Mendacity: Romney Style

Now that Mitt Romney appears to be closing in on the Republican Presidential nomination it is time to start focusing more attention on this candidate who has been challenged by so many crackpots it makes him look downright normal. But is he? Well, in describing him I think it's fair to say one word keeps coming up, even from rival candidate Newt Gingrich ... "liar." Yes, as big daddy once exhorted in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, mendacity is all around us, particularly when we are talking about the presumptive nominee Romney. Several examples should serve as a template of his tendency toward purposefully getting facts wrong (most are courtesy of Washington Monthly blogger Steven Benen):

1. Romney campaigning in Iowa: “[W]hen the president went around at the beginning of his term and apologized for America around the world, it made us just heartsick.

He’s lying; the president never apologized for America. Romney knows this, but he keeps making the claim anyway. 

2. Romney on Fox News: “I’ve still got the same positions on the issues I had four years ago. My record as governor and my positions are pretty darn conservative.”

That’s not even close to being true. At the top of the list, of course, was his support for healthcare reform that looks a hell of a lot like Obama's now unpopular plan.

3. Romney talking about his jobs record on Fox News: “[At Bain Capital], we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”

Actually, no, he didn’t. As I reported in a previous post, based on a New York Times profile, the company actually closed down several firms, gutted others and made a fortune in the process.

4. Romney in New Hampshire last Wednesday said President Obama seeks “a ‘European-style welfare state’ to redistribute wealth and create ‘equal outcomes’ regardless of individual effort and success.”

This isn’t just a lie, it’s also “Glenn Beck-level insane.” I have mentioned this one before as well, but worth reiterating given its centrality as a tiresome GOP strategy that unfortunately keeps on working.

5. Romney in a new campaign ad airing in South Carolina: “The National Labor Relations Board, now stacked with union stooges selected by the president, says to a free enterprise like Boeing, ‘You can’t build a factory in South Carolina, because South Carolina is a right-to-work state.’ That is simply un-American. It’s political payback of the worst kind.”

Romney has said this before, and he’s been told every time, he’s lying. 

6. Romney continues to make wildly misleading comments about the president’s jobs record, too.

The hosts of CBS’s “The Early Show” this week seemed taken aback when Newt Gingrich called Romney “a liar,” prompting the disgraced former House Speaker to say they shouldn’t be “shocked” given Romney’s constant dishonesty. 

7. As I mentioned in a previous post back in November, there is the infamous television ad where Obama's statement is taken completely out of context: Mediate. This one was telling as Romney's campaign manager and the candidate themselves were unwilling to acknowledge the misleading nature of the ad saying that the President said it. Sure and I'm sure he said I love the Nazis if we piece together three speeches as well.

8. Romney and his campaign appear to be lying about the effect of partial or complete repeal of the Obama Healthcare bill: America Blog.

A site that has been keeping track of his lies is available here: Fact Check. But while all candidates engage in bending of the truth at times, the acuity and ubiquity with which Mitt does so seems downright appalling.