Quote of the day

I've been struck by the baldness of Romney's repetitive lies about Obama -- that Obama ended the work requirement under welfare, for example, or that Obama's Affordable Care Act cuts $716 billion from Medicare benefits.

I've been directly involved in seven presidential campaigns, and I don't recall a presidential candidate lying with such audacity, over and over again, even in the face of mainstream media calling him on it.

It may be because such lies are effective. Polls show that voters are starting to believe them, especially in swing states where they're being repeated constantly in media spots, financed by Romney's super PAC or ancillary PACs and so-called "social welfare" organizations (political fronts disguised as charities, such as Karl Rove and the Koch brothers have set up).

But what does this tell us about Romney's character? We knew he was a cypher -- that he'll say and do whatever is expedient, change positions like a chameleon, eschew any core principles.

Yet resorting to outright lies -- and organizing a presidential campaign around a series of lies -- reveals a whole new level of cynicism, a profound disdain for what remains of civility in public life, and a disrespect of the democratic process.

Can someone who is willing to resort to such calculated lies be worthy of the public's trust with the most powerful office in the world?

--Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.

Links: http://robertreich.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich