During Monday’s edition of Fox News’ America Live, host Megyn Kelly expressed candid frustration over the 2012 presidential campaign, shouting that both President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney lie in their campaign ads, contributing to a political process where truth does not “matter anymore at all.”
Kelly began the segment bemoaning the fact that the campaigns aren’t focusing on actual issues like unemployment and the weak economy: “[Recent] news headlines are replete with ‘Did Mitt Romney have operational control of Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002?’ and ‘Does Barack Obama owe Mitt Romney an apology for some senior aide saying that he might have committed a felony?’ There’s such a turnoff, both sides, the way they run this race,” she said. “The American people are disgusted with this kind of politics. Am I wrong?”
“You’re absolutely right,” concurred former Bush adviser Brad Blakeman. “I think the American people want to get onto the real issues at hand, and neither the president or Mitt Romney are actually addressing those issues. But let’s face it, Obama has invoked a 3-D strategy: distract away from your own destructive policies, distort Romney’s record, and divide the American people rich against poor.”
Kelly then asked SC Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian whether this election season is now like a sporting match: “Are we getting the truth? Are we getting to the issues? Brad doesn’t like what President Obama’s arguing about Bain Capital, but Mitt Romney comes out, ‘He needs to apologize,’” Kelly said in a voice mocking of Romney’s response. “Really? Is this how we’re going to spend our time?”
Harpootlian went on to counter Blakeman by saying that President George W. Bush did the same thing to Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004, and that Romney ought to “put out 12 years of income tax returns and show the American people that he hasn’t been –”
“Really?” Kelly interjected. “Really? […] You tell me whether those unemployed 26 million or underemployed give two figs about Mitt Romney’s tax returns from ten years ago.”
“They don’t,” Blakeman responded. “And this is only to be used, again, to divide, distract and distort the real issues which the American people care about.” He went on to say that “we have a president about to go on television and went on television on Friday, and the message that he was giving was very destructive. And it was not hopeful about our future or what he’s done for the country –”
“Oh, they both do it,” Kelly sternly interrupted. “And they’re both talking out of both sides of their mouth. President Obama, he wants credit for being positive, for being such a positive messenger, and so does Mitt Romney. And when they sit down with an interviewer one-on-one, oh, they’re very positive. But when they get off camera, when they go to the ad campaigns, they’re completely negative,” she said as her voice began to rise to a shout, “And they lie! They lie! Mitt Romney put out an ad about Solyndra that The Washington Post said was full of pinocchios and not true, and Barack Obama did the same thing about Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital.”
“Does truth matter anymore at all in the political process?” she asked. She went on to get both guests to admit that “truth matters,” but lamented that both candidates will likely continue with their lines of attack regardless of whether fact-checkers have reportedly found their respective Solyndra and Bain attacks to be untrue.
(Source: Fox News and Mediaite.com)
