For just a moment, imagine things are the other way around. Imagine if Mitt Romney had used as the cornerstone of his campaign a bald-faced lie about Obama’s record that was endlessly repeated in speeches, by his surrogates on television, and with millions and million of dollars worth of negative television commercials.
Now imagine if a media outlet openly sympathetic to Romney had recycled this lie in order to make it look scandalous and, in response, the Romney campaign had openly suggested Obama might be a felon.
Were this the case, the media would be crucifying Mitt Romney right now, and rightly so. I’m not one of those delicate types who gets the vapors from negative campaigning. In fact, I like campaigns that go hammer and tong at one another.
But lying, openly and flagrantly lying, is not negative campaigning — it’s lying.
And for one campaign to suggest the opposition’s candidate might be a felon based on nothing — especially when that campaign is run by a sitting president if the United States — well, that’s just sleazy.
And yet…
For nearly a month now, the media has known that Obama’s outsourcing charges against Mitt Romney are lies. And yesterday, within hours, the media (including the corrupt Politico which only chose to play dumb) knew that the Boston Globe’s anti-Romney hit-piece was nothing more than a warmed over nothingburger made to look like a Big Gothcha Story. The Obama campaign knew this as well but still took the opportunity to openly float the absurd idea that Romney might be a felon.
While I might not be a shrinking violet in the face of negative ads, the media usually is, and there’s no question Barack Obama is running an intensely negative campaign right now. On top of that, the Obama campaign refuses to stop lying about Romney’s record, and yesterday they all but accused Romney of being a criminal. And yet, the very same media usually horrified by intensely negative attacks only plays along.
The media response, as we have all seen, has only been to admire how Team Obama has managed to keep the Romney campaign on defense and stay in the game despite the President’s abysmal record. In other words, the media response has been to use Obama’s sleazy tactics as a way to push a parallel narrative that Romney is running a lousy a campaign, which only serves to undermine with voters the plus of his managerial competence.
This isn’t a case of media bias; it’s how the corrupt media and the Obama campaign are working together, frequently directly, to turn Romney into an unacceptable alternative to this failed president.
Considering Obama’s failed record, the march is obviously on to win Obama reelection in the only way possible: demonize and undermine Romney at every turn.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC