sparked the confusion in the first paragraph of the story, saying Chrysler planned to return Jeep output to China "and may eventually make all of its models in that country."
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121026/POLITICS01/210260402#ixzz2Ahal58yL
Here is the paragraph that IMEDIATLY followed the one you posted
But the reporter included Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia, later in the story referring to adding Jeep production sites rather than shifting output from North America to China.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121026/POLITICS01/210260402#ixzz2Ahal58yL
I am one of those people
You can't reason with stupid. Blanks is the same pimple who defended the "You didn't build that" hysteria in the face of obvious context. The truth simply no longer matters.
I think if you listen very closely you will hear the words "Curses foiled again" coming from his bunker
Jesus Loves You Scooter!
C'mon folks, stop it. Seriously.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not engage the hemorrhoid.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
Do not mention hemorrhoid by name.
After months and months of lying and shape-shifting, the fact that Romney is so close says a lot about the electorate. In my lifetime, it seems candidates at least offered a nod in the direction of truth. They put on the appearance of caring about it, and when caught out in a lie, were ready with some form of correction. Romney-Ryan is just proving that truth really doesn't matter, at least not to the 47% who will 'enthusiastically' vote for the Republican ticket. Also too, the same can be said about competence. This same delusion makes Paul Ryan appear serious and has Romney leading on the economy in recent polling.
Hurricane Sandy is an awkward moment for the nation to remember how the last GOP administration handled Katrina.
Just saying. If you're not wealthy enough or smart enough to get out of harm's way, then please just die, and decrease the surplus population of Takers for the rest of us Makers.
Shouldn't a big part of the story here be that Mr Romney, CEO, business super genius and "car guy" got suckered by an obviously false story. Mr. Romney's picture is now in the dictionary near gullible. I'm not going to claim that moving an entire auto supply chain entirely from the US to China is an unsolvable problem and you could maybe solve it someday, but it's not going to be solved by Fiat and Jeep in 2012. Car guys know that.
please define "false"
do you mean dictionary "false" or Romney "false?"
(wink!)
The problem is the audiences that show up to cheer the despicable piece of work that is Romney want to be lied to by him -- they seem to be completely delighted to be played for fools by the same guy who actually made millions off of being invested in a company that shipped 2500 auto jobs to China (Delphi) as part of just one deal. Being the Joe Isuzu of politics is the only thing that has worked for Romney - so he has absolutely no incentive to change now.
Q: How can you tell a Republican is lying?
A: Look and see if his lips are moving.
As professor Frankfurt pointed out in "On bullshhitt": "A liar knows the truth and chooses to lie, a bullshhitter doesn't care about the truth."
And depending on what time and which day you listen to Willard, you will get both.
Actually, the article isn't wrong. It was badly written. But it was clear if anyone took the time to read it. They've now updated the article (without stating it's updated) to make it read better, but even the original laid it out so that there is really no excuse. Besides when running for President, you'd think before you said something, you'd check with original sources instead of a dumb article before you claimed something. You would if your were interested in the truth. We know Romney isn't.
"http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-21/fiat-says-china-may-build-all-jeep-models-as-suv-demand-climbs.html"
Romney doesn't read. They just do bullet points for him.
Romney's taking advice from this guy:
Stuart Stevens' Shady Past Clients, Revealed | The New Republic
If someone was actually stupid enough to not understand what is going on by now, that should tell them all they need to know. Unfortunately, those people won't read it, and wouldn't care anyway.
jesus christ, CHRYSLER says romney's remarks were fantasies and "you would have to be a circus acrobat to make that leap"
they said this officially
THURSDAY 4:24 PM
http://blog.chryslerllc.com/blog.do?id=1932&p=entry
It would be really worthwhile to have Steve or Rachel contact the Detroit News to see how they feel about this ad and their endorsement!
The Detroit News is a conservative paper and endorsed McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012. But they have already commented on this and weren't kind.
They called Romney's approach to the auto bailout "wrong-headed"
IN THE ENDORSEMENT
I have to admit this one has really gotten me ... I have been screaming at the TV since Thursday when I first heard it and am glad to see that it is finally getting some play. Look at what he first said and how it has been changed just enough to allow "technical truth."
Technical truth --- what a concept
This story is a metaphor for the whole campaign
The individual sentences in what it has been changed to are technically true. The paragraph of sentences is, however, a lie. Not only that, but it has been changed from a lie by commission to a lie by omission. And it's time people stop missing for forest for the trees so as to avoid calling it and the other things this lying sack of shhit says a lie. The lie is in the meaning of ALL the words, not the individual bits of the message. Whether it is a lie or the truth or somewhere in between is an emergent property of the individual bit of the message.
Yadda yadda-May I interrupt for a second? Am I the only one that finds the polling that claims this is a tight race out of touch with what I have seen? Is the corporate owned media scamming us into accepting Mitt actually has a chance so he can steal the election?
I will be at the polls as any person that wants to stop this republican march off the cliff should be. If sumpin' funny takes place then I hope we fight for recounts and demand no more bain owned diebolds.
This is very wrong-headed. It you aren't scared about what could happen, you need to contact the authorities because somebody has stolen your nervous system.
Make no mistake about it. This is a very close race. Do NOT let your biases and inability to understand the other side get in the way of understanding just how close this is.
I have to agree. Never underestimate boneheads who are easily led to one side or the other. In post truth politics, the sheeple will be led to their doom. The power of stupid is a formidable foe.
As bad as all these lies are just on their own, I think they are just the latest, most obvious symptom of a much larger issue that has me genuinely worried for the future. The reason these lies can stick around as strongly as they do is because a huge part of our population has completely checked out from reality.
I spend a lot of time reading about politics. I like to see what both ends of the spectrum are talking about, so I'll read stuff from very liberal sites like Daily Kos, and also from extremely conservative sites like RedState. While doing so I've been struck by the number of conservatives who seem to be utterly convinced that not only is Romney going to win, but he is going to win by a landslide. I have seen people say, with a straight face, that they expect Romney to win the national election by 10 points. These people are simply divorced from anything resembling reality - Romney absolutely DOES have a chance at winning, but there is no possible way he does it by anything more than a slim margin. Even if he somehow won every single possible swing state, and all the polling data we have suggests that is a virtual impossibility, it would still be hard to call it a "landslide victory". And I found myself asking "how can anyone POSSIBLY think this??" The answer is in how each side responds to bad news.
For the liberals, when they get news they don't like, like that poll a couple weeks back that showed Romney with a 6 point national lead (it was from Rasmussen or Gallup, I forget which), they certainly will try to explain/rationalize it away with some kind of logical explanation. But here's the key - they acknowledge that this poll is real, it exists, and they continue to account for it when looking at national trends. They may not like it, but they at least acknowledge reality.
The conservatives however will only even consider the most favorable polls, and they don't even acknowledge the existence of all the other mountains of data that say the poll you are using is an outlier. On the extremely rare occasions that they do mention another poll, it is only to point out how hopelessly biased and in the tank for Obama that pollster is. And so when these people say "I don't see any possible way Obama can win" they really mean it in the most literal sense - they have been exposed to literally no evidence that shows Obama can win this election.
I know many of you will read this and say "Gee, extreme conservatives not living in reality, this is hardly news." But I really am scared about what it means for the future. The reality is the odds favor the President winning next week, and if that happens that is going to be an incredibly loud cymbal crash of reality that bursts the right-wing bubble these people are living in. And when they try to mentally reconcile the fact that literally every single thing they have read and heard for months on end said there is NO WAY Obama can win, and yet somehow he DID win, some of those people are going to react very violently to reality intruding upon their world.
@SouthpawsRock -- Totally agree and understand where you're coming from. Decades of vicious conservative media in this country -- designed to deliberately encourage and stoke folks' worst instincts -- seems to have left vast swaths of the country stranded in an alternate universe of compulsory willful ignorance. That may seem harsh to say, but maybe it's actually not harsh enough.
Just google "Operation Mockingbird" to see how the corporate media gets its marching orders.
Plus the troll here gets paid for every response that mentions him by name. Should be obvious by now that reality and reason do not exist in his fantasy world.
If Romney wins, it will be the triumph of falsehoods over integrity. It will reward one of the nastiest and most negative campaigns in history the highest prize. It will mean that is okay to lie if you win. It is okay to withold critical information from the electorate. It is okay to demonize your opponent based on race or religion. It is okay to slip in unacceptable social legislation when you are supposed to be focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. It is okay to make your country fail, so long as it gets your guy elected into office. It is okay to cut holes in the social safety net, so long as people don't know where you are cutting. As long as you look presidential, that is all that matters. Is this the behavior that this country wants to reward and promote?
To misquote can be a mistake. When you say it over and over knowing it is not a misquote, it becomes a lie.....and that is all we have heard from romney from day one.
I have lost all respect for the man and as a consequence all respect for the mormon religion he "cherishes". Obama may not be first choice in a lot of minds but at least his lies are not so flagrant and obvious. We know what we are getting, not what the morning coffee alters.
Agreed. Romney's lies demonstrate his self-serving sense of entitlement he's exhibited his entire life. The same guy who thinking it would be funny and knew there would be no accountability because he was wealthy cut off that kids hair in school is the same brat running for office...
"Can't you see how important I am...I'm rich. I don't need to explain myself especially to those idiots who are beneath me...which includes you...hey...I'm talking here so shut up 'boy'...you'll get your turn"-Romney...(need I say more)
Not surprised. Romney (not a PAC, Romney) is airing an ad in NC accusing Obama once again of "gutting" the Welfare work requirement and saying that the "number of able bodied childless adults" on foodstamps has doubled.
You hear that white people? Brownie is coming to take your @!$%#.
I'm so glad I've already voted for Obama.
You liberals are a joke! The president still hasn't submitted a budget that has the approval of one Democrate and thats for the entire time he has been in office. The U6 unemployment rate is 14.7% and thats ok with you. It's nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher and this President supports the Unions. I thought liberals were for the middle and lower class. If you really cared for the little guy you wouldn't be supporting a President who's policies are hurting everyone.
Just how do you grow the economy from the middle class out? The middle class isn't hiring anyone you bunch of fools.
Two professors from the University of Colorado have been correctly predicting the Presidential Election since 1980. This year they have picked Romney, 330 to 206 electoral votes. None of the current polling companies are even close with their polling. It will sure be nice when Obama is gone!
Bagger alert!
Not only do we have a rabid feral wingnut roaming around in here, this dumba$$ still believes the garbage he's spewing like that the President hasn't submitted a budget. And apparently this dipshhit knows little to nothing about the prediction model of those fellers at Colorado. What an idiot.
You gotta love the wingnuts. They affirm our superiority and we can thank them for that.
The conservative budget doesnt include 2 unpaid for wars and 2 unpaid for taxcuts.
bless your heart Les. we all know you mean well.