The Obama team isn’t quite calling Mitt Romney a liar, but this week’s back-and-forth brought the president’s campaign about as close as ever to deploying the L-word. The Obama campaign’s term of art, instead of “liar,” was “aversion to the truth”…. That was followed by a research document disputing the claims in Romney’s speech, that was sent out to reporters under the subject line “Mitt Romney’s Aversion to the Truth.”…. Part of the Obama message has long been that you can’t trust the words coming out of Romney’s mouth…and it’s worth watching whether Chicago continues to sharpen the edge on that part of its contrast message.
It’s beginning to appear that, ever so slowly, the Mainstream Media is beginning to acknowledge Mitt Romney’s…um, veracity deficiency. The Obama campaign is also beginning to test the waters by slowly broaching the subject. While they don’t feel they can come right out and call Romney a liar (hey, grow a pair, willya??), they’re certainly focusing on Romney’s aversion to the truth.
It could be his willingness to rewrite history, as in his claim that George W. Bush bears no responsibility for events that led to the poor economic results of the past three years. It could be his willingness to blame the President for events and conditions he had no control over. It might even be his enviable ability to ignore the truth and abject reality, the better to carve out a more agreeable narrative that highlights his leadership skills (if not his integrity).
Among the attributes I most envy in a public man (or woman) is the ability to lie. If that ability is coupled with no sense of humor, you have the sort of man who can be a successful football coach, a CEO or, when you come right down to it, a presidential candidate. Such a man is Mitt Romney…. [W]here Romney is different is that he is not honest about himself…. He often cites his business background as commending him for the presidency. That’s his forgivable absurdity. Instead, what his career has given him is the businessman’s concept of self — that what he does is not who he is. This is what enables the slumlord to be a charitable man. This is what enables the corporate raider to endow his university. Business is business. It’s what you do. It is not who you are. Lying isn’t a sin. It’s a business plan.
What I find so fascinating (and thoroughly disturbing) is that Romney will even lie about being a man of integrity- because in his mind he IS a man of integrity. That his view of himself does not mesh with the reality of Mitt Romney is barely cause for concern, if he even notices at all. Romney is a candidate perfectly at peace with the “necessity” of changing positions from the primary campaign to the general election in order to attract moderate voters. And don’t even get me started on his epic lack of self-awareness.
Indeed one could be forgiven for wondering if perhaps there aren’t TWO Mitt Romneys- one the candidate running for office as the standard-bearer for the slash-and-burn GOP, the other a more reasonable down to earth person who holds views similar to a certain former Governor of Massachusetts.
That would be one Mitt Romney.
Romney is not the first candidate to try to be all things to all people. But he has a special problem because he has taken a great many contradictory public positions over the years, depending upon whether he was trying to appeal to a general-election electorate in Massachusetts or a Republican primary electorate nationwide. Keep an eye out for more hints about Romney’s “private” views. At some point, he will have to reconcile what he says with what his aides hint at. And he will have to do this publicly.
I for one can hardly wait to see how it all plays out. Will he continue to lie and run the risk that Americans will recognize him for what he is? Or will he own up to the truth (not something Romney is on good terms with) and run the risk that Americans will recognize him for what he is? The Big Lie may be a proven strategy, but in a democracy the truth eventually will come out. At the risk of someone invoking Godwin’s Law on me, I’ll just leave it at that.
Ah, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive….
