It happens all the time in talk radio: a caller will say that he is a lifelong Republican, and will recall fondly how he voted for Ronald Reagan. Then he says that today’s Republicans have gone too far, and for the first time ever he is voting for a Democrat! These callers are nearly always lying. If you look them up, you likely will find that they are Democratic Party precinct chairmen.

The Obama campaign is trying to perpetrate the same deception. It has just released a video called Republican Women For Obama, which features four or five women who claim to be Republicans, or to have been Republicans until recently. But, of course, they are appalled by Mitt Romney–it is hard to say why, apart from a couple of discreet references to abortion, but did they really just now figure out that the Republican Party is pro-life? The ad is surprisingly ineffective, but it is also dishonest. At least one of the women who pose as “Republican women for Obama” is a long-time Democrat.

Her name is Maria Ciano, and BuzzFeed finds that she has been a registered Democrat in Colorado at least since 2006. Here she is in the Obama ad. She is easy to spot in the ad because she wears braces.:

And here she is on Facebook:

Her Facebook page is here; some of her friends congratulate her on appearing in the Obama ad. In addition to the fact that she is a registered Democrat, check out her Facebook “likes.” They make it obvious that Ms. Ciano is a devoted Democrat and a left-wing activist. Here are some of her “likes,” beginning with the earliest in time:

* Democracy For America

* Tar Sands Action

* Amy Goodman

* Barack Obama

* Costoftaxcuts.com

* Being Liberal

* MoveOn.org

* Bernie Sanders Tells You A Secret the GOP Would Rather You Didn’t Know

* Miss Piggy Delivers the Best Takedown of Fox News We’ve Seen All Month

* Think Progress

* The Best Quote From Barack Obama We’ve Seen This Week

* Dow and Monsanto Join Forces to Poison America’s Heartland

* Climate Reality

* Grist.org

* The Amazing Victory Scored With Obama That More People Should Be Talking About

* The Sierra Club

* The Buffett Rule

* Obama For America–Colorado

* UniteWomen.org

* Denver Young Democrats

* Obamacare

* Latinos For Obama

* Michelle Obama

* Veterans For Obama

* I Love It When I Wake Up In the Morning and Obama Is President

* Obama Truth Team

* Democratic Party

But the Obama campaign describes Ms. Ciano as a “Republican Woman!” Right. There are liars; there are compulsive liars; and then there is the Obama campaign. If someone took the trouble to track the down the other women in the ad, they would probably find something similar. If you do that, please record your findings in the comments.

UPDATE: OK, I’ve broken through on this via Facebook. More of the women are fake “Republicans.” Will do update after lunch!

Continued: Here is another woman featured in the Obama video:

The women in the video aren’t named, but she is Delia Ciano–none other than Maria Ciano’s mother. Her Facebook page, like her daughter’s, is revealing. She put up a link to the Obama video and writes, “Maria and I are part of this video. I hope you watch.” Here is a screen shot:

I love the part where someone comments, “Just saw you on TRMS [The Rachel Maddow Show]!” And she responds: “TRMS is my favorite show! Amazing!” Sure, just like all Republicans, she is a big Rachel Maddow fan. Delia Ciano also shared a link via the Rachel Maddow show:

Elsewhere on the page, she refers to Republicans as “this idiots.” No surprise, then, that her page consists mostly of attacks on Republicans. Here are just a couple of many screen shots that could be taken. In the first one, note the reference to “Mitt Romney and his party”:

Ms. Ciano’s Facebook page also reveals that she was part of a small group that met with Michelle Obama when Mrs. Obama was in Colorado on August 11, presumably indicating that she has some stature in the Obama campaign.

So obviously, neither Maria Ciano nor her mother Delia is a “Republican woman” who is crossing over or changing her mind to vote for Obama. How about the others in the ad? We will report anything further we can find out.