Mon Oct 29, 2012 at 08:43 AM PDT
If you think Mitt Romney's lies and secrets are bad now, just wait
Secrets and lies are these two men's campaign staple.
Back in July, David Axelrod, senior campaign adviser for the Obama campaign, called Mitt Romney "the most secretive candidate we've seen probably since Richard Nixon."
Then there are the secrets kept concealed by the relentless lying. Romney even lies about his lying.
Brian Beutler writes:
“I think the comparison to Nixon is not a very good one, because … Nixon may have been a shadier character in some respects—the Southern strategy, laundering campaign money—but he abided by the norms of the time in terms of disclosure,” said Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute. [...]“I think there’s nobody like Romney,” [said] Ornstein. “Romney is like the Michael Phelps of presidential candidates. if you’re looking for gold medals in terms of audacious lying, and adamant refusal to turn over personal information, nobody comes close. I’m sure others would’ve liked to have done it, but the culture in the past was one where lying attracted some level of approbation and shame.”
Other historians cited by Beutler don't think Romney is that far out of the ordinary at some levels.
For instance, presidential historian H.W. Brands the University of Texas-Austin notes that we know far more about Romney's personal life than we did about Jack Kennedy's 52 years ago when the Massachusetts senator was a candidate.
Whether it's gay rights, abortion, immigration, health care, renewable energy, environmental regulations ... the list is interminable.
Two things about Romney, however, are not secret. He will do what it takes to make money the lazy man's way—by demolishing other people's jobs. And he will pretend to be whatever the latest audience wants him to be in order to squirm his way into the White House. If he gets there, the secrets he will keep will be far more consequential than whatever he's hiding in those unreleased tax returns.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/29/1152047/-If-you-think-Mitt-Romney-s-lies-and-secrets-are-bad-now-just-wait
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