Frankly, at this point it's getting tiresome to keep pointing out Willard "Mitt" Romney's blatant, pathological lying on any and all subjects. I mean, this is a guy who has repudiated practically his entire record as governor of Massachusetts, where he was basically a progressive Republican - for taking action on climate change, for clean energy, for universal health care with an individual mandate, you name it. Heck, Romney even ran to the LEFT of Ted Kennedy!
This cycle, of course, Romney's been running as a self-described "severely conservative" candidate - bashing "illegal" immigrants; backing away from his "belief" (as if it's a matter of "belief," not science) in global climate change; disowning "Romneycare," which is almost identical to "Obamacare;" saying he'll defund Planned Parenthood and take away a woman's right to choose; completely backed away from his formerly espoused support for gay rights; you name it. And, of course, he won't release his tax returns for multiple years (and in full), as his own father said was absolutely essential for presidential candidate. Apparently, it's not "like father like son" in this case, or many others (George Romney was a progressive Republican, back when there were a lot of those - like I myself used to be, in fact).
Anyway, now serial liar Willard "Mitt" Romney has stooped to yet another new low, even by his own bottom-of-the-barrel ethical standards. I've posted (on the "flip") the Obama campaign's statement on Romney's outrageously false attack against President Obama for attempting to PROTECT people's voting rights in Ohio.
The facts, as opposed to Romney's lies, are clear. Earlier this year, Ohio's Republican-controlled legislature passed a law that cut off early voting three days before the election (it had previously been 35 days), except for military voters. This outrageous, blatantly partisan law led 300,000 Ohioans to sign a petition to put a referendum on the November ballot, repealing this monstrosity.
Panic-stricken, apparently, Ohio Republicans quickly reversed course and repealed the law. Well, sort of -- they actually managed to keep a part of the bill shortening early voting and eliminating the final three days of early voting, except for military personnel and their families. Fortunately, the Obama campaign sued to restore everyone's right to vote, as the law as it currently stands is a blatant violation of equal protection guarantees in the U.S. Constitution.
So what does the Romney campaign do? That's right, they maliciously and blatantly lie, twisting the facts 180 degrees to somehow claim that it's not the Republicans working overtime to deny peoples' rights to vote in Ohio and around the country, but actually it's the people fighting back - in this case, the Obama campaign - who are the true villains.
As my friend (and Coffee Party co-founder) Eric Byler pointed out, this is "just like professional wrestling," where "they make up stories to get people riled up." For instance, "it doesn't matter at all that 'Kamala the Ugandan Giant' is really from Atlanta." Nor, in the case of politics' equivalent of professional wrestling - Romney and other Republicans - does it "matter that, yes, the first African American president is actually an American citizen," or that the facts in Ohio are the exact opposite of what they're claiming, etc., etc.
Anyway, this whole thing is repulsive, and really speaks to Romney's character - or, more accurately, completely lack thereof (remember, he's the "Etch-a-Sketch" guy, who believes you just hit a "reset button" on whatever you said 5 minutes ago, and has so little respect for voters' intelligence that he just assumes they won't notice!). I mean, do we seriously want a president who has proven, over and over again, that he will lie about anything and everything in order to get elected? Is that the type of person you'd feel comfortable with in the White House, or for that matter in any elective office in America? I sure wouldn't.
Mitt Romney and his campaign have completely fabricated a claim that the Obama campaign is trying to restrict military voting in Ohio. In fact, the opposite is true: the Obama campaign filed a lawsuit to make sure every Ohioan, including military members and their families, has early voting rights over the last weekend prior to the election. The case filed with the court could not be clearer on this point.The real story of what is happening in the Buckeye State is that Mitt Romney supports the Republican effort to stop people from voting by restricting their access to the polls. In 2008, more than 93,000 Ohioans utilized early voting in the three days before the election. In complete disregard of the will of Ohio voters expressed last year through the referendum process, the Republican legislature is attempting to remove from the vast majority of voters -- including veterans of our armed services -- the early voting rights they enjoyed in 2008. This latest Republican attack on rights of voters is shameful -- and so is Mitt Romney's endorsement of it.
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