Franklin Roosevelt said it best:
Let me warn you, and let me warn the nation, against the smooth evasion that says: “Of course we believe these things. We believe in social security. We believe in work for the unemployed. We believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die! We believe in all these things. But we do not like the way that the present administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them, we will do more of them, we will do them better and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything!”
It’s as if FDR were still alive, so many decades after the Great Depression, commenting on Mitt Romney’s debate performace on Wednesday night. The Republican snake oil salesmen didn’t fool America back then. And I can’t see Mitt Romney fooling Americans today.
Of course, it won’t be thanks to the so-called media pundits. They are amazed – amazed – at the Republican con-man’s “brilliant” debate performance. But let’s examine what really happened.
Romney lied.
And lied… and lied… and lied.
In an article distributed by Reader Supported News this morning, Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress identifies “27 myths” in the Republican candidate’s 38-minute performance.
Americans are notoriously susceptible to smooth-talking professional actors. Think Ronald Reagan… think Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fred Thompson, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Bono…
And while Romney has never had to make a living as an actor, he is pretty good at it. At least, he was on Wednesday night.
Politics has always been theater. Shakespeare’s Marc Anthony springs to mind (friends, Romans, countrymen…). Voters are notoriously hungry for entertainment and resistant to the boring kind of solid substance that President Obama tried to provide in the debate.
Some could well have been swayed by the Romney tour de force.
But surely not this time. Not in this election. The stakes are too high, the danger too great.
As you prepare to cast your all-important vote, I urge you to click on the link below to refresh your memory:
Click here for Romney’s 27 myths.
Click here for actors turned politicians.
Republican
