A Republican is a man who will let not truth get in the way of what he believes.

If you were the Captain of the Hindenburg or the Titanic, you probably wouldn’t put that on your resume. But across the country on November 6, hundreds of candidates will put “Republican” next to their names on ballots.

If your party blew the surplus, invaded the wrong country and let bin Laden get away, you’d probably sit a few elections out. But what Republicans know is that failing in every way actually puts you at a huge advantage. That’s how they used the mess they created to beat the guys who were trying to clean it up in 2010. And that’s why they think they can do the same thing again 2012.

Since July 2009 America has been gaining jobs every month. How did we go from losing 700,000 jobs to gaining jobs in less than a year? We call it the Stimulus – Mike Grunwald calls it The New New Deal. It prevented a Great Depression and it continues to reshape the way America will produce energy for decades to come. But by simply calling it a failure from the day it became law, Republicans have made it less popular than genital warts.

Republicans have managed to make issues that are settled science – climate change, evolution, birth control – into political tug-of-wars, where progress is secondary to making a failed argument.

The way most of America sees Republicans – jaded, deceitful, scheming – is how Republicans see scientists or anyone who produces data they don’t like.

They curse the polls when they go down and yet they’re completely unembarrassed to trump them when they go up.

This is how you get Republicans questioning jobs numbers, birth certificates, thermometers… This is how you get Republicans repeating debunked lies endlessly and calling their opponents liars.

For you to believe that the President is manipulating the jobs numbers, you also have to believe that he is also manipulating the Dow, the housing market, consumer confidence…. And that he waited 43 months to finally fix the jobs numbers.

But a Republican is a person who will let not truth get in the way of what they believe. That’s a huge advantage in American politics, as Mitt Romney proved Wednesday night.

The future of the country isn’t just on the ballot next month. We’ll also be deciding if reality and facts matter.