Memo to Ohio voters: One of the Presidential candidates is a shameless pathological liar

In the fi­nal few days of the pres­i­den­tial con­test, Mitt Rom­ney ev­i­dently rec­og­nizes that his op­po­si­tion to the fed­eral res­cue of Gen­eral Mo­tors and Chrysler is costing him voter sup­port he needs in Ohio and Mich­i­gan. So the Re­pub­li­can nom­i­nee is con­duct­ing an ex­er­cise in de­cep­tion about auto-in­dus­try is­sues that is re­mark­able even by the stan­dards of his cam­paign. At an ap­pear­ance last week in De­fi­ance, Mr. Rom­ney an­nounced that “Jeep, now owned by the Ital­ians, is think­ing of mov­ing all pro­duc­tion to China.” That as­ser­tion was based on an am­big­u­ously worded news re­port…. Mr. Rom­ney, who has changed po­si­tions on too many other is­sues to count, clings to his in­sis­tence that Mr. Obama should not have in­vested tax­payer money in help­ing Chrysler and GM emerge from a man­aged bank­ruptcy. He says he would have been will­ing to pro­vide fed­eral “guar­an­tees” of pri­vate in­vest­ment in the trou­bled auto­makers…. But Mr. Rom­ney’s own words make clear he is no friend of the auto in­dus­try, on which Ohio re­lies for one of ev­ery eight jobs. Vot­ers in Ohio and Mich­i­gan — and the na­tion — need to re­mem­ber that.

• Toledo Blade editorial

As the Presidential campaign mercifully lurches to its denouement, voters in Ohio (which seems to be the only state that matters) are being subjected to all manner of lies, deception, and propaganda by Mitt Romney, whose desperation is exceeded only by his disdain and disregard for the truth.

As the Blade’s editorial states, one of eight jobs in Ohio are tied- directly or indirectly- to the auto industry. That means that Romney’s lies represent no small attempt to deceive Buckeye State voters. Not only has Romney lied about Jeep moving production to China, he’s doubled down on that lie in TV and radio ads. After making it clear early in the campaign that he was not going to allow his campaign to be governed by fact-checkers, he’s demonstrated with disturbing frequency that he has no soul and even less integrity. When the only thing that matters is winning, and when you’ll literally do or say ANYTHING to win…well, you’re Mitt Romney. He’s proven that a sociopath can run for office and have a legitimate chance of victory.

I don’t toss around words and phrases like “sociopath” and “shameless liar” lightly; it comes almost too close to making matters personal. My disdain for everything Mitt Romney stands for isn’t personal; I normally like to know someone before choosing to despise and write them off. Romney’s public persona, his words, and his absolute, reckless disregard for the truth is almost a textbook description of “sociopath.” Sometimes, you just have to call something what it is. Mitt Romney is a sociopath- a shameless, unrepentant liar who lacks anything resembling a conscience or integrity. He has no business running for President and even less aspiring to the office. That the race for President is as close as it seems to be is an indictment of our collective moral fiber and attention span. If Americans were paying attention, if they gave a damn, they wouldn’t even consider voting for Mitt Romney.

WE DESERVE BETTER.