Village hack Joe Klein just doesn’t get it:
How incompetent is the Romney campaign? They keep coming up with these stupid gambits–the last was the lie that Obama opposed early voting for members of the military in Ohio–that are shot down instantaneously (everywhere but in Fox-Rush land). And worse, the Democrats–who seem to have a superior oppo team–can often produce counter-stories, like the Herald item, that make things even worse for Romney. But there is a larger question here: How stupid does he think we are? Every day brings a mind-boggling act of untruth-telling…I can’t remember a candidate so brazenly allergic to facts. What a travesty.
Before we address Mr. Klein’s befuddlement over the Romney campaign’s lie-a-day strategy, let’s look at comments from two vets about this manufactured Ohio controversy for some context. First up is Jon Soltz who points out some of the absurd consequences of Romney’s position.
From TPM:
Jon Soltz, a veteran who now works with VoteVets.org, said that he was “appalled” by the narrative coming out of Ohio. “Obviously with the narrative the Romney campaign is pushing, they probably don’t have a lot of people around them who have actually served,” Soltz said. “We also agree, like the president does, that someone who served in World World II in the Battle of the Bulge or someone who lost their legs in Vietnam has just as much of a right to vote as today’s veteran.”
Rep. Pat Murphy was less restrained, pointing out the lying hypocrisy involved in this particular Romney campaign agit prop stunt:
“When it comes to Mitt Romney, I feel like he lives in bizarro world,” Iraq veteran and former Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) told reporters in a conference call organized by the Center for American Progress on Monday. “He’s suppressing millions of votes across our country in this election, and then he lies and says that President Obama is trying to do the same thing, when it couldn’t be further from the truth.” Murphy said Romney’s opposition to the lawsuit was part of a coordinated effort to suppress the vote. “President Obama is trying to restore voting rights for all people in Ohio and all across the country. They just want to give them a fair shake and let their voices be heard,” Murphy said. “I was absolutely dumbfounded when I found out over the weekend what Mitt Romney is trying to pull. He’s trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes and trying to use our veterans as props to further his lies.”
Today’s lie is Willard’s condemnation of welfare-to-work waivers that the Obama administration granted a couple of state governors who wanted a little more flexibility in implementing the Clinton era program, the very kind of waiver that Romney himself praised when he was governor of Massachusetts. Which makes him a liar and hypocrite. Again.
This comes on the heels of his taking Obama’s comments about the role infrastructure plays out of context and torturing it for all it was worth.
Of course there are many more examples of the sleazy kind of lying, blitzkrieg propaganda campaign that Romney is running, some of which we documented In Mitt Romney Has No Core. And therein lies the answer to Mr. Klein’s confusion. As the Arch-Deceiver sneers in The Stones‘ Sympathy For the Devil:
“What’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.”
So, let’s explain to Little Joey “the nature of the game.” We begin by being charitable, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he knows the difference between fact and opinion; and that the Rethugs have effectively confounded the two for their target voting audience, those deep thinkers whose sole source of news and opinion is right wing radio and the 24/7 excretions of Fux News.
Accepting these two premises, it follows that the main point of the Romney propaganda machine is not to explicate his policy proposals; or even to offer a rational critique of Obama’s. The point is to keep his base of voters in a constant state of emotional agitation so they don’t notice that his policies are as vapid as the man himself. “Facts are stubborn things” sayeth the revered GOP icon Ronald Reagan, and should therefore be abandoned at the first signs of trouble.
What matters are narratives that engage the lizard brain, that keeps the peasants riled up enough to show up to vote in November, no matter how little enthusiasm they feel about the man who purports to represent them.
Got it, Joe?
