Lie factory debute

 Upton Sinclair "was beat because he wrote books."
-Clem Whitaker

"We don't go in for that kind of crap that you have back in New York, of being obliged to print both sides. We're going to beat this son of a bitch Sinclair any way we can. We're going to kill him."
-Los Angeles Times political editor Kyle Palmer

Politics are just... maddening. How did Campaigns Inc., the political consulting firm started by Whitaker and Leone Baxter, defeat Mr. Sinclair? By little more than running a daily newspaper ad with a quote by the candidate (or one of his fictional characters, as if said by Sinclair). And with that, the ba-jillion dollar business of political consulting was born.

A good article on what Sinclair called the Lie Factory and the history of political consulting in general.



Current-day politic campaigning madness goes as far as the mud can sling. It may not be the best example, but it concerns the now-famous news of the 47-percent-of-the-people, coming-out video:

In a press conference, Mitt Romney doesn't deny, but actually rehashes what he said in the video. Then, to no one's surprise, his campaign changes that strategy to one of denial. 

This is from David Corn's article, Romney's Video-Debunking Claim Is…Debunked:
A day or so after the press conference, his campaign released these statements in an email:
Today, The Obama Campaign Leveled False Attacks Against Mitt Romney Based On A Debunked And Selectively Edited Video:
 What was the response from the Politico guy that authored the said debunking statements? 

"There is nothing in my report that 'debunks' the video."

"More mysterious still, is why the Romney campaign wants to debunk a video containing remarks that the candidate doubled-down on in a follow-up press conference."
-Politico's Dylan Byers

Slate's Dave Weigel has weighed in as well:
By calling the whole tape "debunked" and "selectively edited," the campaign's hewing closer to the Breitbart.com argument -- the real story is liberal media-Obama collusion. And the result is a sort of paradox, in which Romney stands by what he said in a video that you can't trust.
It was bizarre. After Byers and Weigel had debunked the Romney camp's debunking, Byers heard from a Romney aide who said that the campaign only takes issue with the clip regarding Romney's view on the Mideast, not the entire video.
In other words, the Romney campaign walked back the push-back. It's not challenging the "47 percent" material or anything else; only the Mideast remarks. But, as I've said a few thousand times on television these past few days, the wonderful thing about this story is that people can view for themselves. Watch Romney talking about the Mideast, and it's clear he has contempt for the peace process as it has been conceived for years; does not believe it can work; and would chart a radically different course. The few sentences not included in that clip—but which were included in the full transcript and complete tape we released—do not a debunking make. This maneuver smacks of desperation from a campaign hurt by the undeniable words of its candidate.

Another example of an attempt (a miss, actually) by the Lie Factory:
Senator Inhofe, last week, said the blame for the Libya and Egypt embassy attacks was Obama's "policy of appeasement" in the Middle East. This may be insignificant... I don't know. When I see a whacko on Fox and feel that everyone around me recognizes the same, I tend to be wrong.

Mitt Romney seems to hate apologies, even more when made to someone in or from, or resembling someone from, the Middle East. Tone-deaf and insensitive, really a throwback to the days of President Bush, he accused Obama of apologizing shortly after the attacks. I'm sick of the "apologizing isn't American" campaign. Even worse, I'm sick of lying in order to make political headway. Even after learning of the death of Ambassador Stephens, that presumably mattered most to Mitt Romney, he makes the apology comment again. Had the play been any less of total and complete miss, the Obama-sympathizes-with-terrorists story might have actually stuck. 
At any rate, who would want someone who doesn't can't apologize to have anything to do with foreign affairs, much less be the commander in chief of the country? Clinton's utterance of "sorry" for the deaths in the Pakistan airstrikes" averted a real fiasco. Sorry--the shot heard 'round the world.