Mitt Romney’s Low Standard For Honesty

Once again Mitt Romney shows that, despite doubts from many conservatives, he really is one of them. The favorite form of argument used by conservatives is to distort the views of others, being unable to provide meaningful responses. This includes cutting audio and video to make it appear that Democrats said something entirely different from what they are actually saying. Mitt Romney did this in his first campaign ad:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s first ad of the 2012 presidential campaign quotes President Obama out of context in what the Romney campaign is calling a deliberate attempt to show that Mr. Obama “doesn’t want to talk about the economy.”

In the ad, which goes up Tuesday in New Hampshire, Mr. Obama is heard saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.”

But when Mr. Obama made that statement, he was actually quoting an aide to John McCain, his 2008 rival for the presidency. “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose,” Mr. Obama said.

Ryan Lizza responded to the ad, and the Romney campaign’s spin:

This is one of those cases where a candidate has put out something that is demonstrably false. If a journalist or writer quoted someone in such an intellectually dishonest way, you would never trust the person’s writing again. And yet this episode is being reported by some as a clever tactic by the Romney camp to spark a debate about the ad’s accuracy that will serve to highlight its overall message that Obama has been a failure. (See, it worked!)

Think Progress showed what would happen if Mitt Romney’s words were taken out of context in a similar manner in this video:

The out of context statements form Mitt Romney include:

“We should just raise everybody’s taxes!”

“There’s nothing unique about the United States.”

“Government knows better than a free people how to guide an economy.”

“Fiscal responsibility is heartless and immoral.”

“Let us just raise your taxes some more. We just need a little bit more.”

“America’s just another nation with a flag.”