Since When?

I am having a problem trying to make sense of the outcome that so many have reached after the first Presidential Debate between President Obama and Governor Romney.  Now, let me preface this blog with the acknowledgement that I am an avid supporter of the President.  I believe he was not only handed a mess of astronomical proportions when he took office, which is proven by the facts; he also was greeted with, not a honeymoon period like other Presidents, but rather a public statement by the leader of the republican party in the Senate that his and his party’s goal was to be sure President Obama was a one term President.  Their goal was not to help the economy improve, not to work for the people who had just chosen their President, but rather to ensure that nothing that President tried to do succeeded, that was all he cared about – not you, not me, not our country…. only his party.

Now, instead of that statement going through the media as bordering on treasonous, the media just let it stand as typical politics.  It is not, nor has it ever been, typical politics…especially in such dire circumstances, with our country on the brink of a depression!  However, the media, being the exact opposite of a liberal media as the republicans claim, never berated the republicans for their treasonous goal.

But, I digress.  Back to the debate that was held last Wednesday night, a debate in which it is pretty much the stated narrative that Romney won and President Obama lost…a narrative that has resulted in a bump in Romney’s poll numbers…. a bounce which the media loves because it now has a close race again.  Obviously, a close race is good for the amount of interest the race receives and thus their ratings.  No matter that it is based on what is, in my opinion, an extremely damaging narrative for our country.

Fact checkers have exposed that Romney out-right lied on numerous occasions.  He stated that he worked across the aisle to “get things done” when governor of Massachusetts.  In reality, a legislator at the time stated that they were more often frustrated with Romney as he wanted to govern like a CEO and not have to listen to or take notice of the legislature and its input and power.  

Romney went on to state that 20 million people would lose healthcare because of the President’s Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.   The facts, as facts DO EXIST, explained that Romney got to that number by choosing only the results he WANTED to choose. (Kind of like cherry-picking intelligence that Bush used to lead us into a war in Iraq.) Many people will, in fact, choose to leave their employer’s coverage because there will be better options available to them!  Romney also chose to not pay attention to the fact that there are people right now, today, that lose their coverage before the ACA is implemented, thus failing to mention the fact that Obamacare makes those losses lower! 

Just a few more examples and I will get to my point, but I feel the need to explain the lies because if I just say they are lies without detail, then this post is meaningless.

Romney stated that Pre-Existing conditions are covered under his plan…now; this is so not true that even his own staff felt the need to clarify.  Yes, pre-existing conditions are covered…as long as you have held health care coverage continuously!!  If you lost your job and your healthcare and you couldn’t afford to keep coverage going…and were then diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes or anything…. the Romney plan in NO WAY guarantees that you will be able to be covered for those conditions.  In that case, Romney’s plan is to go to the Emergency Room while being uncovered.  This is not only the most expensive way for us, the tax-payers, but it is also the way for least beneficial health outcomes for the person who is ill!

And, simply for the purposes of the length of this blog, I will only go one more lie (there are many more I could delve into) Romney stated that President Obama is taking $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare.  Even Romney understands, although he won’t admit it, this comment is purposefully contorted.  President Obama did, through the ACA, reduce the growth of Medicare over ten years, which will, in actuality, benefit Medicare recipients by extending the life of Medicare!  This money comes from payments to hospitals not through benefits to Medicare recipients.  Also, the Romney/Ryan plan, which Romney “forgot to mention” takes that same $716 billion from Medicare, but instead of using it to bolster Medicare they use it to afford more tax cuts for the uber wealthy thus weakening Medicare not strengthening it.  The Romney/Ryan plan calls for turning Medicare into a voucher system for anyone who does not receive Medicare as of today.  Anyone out there, under 55 years old, this is to you…if you have a heart condition, cancer, diabetes, and you think a private insurance company is going to cover you into your old age under the cost of the voucher, then you are in for a very rude awakening.

Okay, so now I am going to wrap up my examples, even though, like I said, I could go on and on.  But, we all know that politicians twist the truth sometimes, isn’t that what we are told?  But, should we accept it and even worse, should we applaud it??

President Bush told us lies about weapons of mass destruction, costing us billions of dollars (which he never put on the books, thus adding billions to the deficit once the costs were put in the books) and costing our military men and women along with thousands of innocent Iraqi’s their limbs and their lives.  Do we really want to give accolades to another liar in chief?  

I find it appalling that our media has lavished so much praise on Romney’s debate performance.  Why do they feel it is okay to lie, as long as you lie with style?  Is that like Gangnum Style?  Was Romney more energetic and powerful, absolutely…but shouldn't substance matter more? 

I can imagine a scenario where the roles were reversed on Wednesday night, a scenario where President Obama was arrogant and rude to his opponent and the moderator and spewed lie after lie…how do you think the media would have spun that?  I bet they would have called him an angry (black) man, as exhibiting behavior that was un-presidential and not worthy of the office.  They would have said he was rude, a bully, and obnoxious!  They would have noted the red eyes and wondered if he was over-tired or over red-bulled!!  I believe that no matter how the President reacted to the flip-flopping, blatant lies of Romney, the President was in a no win situation. 

Reaction and opinion of the results depends so much on how the media spins things these days.  But, what is even more disheartening is that the media spin continues in the same direction even after the lies are exposed!  It is truly astounding that the lies don’t seem to matter!  Even Newt Gingrich, after his debates with Romney complained that it was impossible to defeat a liar at a debate because the liar can say anything to get by and no one cares!

I heard what I thought was a spot on analogy about debating a liar by listening to the Alec Bennett show this morning.  Alec stated the following, (and I am paraphrasing):  ‘imagine if I stated on this show that President Bush was drunk during his entire Presidency.  Imagine me stating that I know this to be true because a member of the Secret Service told me so in confidence.  Now, we all know this is not true, but how would you combat this nonsense in the midst of a debate?  You can’t because it has no place in reality so you cannot use any reality to fight it!’ 

I find it funny that now that the polls are shifting to a closer race, republicans, all of sudden, believe the polls, rather selective.  You don't see Progressives walking around saying the polls are not true.  Facts do matter, even if you don't agree.  You see, now, those same opponents of the President who didn't believe the prior polls, they do not believe the unemployment numbers recently released because they show, conclusively, that we are on the RIGHT track with President Obama and that the economy is steadily improving.  Those who do not support the President seem to live in a dream world of their own creation, (the right-wing bubble as Bill Maher calls it) perpetuated by Fox ‘news’ and Rush Limbaugh.  But my fear is that their land of make-believe will quickly crash all of the real progress made over the last four years.  If their world of applauding lies and working to eliminate any progress by the opposing party’s leader, at the expense of all of us, is allowed to go unanswered, then the United States of America is no longer a country of reality, but rather a country of beliefs and myths masquerading as facts and truths. 

Facts matter.  Truth matters.  Reality exists whether we admit it or not.  You can deny cancer all you want, but if you don’t treat it, it will still kill you. 

The frustration by those of us who support the President is two-fold.  We are sorry he didn’t come out punching harder, fighting back against Romney's talking points harder, yet we know that had he done so, the media would then simply have a different narrative to attack him over if they so choose.  President Obama needs to be flawless, yet he is human so flawlessness is impossible.  It is a very difficult box they have placed him in.

As Americans, we need to expect more than lies from someone who wants to take the reigns of this country from President Obama, the man who kept us OUT of a Depression, FOUND and ordered the KILL of Bin Laden, SAVED the auto Industry, and DOUBLED the stock market. 

President Obama has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that we are better off now than we were four years ago, and he has EARNED our votes to continue the positive trend, in spite of the lies told with such finesse by the opposition.

http://voice4america.com/paulbrown/2012/10/08/romney-56-seconds.html

http://front.moveon.org/what-republicans-really-think-of-mitt-romney-in-one-clip/#.UHCGpeSsW2E.facebook