Krugman: The Amnesia Candidate

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/opinion/krugman-the-amnesia-candidate.html

Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you’ve been following his campaign from the beginning, that’s a question you have probably asked many times.

But the question was raised with particular force last week, when Mr. Romney tried to make a closed drywall factory in Ohio a symbol of the Obama administration’s economic failure. It was a symbol, all right — but not in the way he intended.

First of all, many reporters quickly noted a point that Mr. Romney somehow failed to mention: George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, was president when the factory in question was closed. Does the Romney campaign expect Americans to blame President Obama for his predecessor’s policy failure?

Yes, it does. Mr. Romney constantly talks about job losses under Mr. Obama. Yet all of the net job loss took place in the first few months of 2009, that is, before any of the new administration’s policies had time to take effect. So the Ohio speech was a perfect illustration of the way the Romney campaign is banking on amnesia, on the hope that voters don’t remember that Mr. Obama inherited an economy that was already in free fall.

-snip-

[Skittles]

1. oh forget amnesia

most repukes practice willful ignorance

[mmonk]

2. Reality is not their forte.

[Pirate Smile]

3. They write their stats so they include the part Bush's Administration in 2008 within

their tabulation of job losses during the Obama Administration.

Not only do they count the losses before President Obama's policies could go into effect AT ALL. They literally include part of 2008 in their numbers.

Not only did Bush not become President until AFTER September 11, 2001. He also STOPPED being President in 2008 when the financial crisis hit.

Their staggering gall, bullshit and lies are jaw-dropping.

According to Republicans, Bush was President from September 11, 2001 - September 2008.

Rove math.

[krispos42]

6. Truth, lies, and talking points

Talking points can be either truth, misleading/partial truth, or lies, but are treated as truth, and the speaker of them receives no penalty for the content of the talking-point.

[Marr]

4. They think the public is stupid. And they're right.

Especially their chosen demographic. Authoritarians are pretty stupid, and anxiously believe the things they want to believe, no matter what the facts say.

[Larry Ogg]

8. I think elections are more of an intelligence test then they are an election...

And when it comes to knowing what's going on in our pretend democracy, our very own dumb-downed homegrown Authoritarians are consistent when it comes to getting the big "F" for the whole country.

I guess that's a problem with majority rule, predators can easily con the gullible majority into going against their own best interest.

And now that it's all starts going to hell in a hand basket, and no one can figure it out, even though the finger pointing is everywhere.

It's just like what the guy in the Guy Fawkes mask said, "If your looking for the guilty you need only to look in the mirror".

[ProSense]

5. Some questions

from a diary at Daily Kos:

<...>

Ah, the news media - will they inform the American people of the dishonesty of Romney's line of attack? Will they inform the American people of the economic reality? Or will they be swayed by talking heads who are desperate to see a close and competitive race and will spin every piece of "news" as evidence that we will have one, thereby possibly creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

No matter what the insecurity the American people MAY feel about the economic recovery, if they understand what Romney is saying and - more to the point - the disastrous impact of what he is proposing, this election will not be close.

Perhaps the only way we can guarantee that amnesia does not dominate would be were the past President to openly endorse Romney, or Romney is foolish enough to put Jeb Bush on the ticket (although putting Rob Portman or Mitch Daniels, both of whom headed OMB, might be almost as good).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/23/1085650/-Krugman-calls-Romney-The-Amnesia-Candidate-

"Inform the American people of the dishonesty of Romney's line of attack," I doubt it http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002597314

[DallasNE]

7. Romney Also Includes The 800,000 Jobs Lost In January 2009

To Obama even though Bush was President for 65% of the month. Plus, Romney's own budget has no details and represents little more than a pig in a poke. Where is the transparency so we can make some judgements based on facts? Romney is the most secretive presendial candidate since Richard Nixon and his secret plan to end the Vietnam War and we all know how that worked out.