For much of August, Mitt Romney proudly embraced as obvious a lie as has ever been heard in presidential politics. The Republican insisted -- in speeches, interviews, and ads -- that President Obama had "gutted the work requirement" in welfare law. He was blatantly lying, but didn't care.
Over the last month or so, Romney moved on to different lies, most notably about the auto industry, but in the campaign's closing days, the racially-charged welfare lie has made a comeback.
This unannounced attack ad, running in several key states, makes a series of claims, most of them false, but in making its indictment against the president, the ad argues at the outset that Obama "gutted the work requirement for welfare."
This isn't just another lie; it's presidential politics at its most disgusting.
What's more, Romney isn't relying on misleading technicalities, or hiding in some ambiguous gray area between fact and fiction. This is just a demonstrable, racially-inflammatory lie -- and the candidate knows it.
In case anyone's forgotten, Obama didn't gut the work requirements. As Romney knows, several governors, some of them Republican, asked the Obama administration for some flexibility on the existing welfare law, and the White House said that'd be fine, so long as the work requirement isn't weakened. It's consistent with the policy endorsed by many Republican governors, including Romney himself, just six years ago.
The law remains very much intact. Every independent fact-checker in the country has rejected the lie, as have Bill Clinton and the Republican architect of the 1996 welfare reform law. Romney/Ryan allies can't explain the lie, and Romney/Ryan staffers can't defend the lie.
And yet, Romney keeps repeating it.
We're well past the point at which this is an argument about policy. The question is now whether Mitt Romney has the integrity to hold national office -- or really whether he has any integrity at all.
With this ad, Romney is once again carefully extending his middle finger in reality's face. He doesn't care about getting caught -- his campaign has already said, "[W]e're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers" -- he just cares about what he can get away with as part of his quest for power.
This is the national political scandal of 2012, whether the political world wants to admit it or not.
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If the lies come fast and furious enough, they figure that Obama's campaign will look defensive if they push back at all at this very late point in the campaign.
It comes down to this. Make Obama look defensive as the last perception in the campaign.
i think they simply realize the rabid, ignorant base doesn't do any research and they have learned that they can use anything to gin up the bigotry, bias, etc.
Also known as a Gish Gallop. Romney truly is the most despicable candidate we've seen in a very long time, if not ever.
"Bob and Tom" did a bit about a fictional Florida Northern Univ. The tag line fits the gotp to a t. We've been FNU since 1980.
Step 1: Pick up shyt!
Step 2: Throw it and hope the sheeple don't say a word about the shyt thrown!
Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 often!
When you have NOTHING to offer, when your only plan would have "the people" turning away from you in droves, when you can't stand on your own record because that record is shoddy at best - then all you have are lies and all that can be thrown around is confusion and bullshyt, you behave just like Mitt!!
Zora,
For years I've been saying the only thing people can do to reason with the "Republican*" is to take a pointy stick and poke the monkeys.
The reason I call them monkeys is because all they have is poo, and all they do is sling that poo.
(* Republican, Conservative, NeoCon, Tea Bagger, take your pick)
Calling Republicans monkeys is an insult to an honorable animal. Comparing them to any sort of animal is an insult. When was the last time any animal lied to you, stole from you, tried to harm you (other than in obvious self-defense), or acted any way other than honorably and with a natural integrity?
And if I was a monkey who had been kidnapped from my home and forced to live in a cage and perform for a bunch of drooling morons, I'd throw more than poop at them. You notice the monkeys never throw the poop at each other, only at The Enemy?
Desperate and despicable pretty much sums up Romney's campaign at the moment. Well at any moment, really.
Blaming the candidate is like blaming the snake for biting you... he's a political candidate, for crissakes! A contemporary Republican, too.
The appropriate blame is on the news media. Instead of simply calling a repeated, easily-refuted lie an actual lie, they report it as, "Romney said this, Obama claims it was not accurate."
And we all suffer for the lack of integrity.
100% true. Somnolent lock step coercion parading as information, we are let down by the blathering blitherers. Network news is a hopeless joke.
Please! One of the more effective lies the Teaparty/Talban have sown and irrigated is that "politics" and "politician" are dirty words. They hope that the confusion people who distrust ALL politicians will feel will support their "argument" that "government", too, is a dirty word. It's a part of their smoke and mirrors campaign to distract you from seeing the old snake oil salesman behind the curtain.
Politics is like any other occupation. It has exactly as much integrity as you bring to the job.
They're not against government used to disenfranchise Americans. They're not against government that makes criminals of women who make (very tough) personal choices regarding their own health. They're not against government that conducts warrantless searches or commits torture or imprisons without charging.
Romney does not lack integrity because he's a politician, he is someone lacking integrity who happens to be seeking political office.
I really wish moderators could deliver electric shocks to the candidates every time they lie in a debate.
Or perhaps keep score and do some NFL like montages between questions.
This is more of the same Class/Race/Urban Warfare nonsense that the GOP has been stoking since the the Regan administration.
They got a windfall with the recession because economic crisis tend to make people more personally resentful and willing to look for someone to blame.
As much BS as this add is it will have some kind of traction with people who are already thinking things like this and are willing to listen to things that make them feel better about themselves.
The problem is that if someone disproves it they just pretend that that objection is a lie and reinforce the already held belief
It's why FOX has an audience
They didn't "get" a windfall. They created it.
For those that are considering voting for Mitt, I have two simple questions:
1. "Which Mitt are voting for?"
2. "Which Mitt will you get if he is elected?"
I was pushed into an alternate universe yesterday.
There was an add stating how Obama and the Congress forced banks to lend to unqualified borrowers which resulted in the sub prime crash. Then there are the ads stating Obama is assaulting our Second Amendment Freedoms.
I don't know if these ads are suppose to make us throw up, or make us feel Mind "Sexed", or what.
But after seeing these ads makes just about any other ads pretty Ho Hum.
Being in Ohio we get to see the freaks and crazies and I can't wait for this crap to be over.
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I feel your pain I live about 60 miles from Cincinnati on the Indiana side so there is media spill over.
It's like living right next door to hell. (No offence intended to you or the good people of Ohio)
I'm in Colorado. Are you guys getting those "Hallmark" ads about Mitt's compassion to the boy with cancer and the disabled vet? I feel for those people, but the ads makes me want to retch.
Wisconsin is definitely getting them. Hey...if everything else doesn't work, go for the 'pity' vote.
I just saw the one with the boy this morning (twice already in the space of an hour). My thoughts were a) why couldn't they produce any photos of Mitt with their son, despite them apparently being best friends? and b) the ad finishes with basically the sentiment "He visited a sick boy in the hospital. I know he can get us back on track." Wait, what? I'm pretty sure it takes a little more than that to be a good POTUS.
Well this is a fascinating comparison, I too feel your pain. I live in Virginia and rarely watch TV but yesterday was watching for coverage of the effects of Sandy, and I'm sure these ads got a lot more play because of people wanting to know about the disaster. The ads were truly disgusting but most of them fairly weak for Romney, I think (that sorrowful little girl whose future the President is apparently squandering is absurd, if anyone is squandering our kids' future it's the climate-denying so-called Tea Party astroturfers). The attacks add on Tim Kaine from the awful George Allen are much more direct, and I'm more afraid that the uninformed will be swayed by those kinds of tactics. I was seeing negative adds in threes, first against the President, immediately followed by an attack on Kaine, with a chaser trying to discredit General Douglass in our 5th District race against Republican incumbent Hurt (in a recently gerrymandered district). The breath of fresh air was a new short and sweet spot by Bill Clinton pointing out that the negative lies against President Obama are familiar to him, as he too was called every name in the book by the desperate and extreme right wing.
I think your evaluation that this is a political scandal is on point. I think the news media have reported on the lies as lies (but not as much as it could), so it's not about the news not doing it's job (although they could be more aggressive). It's about a media culture (now I'm talking about advertising and Fox News not just news media) that has eclipsed the news media for "informing" the public. Disinformation (particularly in politics but not exclusively) has had a greater impact than factual reporting on shaping the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of people for a while, but this offense is a scary warning of what is to come. Our culture is viewing truth as irrelevant or impossible to know; therefore place your faith in your favorite myths.
I had always assumed it would be done by Rush or Trump but perhaps Romney might do it himself - about Friday afternoon.
"Obama's secret illegitimate Kenyan Muslim love child who survived a botched abortion is now a Communist Taliban Nazi terrorist receiving food stamps ."
"But" you say, " none of that's true. It makes absolutely no sense at all."
So - when has that been a requirement?
Mitt1234 banned. re-reg of multiple accounter coffeeman1234.
So in truth, the president worked in a bipartisan manner to accommodate the requests of governors on the Welfare Law... isn't this the best possible thing? The biggest lie of all is that the president has not reached across the aisle....
Eileenjj, you must have been asleep the past few years. It started after inauguration the the repubs decided to not let anything pass. The repubs voted no on everything he proposed. Now you are saying the president didn't reach across the aisle. I was upset because he kept trying to reach across the aisle.
Vivian, read Eileenjj's post again. She is agreeing with you. She didn't say that the president didn't reach across the aisle. She said, "The biggest lie of all is that the president has not reached across the aisle.... I think you owe her an apology.
And i suppose that Axelrod does not propogate any "lies" ?
And besides this is old, both sides have clarified the selective soundbites.
Why even bring this up again, unless you are really insecure ?
Did you read the article? These are new campaign ads. It's not Maddow bringing this garbage up again, it's Romney.
Wow, do you carry a 10-gallon containter of Kool Aid with you at all times? It sure makes you a Force to Reckon With when it comes to peeing on fire hydrants.
But thanks for the daily demonstration of how ignorant ignorance as to be to be as ignorant as you and able to flunk the IQ test low enough to be one of you wingnut scum. Too bad we let your ancestors off easy 150 years ago.
the both sides do it trolls are always complaining about how obama also lies , while never producing any of these lies he supposedly told
The question isn't 'can we afford a second Obama term'.
The question is "Can we afford any Romney term?
I don't think we can.
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I just keep wondering what happens if Romney wins and these people get what they want.
We will end up living in some kind of dystopian religious commune and the economy will go through the guardrail over the cliff and crash and burn into smoldering wreckage...
Then who will they blame then or will they just allow a Democrat to come in in 2020 and fix things only to develop Romnesia again.
Everyone should get want they want... wink-wink-nod-nod...
Curt Anderson from the AP reported people going to elderly peoples houses to collect their absentee ballots in Fla.. Also people are being told they can vote over the phone in Indiana and VA. The illegal tactics show goop desperation. Please vote early and wisely. this is your future they are trying to steal.
Also, please vote early and then offer to assist elderly , young, neighbors to get to the polls. Talk to everyone you know about the dirty tricks. Please call and report these efforts to steal the election to FBI or Justice Dept. Keep copies and get names of the thugs. Help police your polling stations on election day. The "true the vote" thugs will be there in force to intimidate and discourage voters.
Typical race baiting ad that we have all come to expect from Romney/Ryan (Good Christian my a$$), they want to capture the people represented in the Associated Press poll below.
In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with
48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell.
Most Americans expressed anti-Hispanic sentiments, too. In an AP survey done in 2011, 52 percent of non-Hispanic whites expressed anti-Hispanic attitudes. That figure
rose to 57 percent in the implicit test. The survey on Hispanics had no past data for comparison.
Like the T-shirt said: "Put The White Back In The White House." It's what these morons and fools are all about.
are mormons christian?
No they are not. They do not hold to the basic tenets of Christianity.
After this election cycle someone should introduce a bill requiring fact checking of all political ads before they can be released to the public. There are laws on the books that prevent advertisers from making false claims. Its time we applied this to our policiticians. All of them!
Is there any way we as a people can Sue Romney for Libel on the behalf of the American people?
In small claims court maybe or state or federal courts?
I would sign my name or even bring the case if someone could point me in the right direction to bring it about.
Nicely said, Steve.
I for one am thoroughly offended by this man's campaign and it's insessant fibbing. I know that paying attention to the presidental campagin is like drinking information through a firehose and everyone won't get every "evolution of the truth" but, this is so blatent! Who does he take his voters for?
Ladies, doesn't the Romeny camp remind you of that smooth talking guy you may have met at a bar. He seems like the real thing, but you find out, almost too late, that he's a creeper. Gentlemen if you resemble this statement or have no clue what I'm talking about, think about that Henry Rollins' song "Liar". If you haven't heard it before, it's worth a good listen.
Glex, a fib is when a 7 year old says they didn't take that cookie off the table and eat it. A lie is when that same 7 year old takes the cookie, eats it and then says "Not only did I not take the cookie, but I deny that cookie or even the cookie jar ever existed and you're a socialist Muslim for ever implying it did!"
And if there were cookies, nobody helped me aquire the cookies, I made them myself with wheat grown in my backyard and milled in my kitchen . . . even though I'm only 7.
Hey, as long as there are enough idiots who swallow even the most blatant of lies, Rmoney (sic) will keep churning them out. Don't know who's worse: Him or the gullible saps lapping the lies up.
we just need to make sure we vote!!!!
VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!
He did say they don't need fact checkers. Everything he says is a lie. All he needs to do is shake the etch a sketch.
looks like there's only one answer to the welfare/obama lie; make an ad accusing voMitt of pedophilia! yay!
The problem is the people that believe the lies do not watch msnbc, or read WAPO or the NYT. They do not believe in climate change, or evolution. I'm surprised some Evangelical minister has not said Hurricane Sandy was punishment for America's sins or a sign that the end is coming. Yet they will believe a politician because some right wing radio or TV host says what he says is true, or the press says "both sides do it."
I expect to hear from lyin ryan, akin, and murdouch that Hurricane Sandy was a " gift from God" .