Team Romney Tries One Last Desperate Lie

Yesterday, I wrote a Tumblr post titled, "Is the '12 presidential race essentially over?" In it, I pointed out that pollsters and analysts have been describing a pretty static race for a while now and that Barack Obama was favored to win. "It’s a little more than a week to the election, there are like five undecided voters left in the country..." I wrote, "Nothing left to do but sit on the edge of the bed and try not to wrinkle your suit while you wait for your big election night date."

The Romney ad above seems to back up my argument. Currently running in Ohio, Taegan Goddard calls the ad "a fairly clear indication -- despite surrogates claiming Romney is now leading in Ohio -- that he's more likely running behind as the polling averages show." Why? Because it's pretty much a complete reversal of the story he's been telling Ohioans, while being a steaming pile of BullsMitt.

ThinkProgress counts "four myths" in the Romney ad. The one that leaped out at me was "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy." This from the guy wrote wrote an op-ed in the New York Times titled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." The rest are about as egregious, that just struck me as the most glaringly obvious.

And the whole thing's based on a lie Romney told last week; that Chrysler was shutting down plants in the US to move production to China. The truth is that Jeep is expanding production by opening plants in China, while maintaining all their plants in the US. Romney was lying to people and telling them they were on the verge of losing their jobs, frightening them and their families for the sole intention of getting a few more votes. It was unconscionable and decidedly unpresidential. The last Republican nominee who was such a shameless fearmonger was George W. Bush. Mitt is not in good company.

And, when called on his lie, Romney doubled down and ran this ad. "Even for Mitt Romney," Steve Benen writes, "this level of mendacity borders on nauseating":


It's important, on a substantive level, for the public to understand that Romney is trying to mislead them about the underlying policy, but it's also important to appreciate the larger context: Romney simply doesn't respect voters enough to be honest with them. For the Republican candidate, it's an era of post-truth politics, in which he no longer even cares about getting caught lying.

As for why he's so eager to deliberately mislead the public, Obama's successful rescue of the American auto industry is a very difficult issue for Romney to deal with, especially in a state like Ohio that benefited so directly from the president's accomplishment.


And, to go back to Goddard, that's why the ad is a sign of Romney desperation in Ohio. He tries to confuse Ohioans about who did what, who said what, who wanted to "let Detroit go bankrupt." Mitt's argument is now this: All that stuff you don't like about the auto bailout? Obama did that. Mitt wanted to do it all the right way. The reasons you like Obama are the reasons to like me. And the reasons why you hate me are the reasons you should hate Obama.

This version of events is a 180-degree reversal of reality. Hell, it's practically identity theft. It's a big, stupid, blatant moron of a lie. A clumsy lashing out from a drowning candidate's panic. I never liked Mitt Romney; he's a slippery, dishonest, pirate of a man with a corporate boardroom where his heart ought to be and a focus-group instead of a belief system. And I've never disliked him more.

Here's hoping this one last desperate lie does more harm than good. Let's hope the people whose lives he tried to upend with fear of losing their jobs are as angry at him as they should be. And here's hoping that, after this election is over, we never again hear from this lying sack of horse dung who goes by the name "Mitt Romney."

-Wisco