There use to be a time in politics where being called out on an issue you are wrong on meant something. Campaigns were very careful not to do something so blatantly not true as to hurt their credibility. But there’s been a buildup lately in the campaign that I’ve noticed that has started to infuriate me. It seemed to really start festering when the Romney campaign started whining about how negative the campaign had gotten. Theres a difference between stretching the truth or exaggerating, and straight up lying. Guess which one the Republicans have been doing?
He loves to tout his business experience but cries foul when horror stories of his business arise or its pointed out that his retirement from the company is inconsistent with financial statements.
He won’t release his tax returns even though it has been reported that he has tons of offshore accounts to avoid taxes, and claims the reason why he wont release them is he wants to maintain privacy with how much he gives to his church. But when he ever talks about his wealth, his church contributions are always his go to punchline.
After the fallout of Todd Akin, Paul Ryan has tried to distance himself from the “legitimate rape” comments despite him sponsoring the same language in the enormous amount of anti-choice legislation he’s sponsored. He holds the exact same views as Akin whether or not he would use the same medieval language. And when asked about his view, he says “Mitt Romney will be president, not I,” apparently not realizing the absurdity of the statement, as he is “a heartbeat away” from the presidency.
And then there were these extreme lies in the past few weeks.
Romney and Ryan have been stumping the campaign trail declaring “Obama is cutting 700 billion dollars from medicare to pay for Obamacare!”. That 700 billion is actually money being saved by being more aggressive with insurance companies and poor performing recipients of medicare dollars that are bleeding the program. It does not impact senior care at all, and the Ryan budget had the exact same savings listed. If he were successful in repealing the Health Care law, he would not only add to the deficit but also reduce the solvency of medicare by 8 years, not to mention force seniors to pay thousands more out-of-pocket for medical expenses. That’s fear mongering and lying, especially on a program that he would decimate compared to anything Obama would dream of doing.
Then there is the ad that’s now being used in Romney speeches that “Obama is waiving the work requirement for welfare”. This is referring to a request from governors to have more flexibility with federal rules on welfare, and its something Mitt Romney asked for as governor too. In no way, shape, or form is that claim remotely true. That is lying.
What’s really angered me about all of this complete bullshit is the fact that it is not a collapsing moment for Romney’s campaign. He should be giving public speeches about how embarrassed he is to lie to this nation. And the media is largely giving all of this a slap on the wrist, in fear of seeming overly aggressive or partisan on the issue. It’s not even up for debate. Someone needs to blow the whistle on them, because it’s this kind of vile rhetoric that made the health care debate such a fiasco in 2010 with things like “The government is taking over healthcare!” or “There are death panels!”. And people who don’t know how to use a computer to fact check believe it. Naive people look at these two-faced politicians or their ads and think “It’s a public servant! They wouldn’t lie about something so serious”. But they can, and they are. Because of the freedom of speech, Mitt Romney and Reince Priebus can lie all day everyday because political speech is more protected than anything else. And this illusion shifts public opinion among critical voters who pride themselves in swinging to both parties depending on the water temperature. It is disgusting to see a man who claims to be on the moral high-ground such as Romney act this way when he himself must know he is lying or he is an idiot. And it’s how the entire Republican party is playing because they are so desperate to win. There is no equivalent of this with the democrats nor has there ever been. I hope the same shame that should be swarming Romney right now finds its way to the free thinking people who support him, if there are any of those left.
As AJ Thinks 
nice!