Tom Edsall has a nice, reflective piece on the decline in political morality. (I might have included the breach of long-standing procedural norms in the Congress, but Edsall had quite enough material just sticking to campaign tactics.)
The piece uses the Romney campaign’s astounding level of rhetorical dishonesty – doctoring a quote to make it appear that Obama was saying what in fact he was merely quoting a McCain op as saying – and their willingness to defend outright lying as normal politics, as a news hook on which to hang the larger argument. But that part of the story is worth pondering in its own right. Do you want, as President, someone who, as a candidate, believed that outright lying is just business as usual?
Neither do I.
[Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]
