In 2012, former Political Animal blogger Steve Benen wrote a forty-one part series on the lies of Mitt Romney. Each week during the campaign, he chronicled all the things Romney had said that were untrue and provided a link to each item so the reader could verify that Romney was being dishonest. When he posted his last piece in the series, the list of whoppers had reached an astonishing but still only partial number of nine hundred and seventeen. I think it’s safe to say that the country had never before seen a politician who lied so easily and so routinely as Mitt Romney. He couldn’t be relied on to tell you whether or not the sun was shining.
Amazingly, Trump is actually worse. By August of last year, the Washington Post’s FactChecker listed over one thousand lies the president had told since taking office in late January. At the end of the year, Time magazine found 1,950 lies Trump told in 2017. The Toronto Star found 978 lies by Christmas, including twenty-seven examples of the president falsely calling America “the world’s highest-taxed nation.”
As bad as Trump is, it’s not certain that a President Romney wouldn’t be worse. Either way, the two of them are the two most dishonest politicians in America, both demonstrating a pathological disregard for the truth. And I intend to keep bringing this up because I simply don’t care that Romney is in the habit of blasting Trump from time to time. I don’t care that Romney is moderate compared to Trump on some issues, including immigration. Romney is in no way the tonic for Trumpism.
So, when people talk up Romney as a senate candidate to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, I intend to refer people to Benen’s project on his mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XL, XLI.
People should not ask if a Senator Romney would be a friend or foe of President Trump. They should peruse the record and realize that both of them are enemies of the truth.
Romney is no way comparable to Trump. OK, he’s comparably dishonest, but that is just one metric. He is not comparably incompetent. He is not comparably compromised with hostile foreign powers. He is not comparably contemptuous of the American system of government. There is no evidence he is comparably bigoted, and certainly never deliberately played up racial tensions and encouraged racists. He is nowhere near as emotionally unstable. He never pushed extreme right-wing policies.
R$money is a good example of the soft bigotry of low expectations. During the 2012 campaign, he was practically openly contemptuous of the rabble that comprises the hardcore GOP base and easily lied and lied to them. That and his private sector record of closing down companies overwhelmed his obvious business competence, the 2002 Olympics and his record as MA governor, which actually wasn’t really very good but obviously better than Trump’s non-existent record.
Hence, the main impact of his continual lying was to damage whatever credibility he had left at the end of the campaign.
He is not comparably compromised with hostile foreign powers.
The GOP base might disagree with you there given their opinion on Mormons. Just because they generally voted for Willard doesn’t mean they liked it or were happy about it.
The Mormon Church is a foreign power? What country does it represent?
I have to admit I’m one of those writing about Mitt Romney replacing Orrin Hatch. I call Romney Willard the Rat and Willard Scissorhands, the Barber of Severe, but promised not to call him either of those should he run, win, and oppose Trump from inside the G.O.P. At least I have nearly a full year before I might have to keep that promise.
That written, whenever I read about Romney’s penchant for mendacity, I’m reminded of The Long Con by Rick Perlstein in The Baffler. It cites Steve Benen’s fact-checking, but also puts Romney’s lying in perspective as something cultivated among right-wing circles to the point where it is now expected of conservative candidates.
Bento is right about all the ways Romney is preferable to Trump, but the man is still an insincere Etch-A-Sketch who is responding to the conservative base’s demand for deceitfulness.
As for who to promote instead, the likely Democratic nominee is Jenny Wilson. Since I have connections to Utah, I promise to blog more about her. If one wants another possible anti-Trump Republican, I suggest Mia Love, the daughter of Haitian immigrants. After Trump’s $#!+hole remarks about Haiti, she is not enamored with him.
. . . for deceitfulness”
There it is right there: the crux of our problem.
Why we can’t have nice things.
Why we’re headed for self-annihilation by ecological collapse, unless nuclear holocaust accomplishes the job first.
Mittens IS one and the same as Dotard 45!
The GOP/Republican Party is playing good cop-bad cop with the American peoples.
They bamboozle, lie and lead astray the electorate AND enact the exact same policies, laws and practises regardless of whom “their” POTUS is.
Example: Bush 2 tax grab errrah cuts for the already wealthy. Dotard 45 tax grab.
BOTH are the largest transfers of wealth in US history!
Nonetheless, he might serve as a dilutant.
Yeah.
Sure.
Like diluting rat poison with strychnine.
AG
Rmoney isn’t the tonic for Trumpism because he, along with anyone else still intentionally carrying a (R) after their name is just a less-in-your-face version of Trumpism.
Because Trumpism IS Republicanism. Full stop.
Don’t let them escape Trump like they did Bush Jr.
Don’t separate out Republicans from Trump. They are the same.
Burn the fucking lifeboats.
Who is the most forceful Democrats over 30 years old and looking and acting like ordinary people who can make the argument that Booman makes? Don’t wait for the GOP to weaken themselves? Help them.
What are the costs in Utah to start a campaign and get on the road getting donated lodging from initial supporters while spinning up a campaign schedule? The gift is that a good bunch of Democratic candidates can have competing messages about Republicans and the Democratic alternative that can whittle down any of the GOP primary field.
30-50-somethings, strong hometown reputation an appeal, diverse selection of primary candidates who can gin up interest and competition and leave the GOP more-of-the-samers in areas of inattention.
Yes, both of them are enemies of the truth. And both are Republicans. But I repeat myself.
Since any candidate who emerges from Utah is going to be a real or pretend conservative lunatic, I’m actually alright with Romney. At least he has no real agenda other than himself.
The guy is a classic salesman who’s gonna figure out what people want and give them that. He and Trump and extremely similar in the sense that they have zero personal convictions. Beyond that very important but singular point, they’re nothing alike. Trump is orders of magnitude more stupid, crazy and evil.
One might imagine that a few years with Romney would wake a few Utahans the fuck up. Probably not because he’s an imperial grand poobah of the Mormon tribe. But, like I said, anyone who comes out of Utah’s gonna be a piece of shit. Hatch was no better.
Hatch didn’t seem to wake them up so why would we expect Romney to? Due to in-migration to Salt Lake City the Mormon majority is dropping there, but my experience of the smaller towns and rural areas they are still solidly Mormon.
Some links didn’t work, but when I removed ‘.msn’ they did:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436726-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
vs:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/02/17/10436726-chronicling-mitts-mendacity
I was disheartened when politifact(?) rated bernie/hillary at 28/27% inaccurate and trump at 70% inaccurate and nobody seemed to care. Sigh…
I don’t think much of Mitt Romney, but then again, I am unlikely to think much of whoever might be elected to the Senate from Utah.
What I really care about, for the next couple of years, is that there’s a good chance Romney will vote to convinct Trump when Mueller Time comes. Even assuming Dems get 51-52 Senate seats in 2019 — which I think it a pretty fair possibility — we will still need 15-16 GOP Senators to vote to convinct after he’s impeached. And in that respect, Romney is likely an upgrade to Orrin Hatch.
Maybe he would be – if he primaried Trump. That would be glorious.