Obama Fact-Checks Romney

Two evenings ago, candidate Romney stumbled badly over his own deceptions. In the second presidential debate of the current season, he saw his collection of lies that had been made popular by the right defused, deflated, disabled by facts.

Romney started off by insulting the moderator, Candy Crowley. This failure of diplomacy did not serve him well. She later caught him in a lie. Obama caught him over and over again, saying "That's not true!" at least six times. Romney's son Tagg got so mad at his father being called a liar that he wanted to take a swing at the President. But distance and the many layers of Secret Service people led him to hesitate.

Truth is different for the Right. Truth, for many of them, is what you believe. Not proven fact.

Strong enough faith can ignore facts and embrace the ancient inscribings of a small tribe in Israel as its over-arching paradigm. Strong enough faith can work miracles. Strengthen your faith in your husband, and he will be true again. Sometimes it works that way.

When Romney preaches to his faithful, they love to hear how bad things are, how weak the President is, how low their taxes could be cut. Whatever myths right-wing radio has managed to stick to the wall become fact due to the cheering section's belief. And these "pseudo-facts" are what Romney has been running on. Truthiness.

So, ignorant of the real facts, Mr. Romney proudly charged that Obama had not called the attack on the American consulate in Libya an 'act of terror' for two weeks. In fact, Obama had done so the next day, speaking in the Rose Garden. Romney had not checked the truth of his truthy 'fact'. Obama and Cindy Crowley almost simultaneously threw a flag on that statement.

Romney spoke of going out as governor and filling binders full of women's resumes so he could have a lot of women in his organization. In fact, the binders were created and vetted by women's organizations before his election. He did not do it, he did not think of doing it. They tasked him with hiring women. But he claimed the credit.

What's worse for his cause than lying is that Romney says things that are easily disproven. If the world can easily disprove your words, you shouldn't say those words. That is, if you have a shred of common sense. But Romney can't tell when his lies are transparent. Here is his face as he realizes the problem: Romney in panic.    


 Republicans face a truth crisis. "Truthiness" is not enough. Factuality is needed, too.

"Trickle-down" economics hasn't been working.  Tax cuts for the rich do not spur economic growth.

Also, free birth control access dramatically reduces abortion rates.

Also, massive drug control spending has no effect on the addiction rate. 

Also, Obama cut the deficit and slowed spending increases to the lowest level in 50 years.

Surely, Mr. Romney will come to the next debate armed with proven facts.