Romney’s Home Stretch Pitch Aims For The Gullible And Ignorant

With less than a week until election day, the campaign of Republican contender Mitt Romney is pulling out all the stops to appeal to a voter demographic that is often neglected: the irredeemably stupid.

Romney - Slower Voters

What else could explain Romney’s late surge of blatantly false rhetoric? As he stumps around the nation, Romney is now repeatedly blathering about Chrysler moving Jeep production to China. That charge has been ruled a “Pants-on-Fire” lie by PolitiFact. It was given “four Pinocchios” by the Washington Post. It was forcefully refuted by Chrysler who called Romney’s assertions “unnecessary fantasies.”

These are not mere disagreements on subjective political statements. These are the lowest ratings possible for falsehoods. Perhaps we should not be surprised by a candidate who has previously declared that they would not let their campaign be “dictated by fact-checkers.” Romney has lived up to that promise. Currently 41% of his statements reviewed by PolitiFact are rated as false, and 19 of those are “Pants-on-Fire” lies. That’s a record, and a dubious achievement for a public figure.

The only conclusion is that Romney has abandoned all pretense of being an honorable public servant. He has decided that his only path to the White House is to corral as many idiots who are susceptible to this sort of hogwash as possible. It is a open play for the most ill-informed, deliberately ignorant yokels in America. Who else would vote for a man who has demonstrated that he has no core principles and admittedly “Etch-a-Sketches” his positions as required to pander to his audience.

Romney has taken diametrically opposing stances on key agendas including the auto bailout, abortion, gay rights, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Climate Change, and even his own hallmark health care plan. It was that tendency for being so ethically-challenged that made Romney a hated figure in his own Republican Party during most of the primary season. Now much of the party has sucked up their disgust and have settled for a man they despise, but only because they despise Obama even more.

So in these final days of the campaign, the remaining undecided morons are struggling to choose between an historically accomplished president (who says he can’t run on his record?), and a failed governor whose home state abhors him. The choice is between a man who has rescued the economy from disaster, reduced unemployment from 10.1% to 7.8%, advanced civil rights for women, gays and minorities, brought the Iraq war to an end, saved the auto industry from collapse, and advanced a progressive agenda for financial reform, energy production, and job creation, or an unrepentant liar who regards half the nation as moochers, represents only big corporations and the wealthy, has no understanding of foreign policy, and wants to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and even FEMA.

Seriously, you would have to be pretty stupid to vote for Mitt Romney. To do so with full knowledge of what he represents is basically an admission that you have given up on intelligence, reason, and rational thought. If that is insulting to those of you who still intend to vote for Romney, there is recourse. Don’t vote for him. It is not too late to restart your brain. Remember why you opposed him so vehemently in the primary and refuse to sacrifice your integrity for a man who has not exhibited any of his own.

For the rest of you, those who grasp the importance of an election that will result in the implementation of America’s first health care plan, the appointment of a couple of Supreme Court justices, and shape the direction of civil liberties and economic fairness and equality, make voting your priority. Nothing you do in the next week will have a greater impact on your life for the next decade. Vote early, if available in your state, but just be sure to vote – and take a couple of people along with you.

One Vote

Fox News: A Fundamental Threat To American Democracy And The Enemies Of The American People

On Tuesday’s edition of the Judge Jeanine Pirro show on Fox News, Pirro hosted a discussion with celebrated media analysts Ann Coulter and Pat Caddell. The segment was predictably filled with partisan histrionics and wild-eyed hyperbole aimed at what they perceive to be the “liberal” media.

Fox News

Setting aside the hysterical irony of Fox News pretending to make a neutral assessment of the bias of any other media, the Coulter/Caddell team managed to outdo themselves and the network for which they so ably shill. Caddell, in particular, articulated an emotionally unhinged rant about how fatally biased the media has been in favor of President Obama. Caddell stammered and came close to slobbering as he vented his extreme disgust for the press. And then, in a fit that seemed more like a seizure, he spilled the unvarnished truth that had been swelling his pea-brain to unnatural dimensions:

“The leading mainstream media…they have become a fundamental threat to American democracy and the enemies of the American people.”

Good Lord! That’s a striking revelation coming from a devoted Fox News flunkie. And the only logical assumption is that he is talking about Fox News itself. Since we know that the “leading mainstream media,” based on viewership and circulation, is Fox News and its corporate parent entities (i.e. the Wall Street Journal), Caddell is indicting his employer as an enemy of the American people. And not a minute too soon.

Anyone tuning in to Fox News can see an unending stream of bile spewed at President Obama and Democrats/liberals in general. They seek to blame Obama for a wide array of invented scandals. They hype survey data by disreputable pollsters who always seem to find Obama trailing. They interview a familiar cast of Obama-haters who never disappoint in lavishing insults on their perceived ideological adversaries on the left. And many of those guests are actively employed by right-wing organizations and candidates, but Fox never discloses those affiliations.

I couldn’t agree more with Caddell that such blatant dishonesty and misrepresentation is the work of America’s enemies. I just didn’t expect it to come from a Fox News wingnut who is paid to serve that enemy. The proof of their dastardly misdeeds is seen in surveys that show that Fox viewers are significantly more ill-informed than viewers of other media, or even people who watch no news at all.

What’s really funny, though, is how upset Fox gets when other media fail to jump on their bandwagon of lies. For some reason Fox can’t comprehend that legitimate reporters don’t want to tarnish their reputations by disseminating the same kind of falsehoods that are the hallmark of Fox News.