One disturbing aspect of last night's debate was the false memes which were built around Obama. Mittens was proclaimed the winner by most talking heads- judged as 'seeming more presidential' and "in command of the facts". However, the problem with some of his "facts" is that they were lies. He told a few lies that went unchallenged, and worse, was supported in his litany of false characterizations of President Obama by the other candidates on stage with him.
One that stuck out most sorely to me was Mitt's claim that
We selected as a president a guy who had never worked in the private sector
Wrong! The University of Chicago is a PRIVATE university!!!
The University of Chicago is a PRIVATE university, and for more than 10 years Obama was employed by the university as a full time professor! Not to mention Obama's four years as a lawyer with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Gallard. And Romney was joined in this attack by Huntsman's later implication:
We've got to remember, that to beat President Obama, we have to have somebody who's been in the private sector
It's obvious that the GOP is pursuing this false characterization of President Obama as part of a general strategy- that he knows nothing about private enterprise, and is out of touch with the middle class. Furthermore, there is the implication that university professorships are not real jobs.
Next lie, and I find this very curious because it is not in the transcript, is where Romney said Obama is preventing gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. See here where he said it: http://www.youtube.com/... and I have transcribed:
... and this president, blocking offshore drilling, stopping the ability to build new coal plants, this president having held up nuclear plants, and not developing the Marcellus Shale...
As anyone in Pennsylvania can tell you, nothing could be further from the truth. Much to our disappointment, Obama has done nothing to prevent gas drilling anywhere, and it proceeds apace in the region with virtually no hinderance from any federal office or agency.
Similarly on domestic oil:
“We are an energy-rich nation and we’re living like an energy-poor nation,” (Mitt) said, asserting that Mr. Obama had halted offshore drilling,
A NYTimes article in a too rare example of responsible journalism, explains the obfuscation:
those claims are largely untrue. While Mr. Obama declared a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP spill in 2010, the government began granting permits again earlier this year and activity is approaching pre-spill levels. The administration recently announced a major lease sale in the western Gulf of Mexico and gave provisional approval to a Shell project in the Arctic off the coast of Alaska. And while a number of utilities have canceled plans to build new coal plants, that is largely because demand for electricity has slowed, not because of new federal regulations.
Again, Mitt's fellow debate participants piled onto this particular meme- that Obama is preventing domestic energy development.
Now of course, we environmentally sensitive folk are quite appalled at Obama's failures in this area of policy, but that he also gets to wear the mantle of a tree-hugging, anti-industry liberal is simply mind-boggling when the facts don't support that meme.
The most hollow meme of course, and laughably so for any of Obama's opponents to suggest- is that he is weak on national security. To his credit (the only one I can give him in fact), it's the one thing Rick Perry did not pursue- reminding all that Obama removed bin Laden from this world. But still, Huntsman couldn't help himself in suggesting that "we've lost our confidence as a country" as a response to the national security/post 9-11 question.
Here's a partial transcript: NYTimes transcript