MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT



By now, most BuzzFlash at Truthout readers know that Mitt Romney is airing a mendacious ad in Ohio claiming that Chrysler is moving Jeep manufacturing jobs to China. This caused consternation among some union workers in Toledo, Ohio, home of a major jeep manufacturing plant where Chrysler is actually planning to add 1100 new jobs.

A union leader in Ohio told the New York Times:

Bruce Baumhower, the president of the United Auto Workers local that oversees the major Jeep plant here, said Mr. Romney’s initial comments on moving production to China drew a rash of calls from members concerned about their jobs. When he informed them Chrysler was, in fact, is expanding its Jeep operation here, he said in an interview, “The response has been, ‘That’s pretty pitiful.’ ”

Chrysler chastised Romney's campaign for "unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments." The Washington Post (WP) gave the presidential candidate who wrote an op-ed a few years back "“Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" four Pinocchios for lying.

The big, brazen, audacious, Hail Mary lie has been a hallmark of Republicans running for national office for years. As Greg Sargent of the WP states: "The Romney campaign has explicitly said in the past that it will not let fact checking constrain its messaging, so perhaps it’s not surprising that it appears to be expanding an ad campaign based on a claim that has been widely pilloried by fact checkers."

Earlier this year, journalist James Fallows wrote in the Atlantic that we have entered a "post-truth age" in terms of political accountability. It is one thing to shade the truth, and another to lie in such a way that it defiles the truth. Steve Benen, who writes the Maddow blog, has documented more than 500 Romney lies in 30 weeks.

No presidential candidate in modern times has turned on both his own principles and the truth so quickly as Mitt Romney has since the first debate.

When the CEO of Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, rebukes an uber-capitalist such as Romney, you know the candidate has embraced the big lie as his main ally in the last week before the election. Accroding to Marchionne:

With the increase in demand for our vehicles, especially Jeep branded vehicles, we have added more than 11,200 U.S. jobs since 2009. Plants producing Jeep branded vehicles alone have seen the number of people invested in the success of the Jeep brand grow to more than 9,300 hourly jobs from 4,700. This will increase by an additional 1,100 as the Liberty successor, which will be produced in Toledo, is introduced for global distribution in the second quarter of 2013.

Yes, Chrysler is planning on hiring more Chinese for their production plant in China for Jeeps to be sold there. But that is not taking away US jobs. It's the kind of global expansion of sales to new markets that Romney advocates for. And wasn't Romney's Bain Capital an innovator in real, not made up, movement of jobs to China anyway?



The stark reality for a Republican presidential candidate is that he or she cannot win a national election anymore running on the GOP platform. They will lose on the issues in such a case. So we have seen Bush, McCain and now Romney dissemble in order to attempt to win.

But Romney has entered uncharted territory when it comes to mendacity. He and his campaign are lying with abandon and without shame.

The Romney philosophy is lying doesn't matter, because the victor can dictate what the truth is.

(Photo: Eduardo Pelosi)

