HUGE: WAPO Says Romney's 12 Million Jobs Plan Is Entirely Bogus (Pinnochios Maxed Out) dailykos.com/story/2012/10/… h/t @theplumlinegs — therehastobeaway (@THTBAW) October 16, 2012

Holy moly.

Greg Sargent leads, at The Plum Lines:



Yesterday I noted that one of Obama’s most important tasks at tonight’s debate is to spell out clearly that Mitt Romney is selling the American people a bill of goods on jobs and the economy. Romney has promised that his “five point plan for the middle class” will create 12 million jobs. Of course, economists have estimated that the economy will create that many jobs in four years without any Romney policies. But Post fact checker Glenn Kessler decided to take Romney’s plan at face value. And he’s made an important discovery. It turns out Romney’s plan is an even more absurd exercise in flim-flam than we thought: The studies the Romney camp itself cites in defense of the plan don’t back up the plan’s promises.

For instance, the claim that 7 million jobs would be created from Romney tax plan is a ten-year number, derived from a study written by John W. Diamond, a professor at Rice University. This study at least assesses the claimed effect of specific Romney policies. The rest of the numbers are even more squishy. For instance, the 3-million-job claim for Romney’s energy policies appears largely based on a Citigroup Global Markets study that did not even evaluate Romney’s policies. Instead, the report predicted 2.7 million to 3.6 million jobs would be created over the next eight years, largely because of trends and policies already adopted – including tougher fuel efficiency standards that Romney has criticized and suggested he would reverse. The 2-million-jobs from cracking down on China is also very suspicious. --Kessler, "Mitt Romney’s ‘new math’ for jobs plan doesn’t add up"

This is bigger than we realize. It's one thing for Romney's plan to be crud. It's another thing entirely if the "studies" Romney's cherry-picking don't actually corroborate his plan. And, boy, don't they:Wait a minute. You mean these 12 million jobs Romney's trying sell us on...will arise out ofand others...policies that Romney actually vows to reverse? And he's playing us by trying to take credit for them up front?

YES:



This is a case of bait-and-switch. Romney, in his convention speech, spoke of his plan to create “12 million new jobs,” which the campaign’s White Paper describes as a four-year goal. But the candidate’s personal accounting for this figure in this campaign ad is based on different figures and long-range timelines stretching as long as a decade — which in two cases are based on studies that did not even evaluate Romney’s economic plan. The numbers may still add up to 12 million, but they aren’t the same thing — not by a long shot.

WOW. Romney willingly misleading on his jobs numbers? Doesn't he do that on his taxes, too? Didn't he also do that with the question of when he left Bain? Who is this man, and

Mendacity doesn't do this man justice. Maybe Obama will give him what he deserves tonight.