One wonders where to start in responding to Justin Frank’s piece in Time. One wishes one did not have to respond at all, and one actually decided not to respond, but one continues to be so rankled by Frank’s insipid article that one has concluded that one must respond or else one is going to spend the entire Trans-Pacific flight one is about to take stewing about it. So here one goes.
Frank accuses Romney of lying about an argument made in Noam Scheiber’s book about the Obama teams’ reaction to the economic crisis. It is not within the purview of this blog to weigh on such matters, so we won’t. What we will weigh in on, however, is Frank’s statement that, “Mitt Romney doesn’t lie. He is telling the truth as he sees it – and truth it is, the facts notwithstanding.” In other words, Romney simply comes to a conclusion, establishes it as truth in his mind, and then ignores any and all evidence that would challenge this truth. And where, do you suppose, Mr. Frank believes Mitt Romney acquired this habit of seeing truth in cases even where facts contradict the truth? I hope you guessed Mormonism! (In fairness, Frank, gamely acknowledges that “One doesn’t have to be Mormon to lie.” All Mormons are liars, but not all liars are Mormons; it’s important for you to know that, so you don’t go around assuming that someone isn’t lying to you just because they’re not Mormon. That non-Mormon could, technically, still be lying to you, in spite of their not being a Mormon, although it seems unlikely.)
Read Full Article »