US Political Campaigns' Downright Lies

As if we didn’t know it, it’s silly season again in the US when candidates frequently stretch the truth well beyond its limits to grab voters’ attention. (Agreed, they do it in other countries, too – but not, I think, to quite the same extent.)

Take these two comments from Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Both have TV commercials based on direct sound bites from President Obama. In Perry’s one, he has Obama saying, “We’ve been a bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades.” Perry counters, “Can you believe that? That’s what our President thinks of America - that Americans are lazy. That’s pathetic.”

And Romney? He has Obama saying, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

Time for the truth, you liars! In Perry’s ad, what the President was actually saying was the US government had been lazy in attracting foreign investment!

Romney’s ad is even worse. The quote is actually from Obama’s 2008 campaign, and he was himself quoting a statement made by a strategist for his opponent, John McCain, whose campaign was in trouble over his comments on the economy.

In my book, such blatant lies should be actionable in court. The are, after all, deliberate misrepresentations. But of course, the campaign strategists have their answers at the ready.

Darrell West, director of governance studies at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution in Washington, said that Romney and Perry had gone further than previous campaigns in misrepresenting the truth . . .

 

"They are much more egregious than what we've seen in the past. Typically candidates have tried to be close to the truth because they know journalists are paying attention, but with all the problems of the news industry politicians have concluded they can get away with murder.”

 

. . . But the Romney campaign defended the commercial, saying they were merely turning the tables on Obama for having mocked McCain on the economy three years ago . . .

 

West acknowledged that politicians are less concerned about being exposed by reporters. "Politicians think that the news media have completely collapsed, based on the financial crisis, and so they are acting as if there's no accountability and they can say whatever they want," he said.

 

"They know the news media don't have the same credibility as they had in the past. They think they can say whatever they want and get away with it."

Even that advocate of the centre in politics Fox News has taken issue with Perry.

Perry defended his ad while appearing on Fox News. "That's a fair ad, absolutely," he told host Bill O'Reilly. "He said 'We've been a little lazy.'"

 

O'Reilly challenged him by pointing out that Obama was talking about the government, "not the folks". But Perry brazened it out. "I think he's talking about Americans … I think that's exactly what he's talking about," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/25/mitt-romney-rick-perry-accused-untruths

How much more pathetic can they get?