As I cannot say it better, I am borrowing heavily from Steve Benen of the Maddow Report. I have always said that I can't respect a liar who can so easily be called out.
Mitt Romney's aides explained why they love their ad accusing President Obama of removing the work requirement from welfare. "Our most effective ad is our welfare ad," said Ashley O'Connor, a Romney strategist. It's new information!"
The claims are "new," of course, because the Romney campaign made them up. Sure, it's "new information," in the same way it would be "new information" if Obama said Mitt Romney sold heroin to children -- when one invents a lie, its "newness" is self-evident.
I thought that campaigns can spin, slice, fudge, and distort the truth, but they couldn't literally make stuff up. The political fabric of our democracy tolerates a generous amount of duplicity -- so long as there's at least a kernel of truth in the claim somewhere -- but demonstrable lies are unacceptable.
My take-away is that if you're dumb enough to believe the moon is made of green cheese, and especially if you want to believe it, I'd better tell you it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment