In this editorial, which went up in the Noon hour this afternoon, the editorial board lambastes the Republican nominee. It begins simply, and bluntly:
THROUGH ALL THE flip-flops, there has been one consistency in the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: a contempt for the electorate.
The editorial board goes on to provide substantial substance to support that assertion:
- his refusal to disclose essential information, such as his bundlers, his taxe
- his incessant flip-flops on positions, which they describe as "breathtaking ideological shifts," many of which are listed, such as
He was a friend of immigrants, then a scourge of immigrants, then again a friend. He was a Kissingerian foreign policy realist, then a McCain-like hawk, then a purveyor of peace. He pioneered Obamacare, he detested Obamacare, then he found elements in it to cherish. Assault weapons were bad, then good.
(and that is not the complete list)
- his misleading commercials
- his unwillingness to flesh out his agenda in detail
But I have not yet gotten to where they really hammer him. For that, please continue.
And then there has been his chronic, baldly dishonest defense of mathematically impossible budget proposals. He promised to cut income tax rates without exploding the deficit or tilting the tax code toward the rich — but he refused to say how he could bring that off. When challenged, he cited “studies” that he maintained proved him right. But the studies were a mix of rhetoric, unrealistic growth projections and more serious economics that actually proved him wrong.
Try that one more time, because it is succinct and oh so accurate:
mathematically impossible budget proposals
The editorial goes through this in detail. You can read that on your own.
The one weak moment in the editorial comes near the end, with the unfortunate tendency to frame a little bit in terms of "both sides do it" - they criticize Obama for avoiding interviews, not offerings specifics for a 2nd term agenda, and distorting Romney's record in commercials. To which I would say they are comparing the Mount Everest of what Romney has done to the rise of beach sand left when you turn over a child's bucket and leave a sand tower.
The concluding two paragraphs, which immediately follow, make up for that lapse.
Read:
But Mr. Obama has a record; voters know his priorities. His budget plan is inadequate, but it wouldn’t make things worse.
Mr. Romney, by contrast, seems to be betting that voters have no memories, poor arithmetic skills and a general inability to look behind the curtain. We hope the results Tuesday prove him wrong.
betting that voters have no memories, poor arithmetic skills and a general inability to look behind the curtain
We have seen that Romney will lose that bet - the lies about the auto bailout and the plans of GM and Chrysler were lies too much, for the media in Ohio, for the leadership of GM and Chrysler, and increasingly for voters as they realize that Romney has yet again been lying.
There are two preeminent newspapers in the United States. The New York Times serves as the newspaper of record. The Washington Post covers the federal government as its main focus. While it is true that both editorially tilt liberally compared to the editorial boards of some other major newspapers (Wall Street Journal, anyone?), it is rare for these two major papers to be as blunt as both now have been about Mitt Romney and what he has said and done - and NOT said and done - in this campaign.
Read the editorial.
Pass it on.
And look forward to the American people proving Romney wrong on what he decided to offer - and hide - during this campaign.