He didn’t have to tell this particular lie because it gains him absolutely nothing. Yet, he felt need to perpetrate this particular fiction. Why?
Mitt Romney said during his acceptance speech last night that Republicans rallied behind President Obama when he won in 2008, hoping that he would succeed.
“We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than divides us,” Romney said, cribbing a line from Obama.
I don’t understand. Why would Romney tell this lie?
I know it has been a particularly mendacious week at the Republican National Convention, that Romney is a lie machine and that his running mate, one Paul Ryan, gave an acceptance speech of his own in which he tried to see how many lies he could fit into a speech. But . . .
Did we have to listen to Republicans peddle this particular lie, that they rallied behind Obama on his election?
I know tradition dictates that we put our differences aside after an election ends and work for the good of the people, do the business of state, govern. That was exactly what the Republicans would not do.
On January 20, 2009, on a day when most Americans were celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States, a cabal of Republican leaders and strategists met for four hours to plot how to derail the nascent administration. The American people had spoken by overwhelmingly electing Obama but that wasn’t good for Republicans.
In the prologue to his book “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives,” Robert Draper described the unprecedented meeting. Masterminding this putsch were Representatives Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), and Senators Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.).
Also invited were Newt Gingrich, strategist Frank Luntz.
If there was any doubt it was a coup d’etat, they spoke for several hours specifically how to drown every legislative initiative the incoming administration may attempt. Their opposition was tinged by a particular rancor, a nastiness that led them to not only disrespect the man in the office, but disrespect the office itself.
A few months into the administration, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted “You lie” from his seat on the Republican side of the chamber as President Obama was addressing a joint session of Congress about his health care legislation. Not long after that, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky declared that the goal of Republicans was to make sure Obama was a one-term president.
When the 2010 midterm elections ushered the so-called Tea Party Republicans, things go only worse, culminating in the budget debacle that led to the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating.
Things haven’t go much better. Republicans insist on fighting Obama even if it hurts the nation. They crippled the nation’s economy because they felt it was their best chance to regain power. It was plain for all eyes to see.
Romney could have said anything last night. He told many lies in his speech. He could have left that one about them rallying behind a new president. Why didn’t he? Is he just pathological?
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