If you have no substantive arguments to make -- just make something up!
The Romney camp has taken to tying Obama to the nation's high long-term unemployment rate -- and to saying that long-term unemployment is now worse than it was during the Great Depression. Indeed, a recent fundraising email, Romney claimed long-term unemployment is now the "worst in recorded history."
There's one big problem with this: It's not true. [...]
Great Depression-era data, such as it exists can't easily be compared to these BLS figures. But the Washington Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave it a whirl and found two well-regarded historical accounts putting the number of people who'd been employed for more than a year over or about 60 percent of unemployed people. That's significantly worse than the current figures -- which suggests very strongly that Romney's claim, which his camp based on a now-corrected CBS news story, is untrue.
The Great Depression?
Sure, things are bad right now, but we're not talking about depression-era bad.
Meanwhile, Team Romney is to be joined by none other than Larry McCarthy. The man behind George H.W. Bush's Willie Horton ad campaign and the recent "Ground Zero Mosque" ad campaign.
The Washington Post reported last week that a new “Super PAC” — a political committee that can accept unlimited corporate contributions — has been set up by Mitt Romney supporters to run ads for the 2012 election. Restore Our Future PAC will be led by gambling lobbyist Charles Spies, former American Crossroads operative Carl Forti, and veteran GOP ad-maker Larry McCarthy.
McCarthy is perhaps best known for his role in crafting the ads behind the Willie Horton ads for the George H.W. Bush campaign. The infamous ad featured a menacing picture of an African American serial killer, along with a narrator who claimed Michael Dukakis was soft on crime. Explaining the strategy of the ad, a Bush aide told journalists: “Dukakis’s negatives with white voters are so high as to be insuperable.”
It would appear that many establishment operatives and major campaign donors are lining up behind Mitt Romney, but I'm still not convinced he can emerge on the other side of the primary season as the nominee.
Fact-checking organizations are going to be very busy over the next year and a half.