I've never seen a phenomenon quite like Mitt Romney.
I've watched politics closely since 1964, when, I admit, I supported Barry Goldwater and handed out leaflets for the Republican candidates for state-wide office in Massachusetts; John Volpe, Elliott Richardson and Ed Brooke (Governor, Lt Governor and Attorney General, respectively). In 1967 I went away to college at BYU, and meeting Utah Republicans convinced me that I was not a Republican. I cast my first presidential ballot in 1972, the first year I was eligible, and I voted for George McGovern. I even split my ballot and voted for Ed Brooke, this time for US Senator. McGovern, of course, lost badly, but he did carry Massachusetts, and I proudly sported a bumper sticker that said "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts", when Nixon was impeached and forced to resign for being the crook he was.
With that in mind, I have to say that Mitt Romney is an amazing liar by any standard. Comparing Mitt Romney to garden-variety political liars is a bit like comparing Miguel Cabrera to a beer-league softball player.
More amazing is the pathetic media response to his lying. Instead of pointing out that he lied often and repeatedly (his lies will not be detailed here, if you care you can find lists of them at other places, try http://www.politifact.com/). My favorite was when he said there were no tax advantages for moving a business overseas. Mittens said that if there were such advantages, he needed a new accountant. Well, Mitt, you need a new accountant, there are many tax advantages to such a move.
He goes on and gives his foreign policy speech the other day, and says that President Obama has signed zero free-trade agreements during his presidency, while, in fact, he has signed three; with South Korea, Panama, and Columbia. I'm not a big fan of so-called "free trade" but a fact is a fact, he's signed such agreements.
In his interview the other day at a newspaper in Des Moines, IA he said that there was no legislation pending he knew of, regarding abortion, that would be "part of his agenda." His running mate has out forth 30-some such bills. Maybe not a lie, maybe just being disingenuous.
The man lies so glibly and so often, you have to believe he has experience. Being a businessman in the cutthroat world of vulture capitalism is certainly nothing that rewards truth telling.
In any event, when he tells the truth, or what I think is the truth about his positions as they may be...we'll never know unless he's elected...his policies will represent a return to the failed policies of the GW Bush administration, on steroids. Lowering tax rates to increase revenues has never worked and won't work now. Lowering tax rates on the top tiers will only exaggerate the inequalities in the tax code already. Continuing to favor investment income over wages will not only hurt the budget, it won't help the overall economy and is just not fair or right. There is no moral or ethical justification for favoring the capital end of economic activity over the labor end of the equation. Both are necessary for our economy to flourish. We need to keep a free economy in which business investment, if successful, is rewarded, but we don't need to make rewarding that one element of our society the be-all and end-all of our policies. There is more to life than the accumulation of wealth (sorry, Mitt, but it's true).
In sum, and no surprise to anyone, I plan to vote for Barack Obama for President. I am not 100% happy with him so far, but I am not 100% unhappy. I suspect that in 4 years of a Romney presidency I would be about 0% happy with his decisions.
