I found Tagg Romney's admission that he felt like taking a swing at the President enlightening and disappointing, but I was more upset about the question that provoked Romney's response. North Carolina radio host Bill LuMaye asked:
I’m gonna ask something I know a lot of people want to know, or at least I do. What it is like for you to hear the President of the United States call your dad a liar?
If I'm honest I will admit that I would be upset if anyone called my father a liar, but the fact is President Obama did not call anyone a liar. That would be an attack on a person's character. President Obama challenged Mitt Romney's statements, not his character.
"That's just not true," President Obama said more than once. "Not true."
Calling someone a liar is a much more serious charge than saying someone is mistaken. It was obvious to anyone who watched the debate that Mitt Romney believed he was correct when he said the President did not describe the attack in Libya as an act of terror. We all know now that Romney was wrong, but he didn't lie about it. He was just wrong.
Remember four years ago when Sen McCain corrected the woman who said Barack Obama was "an Arab"? Sen. McCain did not call her a liar. He said "No ma'am. No ma'am." He corrected her and - you may not remember this - she actually listened to the correction.
If only Mitt Romney had been able to take the hint that the confident President Obama was giving him. The President knew Romney was wrong, which is why he said "Get the transcript" and "That's just not true." The President did not call Mitt Romney a liar or even imply as much. He said Romney was wrong. And Romney was wrong.
Tagg Romney made a mistake, too, but he's not a threat to the President. He overreacted to a cleverly worded, intentionally misleading question. You might even call that question a lie.