Reich writes: "I've been struck by the baldness of Romney's repetitive lies about Obama ... The mainstream media along with a half-dozen independent fact-checking organizations and sites have called Romney on these whoppers, but to no avail."
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
Romney's Lying Machine
24 August 12
've been struck by the baldness of Romney's repetitive lies about Obama - that Obama ended the work requirement under welfare, for example, or that Obama's Affordable Care Act cuts $716 billion from Medicare benefits.
The mainstream media along with a half-dozen independent fact-checking organizations and sites have called Romney on these whoppers, but to no avail. He keeps making these assertions.
Every campaign is guilty of exaggerations, embellishments, distortions, and half-truths. But this is another thing altogether. I've been directly involved in seven presidential campaigns, and I don't recall a presidential candidate lying with such audacity, over and over again. Why does he do it, and how can he get away with it?
The obvious answer is such lies are effective. Polls show voters are starting to believe them, especially in swing states where they're being repeated constantly in media spots financed by Romney's super PAC or ancillary PACs and so-called "social welfare" organizations (political fronts disguised as charities, such as Karl Rove and the Koch brothers have set up).
Romney's lying machine is extraordinarily well financed. By August, according to Jane Mayer in her recent New Yorker article, at least 33 billionaires had each donated a quarter of a million dollars or more to groups aiming to defeat Obama – with most of it flooding into attack ads in swing states.
In early August, "Americans for Prosperity," one of the nonprofit front groups masquerading as a charity, and founded in part by billionaire right-wingers Charles and David Koch, bought some $27 million in ad time on spots now airing in eleven swing states.
So Romney's lying machine is working.
But what does all this tell us about the man who is running this lying machine? (Or if Romney's not running it, what does it tell us about a man who would select the people who are?)
We knew he was a cypher - that he'll say and do whatever is expedient, change positions like a chameleon, eschew any core principles.
Yet resorting to outright lies - and organizing a presidential campaign around a series of lies - reveals a whole new level of cynicism, a profound disdain for what remains of civility in public life, and a disrespect of the democratic process.
The question is whether someone who is willing to resort to such calculated lies, and build a campaign machine around them, can be worthy of the public's trust with the most powerful office in the world.
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Many media reporters and their editors are young and green and don't necessarily know when a lie is a lie. Other so-called journalists are lazy and incurious. I know; I was appalled at the level of ignorance and incuriosity among my fellow journalism students in the 1970s and '80s.
But for me, the most troublesome reason is that the most high-profile news outlets are corporate-owned and (unlike 40 years ago) profit-driven, and they stand to gain from a Romney victory in November.
Those who stand to profit from a Romney/Ryan victory don't give a rat's ass about this country or its people. Bitter food for thought.
Remember when Comcast bought NBC and promptly fired Keith Olbermann? They got him for all those years of calling Bush and the republicans what they were; thugs; not worthy of our respect. Journalists have to live and support families just like you and I so they do anything to keep their jobs. If you ever hear a journalist say "I don't want to appear partisan" mark my words; what he is saying is that he is AFRAID he might be fired or his career destroyed.
If they told the facts nobody would be able to hold their noses and vote for Romney. Not one thing he's said about Obama has been true, not one single thing!
Not by Murdoch, but by conservatives. Even CBS and MSNBC.
The "press" is owned by the 1%. Counting on the press for fairness, truth and accuracy in reporting is like counting on the foxes to guard the hen house.
Can a cynical and systematic liar, etch-a-sketch artist, stonewaller and dissembler become President? Nixon did. W did. Twice each.
Now, the $64,000 question in two parts: Is the American electorate able to discern the lies and willing to reject them?
Thats so true, and we all know Fox and Rush arent above lying...they actually lie almost every time you watch their programming. Its a right wing propaganda tank, lie tell them what ever they think they can get by with...and they know the people are so dumb they wont bother to seek out the facts, they will just repeat the lie like its a fact.
The whole problem can be ascribed to the fact that $64,000.00 won't even buy you the question mark these days!
He gave the two above examples. Here are some others:
Mitt Romney is lying when he says President Obama is trying to restrict the rights of Ohio's military voters (He was trying to support the same rights to ALL Ohio voters. The lawsuit does NOT request restriction of military voters rights.
Paul Ryan a crowd of the GOP faithful in North Canton, Ohio that President Obama's energy policies had led to a Janesville, Wisc., GM factory's closure -- even though it stopped production in 2008 before Obama became president.
Romney has insisted that he never called for a national healthcare law (he did)
Romney claimed the economy has gotten worse since President Obama took office./Preside nt Obama's stimulus plan didn't work. (Untrue. It is true that more stimulus was needed, but blocked by the G.O.P.)
Romney's budget is a serious plan for deficit reduction (Nope. almost identical to Ryan's plan, but with fewer details... cost over $4.5 trillion during the next 10 years)
Even Newt Gingrich, himself no connoisseur of accuracy stated during his primary run "Romney doesn't deserve to be president because he doesn't tell the truth." I don't know if that's the pot calling the kettle black, or a scathing indictment on just how low Romney must be.
Ann Romney says her husband's integrity is "just golden". Where has SHE been? Where was she when he lied about - what else - his MA taxes? He paid taxes as a resident of UT when he was chosen to head up the 2002 Winter Olympics. He then wanted to run for governor of MA, a job that requires 7 years residency. When asked about his MA taxes for the last 7 years, he claimed he had paid them. CLANG, CLANG, CLANG... [The big Romney LIAR alarm goes off]. He had to admit that he hadn't paid them, and, even with that lie, they allowed him to pay the back taxes and run for governor.
Sooooo, it turns out that the ONLY thing "golden" about Rmoney are those things he can buy with his $20 Million / year income. Oops, I forgot, we can't call it income because we'd have to tax him at the same rate as his secretary.
By the way, I'm still wondering how Mitt was able to write off $77,000 on his taxes for Ann's dancing horse, Rafalca.
Steve Benen posts his Mitt's Mendacity blog every Friday; this one is edition 33, with 37 items.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/12/1082975/-EVERY-Romney-Lie-In-One-Place-UPDATED
Or do a google for Romney Lies List
Every single thing he has said since the beginning of the primaries has been a lie. The harder task would be finding anything true that he's said. If he says he loves his wife I'd bet money on a divorce in the works.
WHAT are you talking about?
If you've EVER heard Romney speak, you've heard him LIE!
No Trish42, there are empirical truths and empirical proofs. The major news organizations have just gotten lazy and/or partisan and corrupt. Thus, as they say, "in the interest of fair and balanced reporting" they give opinion as fact without due diligence. I sometimes wonder whether news organizations even still have
fact checkers on the payroll, or if that job has gone the way of elevator operator and switchboard operator.
fact checkers on the payroll, or if that job has gone the way of elevator operator and switchboard operator.
They don't. The bean counters fired them all in the mid-1980s, when the lust for profit began to trump the thirst for knowledge and truth.
1. Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans are promoting policies similar to or often worse than those that had such disastrous results during the Bush administration, including converting a three-year major surplus, which was on track to completely eliminate the total federal debt, into a major deficit, creating very few net jobs (none in the private sector), and leaving the country on the brink of a depression, with an average of 750,000 jobs being lost during its last three months.
2. Republicans have obstructed efforts to get our country out of the tremendous ditch they left us in by voting no on and sometimes filibustering many Democratic proposals, some of which they previously supported and sometimes even co-sponsored. Hence, it is not surprising that a recent poll showed that 49% of Americans believe that Republican Congress members are purposely sabotaging the U.S. economy in order to defeat Obama and other Democrats, while only 40% disagree.
3.. Republicans support continued tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and highly profitable corporations, while basic social services that middle class and poor people depend on are being cut and teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and others are losing their jobs.
1. Republicans are generally in denial about the tremendous dangers from climate change, in spite of a very strong consensus in peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and statements by scientific academies all over the world that climate change is a major threat, largely caused by human activities, and the many wake-up calls we have been receiving in terms of severe storms, tornados, floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires,. Anyone who thinks that climate change is a hoax promoted by liberals should visit the website of the “Republicans for Environmental Protection.” (www.rep.org) . This conservative group was only able to endorse four percent of Republicans in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections because so many Republicans are in denial about climate change and other environmental threats. Paul Ryan is a climate denier and has a miserable record on the environment. Please check out
http://truth-out.org/news/item/10855-meet-paul-ryan-climate-denier-conspiracy-theorist-koch-acolyte
2. The Republican Party has moved far to the right under the influence of the Tea Party. There are very few moderate Republicans in Congress today.
3. While far more needs to be done, Democrats have enacted policies that have turned the economy away from the possible depression that the Bush administration left the U.S. on the brink of.
Mitt Romney???!!!??? He's pretty well established his record on doing nothing BUT LIE on disclosing his Tax Status, among just about anything else he SAYS!!!
In the inimitable words of someone of eloquence:"YOU LIE,
YOU LIE, YOU LIE!!!!!
This is where the Romney/Ryan Lying Machine gets its inspiration:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” ~Joseph Goebbels
Need one say more?
"If Republicans will stop telling lies about Democrats, Democrats will stop telling the truth about Republicans."~A dlai Stevenson
Check it out: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/if_you_dont_stop_lying_about_me_ill_start_telling_the_truth_about_you/
This is a hostile take over by big money whose agenda is to destroy our govt that is supposed to serve us. If the American people aren't too stupid they will just steal the election. And don't expect jobs under a R and R presidency- they fully support outsourcing - whatever is good for the corporations is good fore them.
Capitalism always fails if there isn't strict regulation. BTW, the most socialist European countries are also the ones doing the best in today's economy.
I've really grown to hate Obama because he adopted Clinton as his political godfather and the two of them have done nothing more than lick republican ass all day long. But next to Romeny or any Republican, Obama looks pretty good.
My opinion and estimation of Republicans, never very high, has plummeted since Nixon, but Romney's blatant, outrageous lies are beyond anything I've seen before. He doesn't even seem to care when his lies are fact-checked and found to be lies; he just keeps repeating them anyway! That, for me, says it all. No shame, no remorse, no apology.
The same could be said for many in the GOP Congress. These are lowlife, unprincipled people. Why would anyone want them running the country?
"I know that this is probably an anathema to most people, however, I blame Obama and his administration for allowing this travesty to be so prevalent. When he came into office, he said that he was only going to look forward. That meant that the Justice Department, under his appointee, Eirc Holder, would take no action against the lying, sheating, theiving traitors of the Bush administration."
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AMEN!! The problem is that the Dems aided and abetted all the crimes of previous administrations by being too gutless to stand up for what used to be their principles.
Nobody in either party's "leadership" wants to--or can afford to-- reveal where all the bodies are buried; because both parties have been accomplices in each other's crimes.
Whenever I hear the word "bi-partisan" I cringe, because I know it's CYA time for ALL the usual suspects. Aside from a handful of Dems who make up the "Progressive Caucus" (PLUS Bernie Sanders), everybody's hands are dirty (AND bloody!).
Never in our history has the need for an alternative to this "two"-party charade been more critical. "Our" government is under the control of a 'cosa nostra' arrangement that has effectively silenced any GENUINE dissent.
This week exposure of Romney offshore financial antics shows his 62+& disaproval means he can't stand, just waste Dem's fighting fund.
Ron Paul more likely the Regan type god old dad, or Sanmtorum religious cleanskin the intended, to surface at real Republican endorsement time.
After each such whopper, NPR should at least declare that it (1) has checked the veracity of the statement with "X" non-partisan source which rates the statement "X" for veracity or accuracy, or (2) that the statement contradicts the findings of the OMB. NPR could also institute its own quick response fact-checking routine.
The problem is public radio is afraid it will lose its funding if it truly stands up to the right wing lie machine.
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