Putting Your Foot In It

Make no mistake, we're well aware of the massive damage and the mess that the now-downgraded superstorm Sandy continues to cause throughout the Northeast. The U.S. Federal government in Washington, DC is officially closed for a second day, as is the New York Stock Exchange. More than 12,000 flights have been cancelled, and mass transit in the region is currently nonexistent. A levee broke in New Jersey, where hundreds of people are now being evacuated. In many inland areas of the Northeast, it's also snowing wet, heavy, tree-breaking, powerline-snapping snow. More than seven milion Americans are without power, and property damage from wind, water, snow - and fire - continues to rise.

For those Americans trapped by Sandy who still have power, many have taken to turning their televisions off anyway, thanks to the still ongoing onslaught of political ads. So many of the ads are blatantly filled with lies, that it could make the calmest person want to put their fists or feet through their television screen.

Of course, that's not the fault of the television screen. It's the fault of candidates and campaigns who - metaphorically speaking - keep "putting their foot in it," as the Romney campaign has with their offensively mendacious and campaign-closing Chrysler ad.

In case you've forgotten, it was Mitt Romney who insisted that the Federal government should have "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" four years ago. As we noted here a week ago, what Romney wanted back then was for private banks to bail out GM and Chrysler - something that no bank was willing or able to do.

Thanks to President Obama stepping in, lending both GM and Chrysler the money they needed, and forcing both companies through major restructuring and bankruptcy, both automakers are now fiscally stable and successful. In fact, Chrysler reported third-quarter profits on Monday that were 80% better than at the same time last year. Fiat -Chrysler's current parent company - has been so successful that it recently announced that they were looking to expand their business and build a new factory in China to serve the growing Chinese demand for new vehicles.

Chrysler's current executives were so offended at Romney's whopper of a commercial, they publicly called out Romney's fabrication on their official company blog, as we also noted last week.

These facts are as clear as the picture on a new top-of-the-line high-definition flat screen TV - and they don't match up at all with the claims made by the Romney campaign. The Romney ad cherry picks the facts, and twists reality so bad, the Obama campaign's reply ad finally comes out and calls Romney's obfuscation and falsehood what it is: a lie.

While we've been calling Romney's baloney what it is - lies - for some time, it's rare to see one Presidential campaign use that word to describe what the other is doing. Campaigns will use virtually every adjective in the book but the word "lie".

Eventually though, when a person or a political campaign has been spouting bull pucky and untruths so provably, blatantly, and directly false as Mitt Romney and his campaign have - especially with this campaign-closing ad - even the no-drama campaign of President Obama reaches the limit of politeness.

We're glad the Obama campaign called Romney's lie about Chrysler what it is, instead of putting their foot through the nearest TV set. Frankly, we think the Obama campaign should have put their boots into the backside of the Romney campaign a long time ago.