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Some content at the OpEd News is essentially calling Mitt Romney a liar. Oh, they’re polite and refer to it as Mitt’s Missteps but it’s obvious what they mean. Although NPR is often characterized as liberal media and have used references from FactCheck.org to make comparisons in campaign ads, there was no reason to give the blanket appraisal to them or FactCheck.org at face value. But anytime a candidate is criticized it is natural to first wonder if the source of the criticism is partisan or otherwise biased by special interest. That FactCheck.org is connected to Annenberg and the University of Pennsylvania is still not enough evidence for this blog. But the information in the OpEd News piece brings these issues into question.

They are nice enough to provide a bibliography with the piece. Though it is not a task without time demands for tedious inspection of data. Some of the reference sources may support the suspicion of bias by their nature. So the first reference to inspect was the one that appears least likely to have a big ax to grind without supporting numbers rather than opinion. The OpEd News piece quoting FactCheck.org has the following text about Mitt Romney as Governor on budgets, revenue, spending and taxes.

* He claims to have balanced the Massachusetts budget through the elimination of duplicate state agencies when he actually relied mainly upon increases in fees and cuts to education and local aid to do so.
* Romney takes credit for submitting state income tax cuts, although income tax rates did not change during his term as governor.

After retrieving a copy of The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation’s report in the biblio., this was the first information presented that addressed the FactCheck.org claims.

In two major reports on the state’s budget over the last three years, the Foundation
described a “perfect storm” of forces that has produced a financial emergency rivaling
the fiscal crisis of the early 1990s:

• A sharp decline in tax revenues that was precipitated by the bursting of the stock
market and the dot.com bubble and made worse by the extended recession;

• The voter-approved cut in the income tax rate that locked the state into a $1
billion tax reduction just as capital gains receipts collapsed; and

• Rapid growth in the costs of largely unavoidable state obligations, including
health care, pensions, and debt service. All of these forces continue to buffet the
state’s finances. Even with a recent upward revision in the forecast for 2004, tax
collections for the year will still be $1.5 billion below 2001, before the fiscal crisis
began.

There seems to be some dispute between the OpEd News / FactCheck piece as relates to their conclusions based on the Mass Taxpayers group. Here are some more references from that same report referring to Mitt Romney.

Based on the Foundation’s analysis, the spending required in 2005 to sustain the
state’s programs and services at 2004 levels would total $25.1 billion, an increase of $1.9
billion or 8.4 percent. This total is built on the base of estimated 2004 expenditures.
Further legislative overrides of the Governor’s budgetary vetoes and
supplemental appropriations that are not offset by savings would result in an even
higher estimate of 2005 spending.

This indicates the typical or common battles between execs and legislatures. This is not provided as a definitive appraisal of claims from the sources identified or an argument drawing a conclusion about Mitt Romney’s campaign speeches as the OpEd News / FactCheck.org presented. It is presented as an example that by method mirrors that used by the others. Except that here quotes were used from the reference. To present a biblio. like FactCheck after presenting a claim of what Romney said and drawing a conclusion that does not match, step by step and quote by quote, the rebuttal to Romney’s statements as presented by FactCheck is flawed.

To put the burden on the reader to fact check FactCheck is ludicrous. Although FactCheck describes themselves on their website as non-partisan and independent is no fact check. They may be as biased as the next guy and just saying they are not does not prove anything. The point is OpEd News compounds the problem by publishing this post that offers no acceptable and easily verified proof. Just a simple scan of the information provided by one source from their own biblio. renders their entire argument useless. The inclusion of The Boston Globe in the biblio. sends up more red flags about objectivity. You would be hard pressed to find one article in the Globe that does not attack Romney.

In support of an opposing opinion to FactChecks claims about Mitt Romney you can refer to the Economist magazine according to note from Slate. Here is the excerpt.

Slate mention of Economist mag’s positive appraisal of Romney

Economist, July 7
A report on hopeful GOP nominee Mitt Romney suggests that the Economist has been swept off its feet by the “tall and handsome” candidate who answers questions “crisply and intelligently.” He’s not just a pretty face: As the governor of Massachusetts, he turned a $3 billion deficit into a $700 million surplus. He also single-handedly saved the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics. He’s also tackled one of America’s “prickliest problems” with his compulsory health-insurance plan. The article even swoons when naming why his candidacy might not succeed: “Mr. Smooth of Massachusetts” could possibly be “too good to be true.”

It appears the Economist is addressing some of the same items challenged by FactCheck and drawing a different conclusion.

As representatives from the MSM like to say, in the interest of full disclosure it should be mentioned that this blog currently supports former Governor Mitt Romney for President.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, disclosure, ethics, romney, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.