God, I so hope that the entire election campaign will not now turn into the “Romney lied!” snoozefest.
This strategy already lost the Democrats the elections in 2004, and the Bush lie about the WMD was just a little bit bigger than anything that has been said during the current campaign by anybody.
I don’t think that there is anything wrong with pointing out politicians’ lies, of course. What I object to is the belief that an entire campaign can be won at pointing out the other side’s lies. Nobody will be able to prove that Romney / Obama doesn’t sincerely believe in his heart and mind that his policies will do what he says they will, benefit the middle class, reduce unemployment, fix the healthcare system, etc.
Clarissa's Blog 
Clarissa, sometimes I wonder if the only place you get your news from is The Nation. Why the gratuitous snark about Bush? What knowing falsehood did Bush tell? Can you dig up the quote that you think was so obviously a lie that you don’t see any need to document your accusation?
The left accused Bush of lying, but they didn’t have any basis for it, and they were rabid in attacking him. so they kept repeating the “Bush lied” meme. Just because they kept saying it doesn’t mean you have to. .
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It’s funny to see people who are still not over Bush. But if you are so enamored of this vile, disgusting criminal religious fanatic who was a stinky brainless liar, you go dig through the shit mount of stupid lies he vomited.
Ive never actually met anybody who doesn’t spit on Bush. You are such a relic. It’s even cute, in a really sad way. The stupid fuck destroyed the country’s economy, yet there are still folks who salivate over him. Priceless.
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Many possibilities, but perhaps Clarissa was referring to this one:
“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories… and we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, we found them.”
— George W. Bush, May 2003
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“Ive never actually met anybody who doesn’t spit on Bush.”
I kind of figured that.
“But if you are so enamored of this vile, disgusting criminal religious fanatic who was a stinky brainless liar, you go dig through the shit mount of stupid lies he vomited.”
Uh uh. You got yourself into this mess and I’m supposed to bail you out? Besides I never said I was enamored of him (although I think he’s been treated unfairly), so the underlying premise of your argument is unsound.
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No, Bush got us all into the mess and we bailed his cronies out. Please try to keep up.
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Clarissa, I think the argument goes deeper than “he lied”. The point is that the entire campaign is based upon lies: “born in Kenya muslim president” (false), “largest government expansion in history” (false), “radical socialist president” (false), “47% of Americans feel like victims” (the only persons with a victim mentality there were the billionaires in attendance complaining how rough they have it because pensioners have access to food stamps).
This is what Jon Stewart calls bullshit mountain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5RJ42K91yM
(Sorry to double post the link, but I think it is appropriate).
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“born in Kenya muslim president” (false)
– Romney didn’t say this, though.
“largest government expansion in history” (false), “radical socialist president” (false), “47% of Americans feel like victims”
– If one sincerely believes this, it is not a lie but an erroneous opinion. Look, I dislike Romney passionately and I abhor Ryan. But based on my previous experience of the US elections, I don’t think that a discussion of whether Romney lied will change the outcome of the elections. In this very thread we see people who still refuse to accept that Bush lied about the WMDs. Obama failed to pound Romney on the 47% comment. That was a big fail. He also never mentioned the name “Bush.” That’s another great fail. And he didn’t manage to make a convincing case that Romney will raise taxes on the middle class. I don’t need convincing about that because I know that the middle class will be in the toilet if Romney/Ryan are elected. But the people needed to hear this clearly and convincingly from Obama and I think they didn’t.
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Romney didn’t say this, though.
I agree. I wasn’t talking about him personally but about the tenor of his campaign.
If one sincerely believes this, it is not a lie but an erroneous opinion.
I don’t agree. These are far from subjective statements and in most other countries politicians would be put out to task with articles questioning such BS. But somehow it has become part of the American psyche to consider “opinions” things that are unadulterated lies (e.g. the earth is flat, creationism is “just a theory”).
I don’t disagree with the rest of your observations on the failings of Obama, and a campaign solely concentrated on lies would be unsuccessful but I think republicans need to be called out for the unprecedented magnitude of their lies, just like Stewart did.
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The video doesn’t play because of copyright. Has it been pulled in the past 10 minutes?
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I guess it has. It was working earlier in the morning EST time.
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On the other hand, all these lies are the biggest compliment republicans can bestow on Obama. They examine his record and the worst they can find is that he might be, in a parallel universe, a Kenyan born muslim and leader of a non-existent expansion of government (as attested by government employment figures).
Gee guys, we Obama supporters are moved. Thanks!
p.s. Think of the parallel, uncontroversial universally accepted statements are enough to put down Bush’s record.
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