“In politics, absurdity is not a handicap”. With those words Napoleon provided a futuristic view of Obama’s current campaign. The Obama campaign seems to have abandoned even the pretext of telling the truth in its increasingly desperate effort to smear Mitt Romney. From the audacity of hope to the anguish of hubris, the Obama campaign is now so dishonest that even The Washington Post feels the need to object.
I don’t trust the Washington Post. So read the bumper sticker on my Dad’s Buick. Growing up in Northern Virginia I never really understood why he didn’t trust The Post and, moreover, why he felt the need to advertise that mistrust on the back of his LeSabre. However, as I went from my 20s to my 30s to my 40s Dad’s contempt for The Washington Post became a lot easier to understand. It increasingly seemed that my hometown newspaper was totally, consistently and always in favor of the liberal – Democratic viewpoint. So, I was quite stunned when The Washington Post recently “awarded” an Obama campaign ad that attempted to smear Mitt Romney the maximum dishonesty rating – four Pinocchios.
Outsourcing the truth. The Obama campaign packs a lot of lies into a very short campaign ad. In fact, the lies-to-words density may have broken the previous record held by Richard Nixon. Here is a short list of the Obama campaign’s lies – from The Washington Post:
- Corporate raider. The ad calls Romney a corporate raider. Anybody who knows his ass from page eight realizes that this characterization is BS. However, the campaign cites a single Reuters story, written by a stringer, and repudiated by Reuters’ Boston Bureau Chief, as the basis for its characterization of Romney as a Carl Ichan like corporate raider.
- Gold medal fabrications. The ad names a number of companies where Romney supposedly outsourced jobs out of America. One teensy-tiny problem: Romney was gone from Bain and running the Salt Lake City Olympics when these events happened. The Obama campaign’s rationalization? Romney had not yet sold all his shares in Bain so he bears the blame. Folks, we have entered the world of pathological lying here.
- Shell game. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a bill that would have forbidden state contractors from moving jobs overseas. His logic? The bill would cost Massachusetts more money and the jobs could leave Massachusetts anyway. As the WaPo fact checker says, ” Both the liberal editorial page of the Boston Globe and conservative editorial page of the Boston Herald urged Romney to veto the amendment, saying it would cost the state money.” The specific case cited by the Obama campaign – the CitiGroup outsourcing of food stamp card processing to India – seems to be a reasonable criticism of Romney. Reasonable, that is, until one hears “the rest of the story.” Once the call center was brought back to the U.S. the jobs did not return to Mass. They went to another state just as Romney had predicted. Ironically, that state was Utah.
Quantity over quality. When the Obama campaign heard that the Washington Post Fact Checker was looking into its pathological lies, it tried to bury the Fact Checker in paper. The campaign supplied “reams” of documents supposedly bolstering its case. The net result? The Washington Post Fact Checker awarded the ad its highest dishonesty rating – four Pinocchios.
Dissembling desperation. Barack Obama is repeatedly proving that he cannot be trusted to tell the truth. As this year’s Presidential campaign unfolds I don’t know why I should watch, read or listen to anything Obama says. Why should I? Obama has proven that he will tell any lie, distort any fact and make any false campaign promise in order to get elected. If President Obama wants to be re-elected he needs to start telling the truth and insisting that those around him do the same. The fact that the liberal-leaning Washington Post awarded an Obama campaign ad its highest dishonesty score says it all. My only question is when we’ll start seeing Romney ads taking Obama to task for his dishonest statements.
America deserves better than a sitting president who condones dishonesty in his name.
– DJ Rippert
DJ…you’ve gone off the rails my man…. This is politics. Both sides play this game. Want me to show you Romney’s “lies”?
Romney IS, in fact, what is known as a Corporate Raider and whether he was at Bain or not for a particular company is not the point. The point is that this is what he did … whenever he was engaged in that line of work.
You don’t need WaPo “fact checker” to find the truth… it’s just becomes yet another “see, I told you so”…for the things that SUPPORT your pre-conceived views and ignored when it does not.
The bigger question here is – what is good for business – always what is good for the American worker.
I’m pretty sure I’ve even heard DJ pontificate about what is happening to American Jobs…. and how Obama’s approach might compare to Romney.
Romney has made it pretty clear who he is. He’s in favor of leveraged buyouts… and saving money by evading the health care and pensions promised the workers and the US has to take over the pensions and health care for the workers who had them taken aware by corporate raiding.
Romney believes we should offshore and outshore jobs.
Romney is a poser. Make your choice but at least understand what you’re supporting.
Sorry LarryG but you are wrong.
Romney is not a corporate raider, he is not a venture capitalist, he is not a hedge fund manager. He is the former CEO of a private equity firm.
Obama and his friends tried to pillory private equity companies but ran into a buzzsaw of criticism from his own party for that. Turns out that private equity companies make a lot of political contributions … to Democrats. That gave Obama three choices:
1. Continue to criticize Romney for private equity.
2. Drop the matter and find something else to complain about.
3. Lie
Obama chose to lie. Neither Mitt Romney nor Bain Capital would be considered a corporate raider by anybody wit even a passing understanding of the term.
Outsourcing sucks. The problem is that several of the examples in the 30 second Obama ad were about outsourcing decisions made after Romney left Bain. Rather than admit their error the Obama campaign compounded it by claiming that Romney should be held accountable because he still had stock in Bain Capital.
Should Obama be held accountable for the current fiscal fiasco in Illinois?
Right now, the Obama campaign is disorganized, desperate and spewing lies. This is a disservice to Americans and an embarrassment to the President.
The worst part of the story is that the lies seem to be working. Romney still has high negatives, and his status as a successful businessman, once considered a positive attribute for a presidential candidate, as Joe Scarborough pointed out this morning, has been converted into a mild negative.
When lies work, expect more of the same.
when we talk about “lies” – think in terms of the right wing propaganda machine for things like Social Security and ObamaCare – both of which have been totally lied about and Romney has grabbed onto.
Romney is indeed a corporate raider, an outsources, an offshorer, AND a private equity businessman who has participated in the buying of companies and selling off of their assets and turning over the health care and pensions of the workers to the Federal Govt.
I’m not opposed to what he did nor do I demonize it but at least you guys ought to be willing to recognize the simple truth of what happens to companies that are acquired via leveraged buyout. There IS a cost to taxpayers for doing that. It may be the best of the worst options but to say that Romney did not engage in it or that the taxpayer PBGC did not end up with the pensions is just lying in and of itself.
Are you saying that Romney NEVER engaged in the things that Bain has done – ever? I bet not. Are we splitting hairs here as to what a lie is or is not?
Ya’ll are not distinguishing between election year politics and the official statements made by this Administration.
If you want to take about lies about Policy and Law – then state your case. If you want to talk politics then fine.. just keep in mind all the whoopers told by Romney and others in this election.
It’s all tit for tat, and Mr. Rippert you’re playing along. Obama is a “community organizer” and a socialist, and Romney is a financial vampire. The game is to co-opt the opponent’s image by repeating (and repeating) statements that have little truth or no truth but that people are willing to believe. [The worst of these ever was the Swift Boating of Kerry.] It’s despicable, tired of it. But I don’t think it is restricted to one candidate or one political party.
And if you didn’t have the Washington Post, where would you get your information? Fox News, WSJ editorial page, Heritage Foundation, Rush – ridiculous! Who could you complain about? The Washington Post puts out a daily paper with lots of opinions (Krauthammer is crazy!) and I think it does a darn good job.
Richard:
I have no problem with Obama criticizing Romney’s business career. I don’t think it’s a good strategy but I have no problem with Obama doing it.
I have a problem with the Obama campaign telling outright lies.
Corporate raiders are characterized by hostile takeovers. Bain is not. Whether LarryG knows the difference between a corporate raider and a private equity company is irrelevant – there is a difference.
Blaming Romney for outsourcing at Bain after he had left the company was also a lie. The question isn’t whether Romney favors outsourcing. The question is whether the Obama commercial was truthful. It was not.
The Washington Post is as liberal as liberal can be. Krauthammer is like a grain of conservative salt in a vat of liberal chili. I have no issue with The Washington Post’s liberalism. It just means that I need to read another newspaper to get the conservative slant so I can form an opinion. My pint was that even a very pro-Obama paper like the Post declared Obama’s campaign ad extremely dishonest. Has Fox News declared it dishonest there wouldn’t have been much of a story. But the Post?
The campaign ad was more than 75% dishonest. We should expect better of our President.
And, yes … if (when?) Romney puts out dishonest campaign ads – I’ll call him on it too.