How does it make you feel that a presidential candidate is a deliberate liar?

[mahina]

http://www.disappearednews.com/2012/10/how-does-it-make-you-feel-to-know-next.html

by Larry Geller

Fact checking should be the routine work of journalists before they publish. Perhaps it never really was that way, but recently a whole new industry of fact-checkers has been born because the media don’t report the lies of our leaders. The score sheets are posted for all to see on the Internet.
Of course, few people will read the fact-check reports in comparison to the million sitting transfixed before their HDTV screens or who devoured the shallow newspaper accounts the next day. Reviewing these fact-check reports makes me sad. Can it be that our leaders and would-be leaders are either totally clueless about matters of strong public concern? Or are they simply bald-faced liars?

Watching the recent vice-presidential debate, I was stunned to hear Ryan state that Social Security is bankrupt. It is not bankrupt, not even close. Now, Republicans have been circling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid like vultures for some time, and if they sense that they may soon come to power, maybe they are deluded into thinking that Social Security is already carrion and are just licking their lips in anticipation of a bloody feast when they get into office.
One fact-check web page identified the lie:
In fact, if no changes are made, Medicare would still be able to meet 88 percent of its obligations in 2085. Social Security is fully funded for another two decades and could pay 75 percent of its benefits thereafter. There is also an easy way to ensure the program’s long-term solvency without large changes or cuts to benefits.
[ThinkProgress, At The Vice Presidential Debate: Ryan Told 24 Myths In 40 Minutes, 10/12/2012]

Now, whatever one says about Ryan, he is not an idiot. Most likely what he said about Social Security (and much else) is part of a strategy to win the election. No idiot himself, he’s counting on a good portion of the electorate to be idiots. This is sad. To think that it might work is even worse.
In other words, our leaders and potential leaders are not gullible, we are. And they know it.
Michael Moore uncovered a New York Times story from 1984 that identifies lying as a Republican strategy:
The Republicans are unabashed in their discussion of their ability to use the television medium.
"You can say anything you want during a debate and 80 million people hear it,'' observed Peter Teeley, press secretary to Vice President [George H.W.] Bush. If reporters then document that a candidate spoke untruthfully, ''so what?''
''Maybe 200 people read it or 2,000 or 20,000,'' he said.

(revised the headline for accuracy)

A good article, check it out!

[Buddaman]

1. I dont get it

wake up peple

[Whisp]

2. that's why I am so angry at the MSNBCers.

Was there ever a Presidential candidate at a debate that lied so often, about so many things? Ever? it was shocking.

but what do they at MSNBC do?
they hammer on Obama because he didn't perform like a circus act to match Romney's circus act.

I am sick of tv people. just fucking sick of them.

[dchill]

3. How to "lose" a debate...

1. Don't lie. 2. Be respectful to the moderator and your opponent. 3. Lose!

[JI7]

8. Biden did 1 and 2 and won

[LeftinOH]

4. It makes me feel that this is the "new normal" in politics...

..which it is, of course.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. So, what else is new?

Do you miss the Frat Boy yet? Like Romney and Ryan, he never spoke except to lie.

[mahina]

6. RTA

[bemildred]

7. Normal. nt

[porphyrian]

9. It's embarrassing for America and completely hypocritical for the serial flag-waver party. n/t