"Fact checking for thee, but not for me" by Greg Sargent at WP

[applegrove]

Fact checking for thee, but not for me

By Greg Sargent at WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/fact-checking-for-thee-but-not-for-me/2012/08/28/cccd6036-f11d-11e1-892d-bc92fee603a7_blog.html

"SNIP...........................................

The upshot is that Romney doesn’t have an intellectual objection to fact checking’s limitations in a general sense, at least when it’s applied to the Obama campaign. In that case, fact checking is a legitmate exercise Obama should heed. But at the same time, the Romney campaign explicitly says it doesn’t see it as legitimate or constraining when it’s applied to him.

By the way, this isn’t the first time the Romney camp has insisted that it is not beholden to the standards it expects the Obama campaign to follow. For the better part of a year, Romney has hammered Obama over the “net” jobs lost on his watch, to paint him as a job destroyer, a metric that factors the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs lost at the start of Obama’s term, before his policies took effect. Yet Romney advisers have argued, with no apparent sense of irony, that his own record should not be judged by one net jobs number.

In this sense, the Romney campaign continues to pose a test to the news media and our political system. What happens when one campaign has decided there is literally no set of boundaries that it needs to follow when it comes to the veracity of its assertions? The Romney campaign is betting that the press simply won’t be able to keep voters informed about the disputes that are central to the campaign, in the face of the sheer scope and volume of dishonesty it uncorks daily.

Paul Krugman’s question continues to remain relevant: “Has there ever been a candidacy this cynical?”

............................................SNIP"

[meow2u3]

1. Here's my comment: a reply to another one

BBear1
6:33 PM EDT
Did the Republican Prty Platform abolish that "false witness" commandment? Apparently, truth and honest are no longer "family values".
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meow2u3
10:49 PM EDT
Republicans seem to think "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" doesn't apply to them. After all, they're such devout Christians that they can lie, cheat, steal, and even kill without any stain of sin touching them

[applegrove]

2. Great point.