Repeatedly debunked lies still front and center in Romney campaign ad blasting Obama stimulus

(Chart by Virginia Blue/lowkell) If you live in certain markets, you've probably seen this ad from Mendacious Mitt. At Blue Virginia, lowkell dismantles it:

According to Romney and his fellow liars, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (they don't call it that, of course), approximately $800 billion in total, went to "friends, donors, campaign supporters, special interest groups...Solyndra ($500 million), "windmills from China," "electric cars from Finland."

Of course, this is at best distorted. For instance, PolitiFact, not exactly a big friend of Democrats, found the "windmills from China" claim to be "mostly false." It further found the "electric cars from Finland" claim to be totally "false." The Washington Post's Fact Checker, also no friend of Democrats, gave the ad overall two "Pinocchios" for having "Significant omissions and/or exaggerations" (that's an understatement). Finally, see Media Matters for a complete demolition of the Romney ad, including the New York Times analysis that "much of the ad is false;" the ABC News analysis that "less than .000031 percent of the $814 billion stimulus program" went to wind turbines made in China; the Washington Post analysis that "the stimulus created about 51,000 jobs in the U.S. wind industry;" etc, etc. Bottom line: this ad is false, false, false - no matter how many times they run it on our TV screens.

It's no surprise to anybody that if Mendacious Mitt's lips are moving, there's a better than 50 percent chance he's lying. Here's Yosef 52's comprehensive, linked list. (If you plan to check it out, pack a lunch. You'll be there a while.)

This is more than a dog-bites-man-politicians-lie-so-what-else-is-new story. The guy is pathological. Most candidates for public office caught in a lie mumble some half-baked rationalization, some half-wit "I misspoke" excuse and move on, even occasionally displaying a smidgen of embarrassment. Not Romney. He leaves the exposed lies dormant for a while, then revives them in new statements months later, pretending they've never been deconstructed previously.

That bespeaks someone who calculates that most people, come time to vote, won't remember that a lie actually is a lie (if they ever knew). As for reporters, calling out lies can become burdensome if they aren't willing to follow the media prescription of they-all-do-it. Thus, most lies get a pass from the media where most Americans get their political views'which ain't blogs and watchdog sites.

Even revealed, lies help shape a narrative as surely as does the truth. Individual lies may be exposed as frauds from time to time, but the big picture built out of a welter of lies gets absorbed unconsciously. You can be pretty sure that the ad twisting the record of the stimulus money is designed to achieve exactly that purpose. Approved by Mendacious Mitt.