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Deceit, Defamation, and Distortion

8/28/2012

2 Comments

 
PictureRomney team runs crooked campaign ad.

To be fair, Mitt Romney has to lie about President Obama's position on work requirements for welfare. 

The President supports work requirements for welfare.  And that position doesn't match the phony image of Obama that Romney wants to portray. 



This was an easy calculation for Romney campaign staffers.  A lie that confirms a prejudice is more powerful than evidence that exposes the lie.  This particular ad is widely repudiated by nonpartisan fact-checkers, but its unique characteristics blunt the force of its poor ratings: the ad is officially sanctioned by Mitt Romney himself.  It is one of the most expertly-produced campaign ads of the season.  And it is exquisitely designed for a crude, passionate response.

A saving grace for reality, though, is the simplicity of this ad's fraudulence, and the accessibility of the truth.  The original document in question, a July 12 memo from the Department of Health & Human Services, a memo in which Mitt Romney claims President Obama "quietly removed the work requirements from welfare," is right here.

The ready availability of the memo presents a rare opportunity for voters to be their own fact-checkers.  As you read it, hold these facts in mind: 
  • Mitt Romney's ad states: "Obama gutted the welfare work requirement." 
  • As you will see, Obama simply turned that question over to the states. 
  • Mitt Romney's ad states: "I will restore the work requirements to welfare."
  • As you will see, there is nothing to restore.  The requirements are in place.
  • Mitt Romney, was one of the Republican governors requesting these waivers in May of 2005.  (Interestingly, the list also includes Mike Huckabee, Mitch Daniels, Mark Sanford, Tim Pawlenty, Jeb Bush, and Haley Barbour.)

Be your own fact checker.  Read the memo, watch the ad, then you tell me.
2 Comments
Kenny
8/28/2012 08:19:34 am

Will anybody ever be able to explain to me why they always get to just spew out any crap they want? Does our side do this but I just don't see it? Do they sleep at night? They do, don't they. Some spokeswoman in Pennsylvainia said she was "personally offended" at the suggestion of voter I.D. being an attempt suppress votes. Please.

Reply
Julie link
8/31/2012 12:59:13 am

Kenny, I'm glad it took me a few days to respond to your comments (thanks for writing!), because I was more cynical about them getting away with it until the last couple of days. It seems like there is a critical mass of push-back in the media regarding this ad, the way they are portraying their Medicare plan, and this anecdote Paul Ryan is using about a factory that closed in Wisconsin. He tells the story of Obama visiting it in 2008 and encouraging the workers, (and by the way, he was telling them the government out to help out - too bad he didn't have a chance to save it; it closed before he was in office. It closed, before he was in office. And Paul Ryan has been using it as an illustration of Obama's "failed economic policies." And it closed, before he was-- anyway. I think people are starting to pay attention.

And yes, we do it too, if you are talking about spin and distortion. I feel like it's still fair, though, to examine degrees of deception. I feel like people have become pretty used to it, and realize it happens, but they expect it to be about subjective things, not about specific facts. Maybe the skepticism will come about the facts too - which would suck. But for now they are betraying people's trust that they wouldn't just out and out lie, and I think they're just kind of racing to stay ahead of the fact checkers long enough so people lose interest.

That's why I like the fact that this one is easy to immediately fact check - you can read the document above and watch the ad and it's glaring.

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