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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 25 August 2012
“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.”
Romney’s Lying Machine
I’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.
This article was originally posted on Robert Reich's blog.
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ABOUT Robert Reich
ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
Top Stories
By Ronnie Cummins
27 comments on "Romney’s Lying Machine"
August 26, 2012 4:47pm
We need to tax the rich like they did for 65 out of the first 70 years of the Federal Income Tax Code. This is what brought us out of the Great Depression, and will bring us out of the Great Recession, if they would only do it. In 1938 for instance we had 33 tax brackets from 4% for the working class up to $64,000. and progressively graduated up to 79% for income over $79,Million. Now that is what I call "Fair and Balanced".
August 26, 2012 10:06pm
You could tax Romney and all the rich at 100%, take all corporate profits and it still wouldn't pay for the current levels of spending, let alone the future.
The figures just don't add up, see for yourself in this video called "Eat the Rich":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ
August 26, 2012 1:48pm
Focus on soundbites much, Reich?
The term cuts has been abused by just about all politicians, apart from Rand Paul maybe.
Medicare is BROKEN beyond repair, and Reich has repeatedly called for it to expaned to cover everyone in the US. As if expanding a broken Govenrment program has ever fixed anything.
Soundbites aside, Romney / Ryan are calling for the right steps to tackle rising costs, which are the main problem with healthcare.
August 26, 2012 4:37pm
Romney/Ryan are a joke. They want to raise taxes on the Middle Class, in order to give tax breaks to Millionaires and Billionaires. By the way you should probably use spellcheck more often, being you don't know how to spell.
August 25, 2012 8:23pm
Contrary to historical belief, Joesph Goebbels is actually alive and very well, and resides in the Republican party.
August 25, 2012 5:41pm
Two words, Robert: Sociopath and propaganda. You know these words and what they mean. So, why don't you use them? The real question isn't whether The Mittster or paul ryan are worthy of consideration. It's why don't people understand what's being perpetrated and by whom; in other words, education and critical judgments.
August 25, 2012 5:01pm
Great ...... now we have two bonafide congenital liars running for Pres, Time for another choice, dont you all think? Both parties should shit can their condidates and get new ones, or we are going to have a real revolution on our hands no matter who wins cause one in a Marust ane the other a Fascist ... and this is no exageration
August 25, 2012 5:39pm
RICHARD:
What's a Marust? That's a new one on me.
I can't tell who's a Marust and who's a Fascist. Care to explain?
Just on the wild chance that Marust means Marxist, I guess you mean the President. When he was trying to get a health care bill approved, Tea Party screamers were calling him a Nazi and drawing a Hitler mustache on his pictures. And other people, who don't like a black man (even if he's only half-black) in the White House, have been calling him everything under the sun, including Muslim terrorist, Commie and Socialist. Others claim he's a slave of Wall Street. Go figure. Just toss a coin, I guess.
There's really a wide variety of labels you can use, if you don't like Obama, and they don't have to have any connection with reality. I know enough about human nature to see if a person really wants to believe something, facts won't be a deterrence.
Well, it would be nice to have another choice that's feasible (that is, has a chance to win the election), but we don't, and that's the bottom line. So you can do nothing or vote for someone few people have even heard of, and you'll still be increasing the likelihood that we'll have Conservatives controlling every branch of government in January, and that prospect, remembering the Bush presidency, doesn't really set well with me, though maybe it doesn't bother you. I shudder to think of more neocon appointments to the Supreme Court.
For Pete's sake, at least Ralph Nader was a nationally known figure, and he was saying things that neither candidate was saying, but who can you vote for in this crucial election that is anywhere near Nader's stature?
We all have choices to make, and we're responsible for our decisions...and decisions do have consequences, and you can't escape that.
August 25, 2012 1:46pm
Oldhat: Rude, too. The Obama Secretary runs HHS. Medicaid & Medicare so I would believe him before you. Much of it is savings, as in the 80%requirement spenting on medical care by insurance companies; some taxes that have already started, ie, on tanning salons, & lower payments on some services.
I actually listen to an interview between him & Bush's secretary, who by the way was not as up=to-date as the present one,. Naturally, like you too.
August 25, 2012 1:00pm
Dudley - Oldhat has much bigger problems than a poorly constructed comment. Pity him/her, for s/he is pitiful.
Now, I've often wondered if it's possible to sue radio/TV stations for airing slander. If not, why not? Anybody a lawyer here?
August 25, 2012 1:23pm
it would be hard to sue reich under the standards set up in the westmoreland case you are correct it is hard being cassandra
August 25, 2012 12:50pm
I've been wondering - can the TV/radio stations be sued for spreading libel? I don't see why not, and that would stop the lies cold...
August 25, 2012 12:38pm
Why aren't these people being sued for libel and slander?
August 25, 2012 11:33am
Civilization is built on lies but GOP lies are dangerous to humanity, society, this country and the world. GOP is trying to turn the clock of progress back to Medieval times when those with money/power enjoyed unbridled control over the rest under the banner of an insane church/state gone wild with power/money. Modern age is founded on rational authority: codependency between rulers/ruled, bosses/workers, contractual obligations instead of one sided flow of power/wealth....
August 25, 2012 11:08am
Moromney isn't lying. He's just not telling the truth!
August 25, 2012 10:38am
"Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once! "
Politicians lying -- WHO KNEW!!!
Robert's correct though, the republicans have honed outright lies to a science over the last 45 years...and ESPECIALLY over the last 12...
August 25, 2012 5:27pm
This science of lies was perfected by the Third Reich (no relation to Robert). The Repugnanticans learned well from them.
August 25, 2012 10:33am
I would love to see an ad titled "The Audacity of Lies" showing Romney repeating his whoppers with fact-check designations overlaid, and then an announcer saying, "Is Mr. Romney so out of touch he doesn't realize they're lies...or does he just not care?"
August 26, 2012 6:40am
I totally agree that the mass media should be required to run a fact checking overlay on any political information that the mass media spews out to the public. This reminds me of the ongoing media corruption as noted in the 1880 John Swinton speech, that he gave while working for the New York Sun.
"The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth...
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes.
We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance.
Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property
of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."-- John Swinton 1880
The political corruption was going on strong back in 1880 as it still is today.(sigh) We must be vgilant in the task of encouraging others to become truth seekers. We must keep our cool while addressing misinformed people (aka Rep sheeple) with objective facts that contradict their preconceived manipulated ideas.
When my Republican friends offers me their latest piece of political propaganda tripe....I ask them to prove it to me via any official fact finding website. Of course they can't find the proof as it was a lie in the first place. The concept that they've been hosed yet again may or may not sink into them. Like an earlier poster said: "I know enough about human nature to see if a person really wants to believe something, facts won't be a deterrence." and I tend to agree with him.
However, hope springs eternal.....we gotta try.....right? ; )
August 25, 2012 5:21pm
Great ad idea. Maybe it could be forwarded to his ad agencies in swing states.
August 25, 2012 10:40am
I believe that the mass media should be REQUIRED to run a crawl at least 1/3 of the screen high fact-checking ALL political speeches and adverts...
Otherwise, NO USE OF THE PUBLIC'S AIRWAVES!
August 25, 2012 10:05am
I would be sick if I weren't already.
August 25, 2012 9:58am
What go`s around comes around!!!
August 25, 2012 9:49am
reich why do you not list lies that Obama ended the work requirement under welfare, for example, or that Obama’s Affordable Care Act cuts $716 billion from Medicare benefits. are true can you not think for your self and not repeat lines the white house send you?
August 25, 2012 1:20pm
Work requirements are not simply being “dropped.” States may now change the requirements — revising, adding or eliminating them — as part of a federally approved state-specific plan to increase job placement.
And it won’t “gut” the 1996 law to ease the requirement. Benefits still won’t be paid beyond an allotted time, whether the recipient is working or not. - Factcheck.org
Republicans claim the president’s $716 billion “cuts” to Medicare hurt the program’s finances. But the opposite is true. These cuts in the future growth of spending prolong the life of the Medicare trust fund, stretching the program’s finances out longer than they would last otherwise. - Factcheck.org
Factcheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. We are all being played by either the right or the left. Factcheck.org is a great place to start in understanding where the complex truth actually stands and then making an informed decision on which party meets your criteria and garners your vote.
August 25, 2012 10:07am
Why don't you learn to put words in such an order that they make sense, even if they then still don't make real sense?
August 25, 2012 12:46pm
i will try to dumb my statements down to your level