MORE debate lies by mitt robme romney exposed by Bob Cesca on HuffPost, and check this out from The Daily Kos Mitt Romney: Lying to victory (DEBATE ANALYSIS) 4OKT12
Mitt Romney won the debate last night but only if you judge the
"winner" of a debate as the most hyperkinetic, oftentimes aggressive and
condescending participant who used his rehearsed delivery to spackle
over his lies, mistakes, generalities and misleading statements.
Almost on cue, the cable news people along with, shockingly enough,
some people who I otherwise admire and whose work I read every day,
confused style for substance and leadership quality -- and they've
completely and totally ignored the words Mitt Romney actually said. More
on that presently.
In contrast to Mitt Romney's used-car salesman approach in which he
stabs you in the face but does so in a way that makes you thank him and
shake his clammy hand in the end, Barack Obama's natural and authentic
-- underscore
authentic -- style might've seemed like he wasn't as polished.
No, the president wasn't as energetic as he could've been. Yes, he
was far too kind and deferential to an opponent whose entire goal is to
roll back every Obama administration achievement. But there was zero
chance that President Obama would appear in Denver last night and
suddenly reveal himself to be a snappy, idealized Aaron Sorkin
character. Furthermore, many of my friends on the left lapsed back into
this weird chronic amnesia in which they forget how Barack Obama carries
himself, how he debates and who he is. With a few exceptions, the
Obama you watched last night was the same Obama we watched win all three
debates
against John McCain four years ago,
say nothing of all of the various town halls, press conferences and
Question Time forums he's hosted. He's thoughtful and deliberate and,
yes, he sometimes stammers during pauses, but that's no reflection on
his leadership qualities or unrivaled intelligence. For the most part,
this is how he's always comported himself. The problem, however, was
that it might've come off as
too deliberate and thoughtful when contrasted against Romney's caffeinated morning zoo deejay persona.
Speaking of which, let's talk about Romney's performance in terms of what he said.
Romney -- not the president -- made the biggest mistake of the night
and almost everyone missed it. The president, in a very effective run,
highlighted not only "corporate welfare" for oil companies but he also
talked about how corporations receive tax breaks when they ship jobs
overseas.
Romney's response to this tax break accusation?
"The second topic, which is you said you get a deduction for getting a
plant overseas. Look, I've been in business for 25 years. I have no
idea what you're talking about. I maybe need to get a new accountant."
In other words,
Why didn't I get that tax break when I shipped jobs overseas?
Right there, and on a televised presidential debate, Romney
accidentally admitted to shipping jobs overseas -- but claims to have
never received such a tax break, obviously when he's shipped jobs
overseas with Bain Capital. In an alternate dimension of punditry that
isn't an superficial as ours, this might have been the headline today,
especially given that American job creation was a central point of
debate. Romney appeared on television last night and was tasked with
describing how he would create jobs, he ended up copping to eliminating
American jobs and sending those jobs to China and elsewhere. Romney
needs to be pressed on this point. Over and over and over.
And immediately following that discussion, Romney went on to repeat the tired and
universally debunked lie that Obamacare "cuts" $716 billion from Medicare.
He also insisted that his tax cuts, which are the centerpiece of his
economic plan, wouldn't cost $5 trillion. Of course they do.
The Tax Policy Center agrees.
This is the guy who fancies himself as the deficit hawk whose
convention featured a real-time debt clock, and he's on deck to add
another $5 trillion to the deficit. He also said the cuts won't result
in tax hikes on the middle class.
FactCheck.org wrote,
"Experts say that's not possible." And regarding the "six studies" that
Romney repeatedly cited as evidence against the massive deficit that
his tax plan would create, it's actually
five studies, not six.
Further:
Two of the five "studies" were blog items. And none of three
other studies was nonpartisan: Two were written by Romney campaign
advisers and a third was by a former economic adviser to President
George W. Bush.
Romney also accused the president of doubling the deficit. This is a
super-colossal lie. The president was inaugurated into a $1.2 trillion
deficit for 2009 generated by Bush spending requests. The highest the
deficit has climbed was $1.4 trillion by the end of that year. In every
year since then, the deficit has been cut -- contrary to the wishes of
liberals like me.
On top of everything else, Romney continued to be elliptical and
deceptive about how he intends to pass a repeal of various unknown tax
deductions; how he intends to pass a health care replacement through a
potentially hostile Senate after repealing Obamacare, which most of the
sitting Democratic senators spent considerable political capital to pass
into law; how he intends to replace Dodd-Frank when he knows the tea
party Republicans in the House will never vote for new regulations on
Wall Street; or how tax cuts will magically create jobs even though
businesses are enjoying the lowest taxes in history yet aren't spending
the record $2 trillion in cash assets being mysteriously held in
reserve.
Mitt Romney, for all of his spastic awkwardness, is clearly a good
actor. Most serial liars and matchstick men are Oscar-worthy performers.
You don't get this far in a race for the presidency with a record of
20-40 lies per week (
that Benen knows of)
without being a slick operator. President Obama, for his part, wasn't
entirely as mighty as he could've been, but his side of the affair
wasn't the disaster some pundits (I'm looking at you, Chris Matthews and
Ed Schultz) and, sadly, fellow liberals have claimed.
Adding... Not that this will impact the broader conventional wisdom about who "won," but you should try reading some of
the transcript of the debate.
Cross-posted at The Daily Banter.
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