Reject Intentionally Misleading Messages Saturating Communication Channels
Not just a random error or exaggeration.  By design.  Thomas Edsall points out that the two central themes that the Romney ads are pounding away at, using their enormous financial advantage, have BOTH been evaluated by the three top fact-check organizations as fabrications.  And seen together,

“Sharp criticism has done nothing to hold back the Romney campaign from continuing its offensive — in speeches and on the air — because the accuracy of the ads is irrelevant as far as the Republican presidential ticket is concerned. The goal is not to make a legitimate critique, but to portray Obama as willing to give the “undeserving” poor government handouts at the expense of hardworking taxpayers.”

The goal is not to inform or lead or even criticize, but to mislead and divide…and combine this with Romney himself repeatedly accusing the President of running a divisive campaign.  So many layers of cowardice; so bad for America.

A third, equally misleading—and intentionally so—message has been Paul Ryan repeating that the President inherited a tough situation and made it worse.  Professor Robert McElvaine, points out that the first part of this claim is a ‘gross understatement,’ and the second part is a ‘gross misstatement.’

“The bottom line is that over the 64 years leading up to the inauguration of President Obama, jobs were created more than twice as fast under Democrats as they were under Republicans.

Even a glance at the graph shows that Barack Obama and his policies did not make the “difficult” — disastrous would be a more accurate term — situation he inherited worse.”

We can see the job creation situation pretty clearly in the following graph:

 

In the wake of Citizens United, we should not underestimate the power of the professionally packaged efforts to distract and mislead us.  Every citizen should bookmark www.factcheck.com and check it regularly, along with Politifact and The Washington Post’s fact checker, Glenn Kessler.  Because the data simply does not support the claims being made....

Do not let the handful of extremely un-American billionaires bankrolling these ads get away with re-writing our recent history.  Do not let them set up house in your head and distort your thinking.  Whether to favor the vision for America offered by the incumbent or the challenger…in this election, more than any other in my lifetime, it is absolutely essential that we all put in the work to get the facts so we can trust our own judgment…

· Annenburg Public Policy Center Factcheck

· Tampa Bay Times Politifact

· Washington Post Fact Checker

Bookmark these sites and check them every day…see this as your patriotic duty, because it is up to regular Americans to stand up and do the right thing…if these factcheck sites are among our daily sources of news we might be strong enough to take on the advertising juggernaut let loose on Average Americans by Citizens United.