Because I devote a fair amount of time to Romney's dishonest rhetoric--and the degree to which its ignored by mainstream reporters–it's worth noting those times when someone shows that the former governor has no clothes. To wit, here's Phillip Rucker at the Washington Post, on Romney's response to the attacks on Bain Capital:
"We were able to help create over 100,000 jobs," Romney said of his tenure at Bain, the venture capital and corporate buyout firm he founded. "On the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were lost in the auto industry and auto dealers and auto manufacturers, so he's hardly one to point a finger."
It was an unusual line of defense for Romney considering that the Obama administration's rescue of the auto industry is one the president's most popular accomplishments, especially in critical midwestern battlegrounds like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The federal bailout of two of the Big Three domestic auto companies has been widely considered a success, and Democrats have attacked Romney for instead advocating a managed bankruptcy in a New York Times op-ed titled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." […]
The Post's Fact Checker determined that Romney's claim that he created 100,000 jobs at Bain was unproven and untenable. [Emphasis mine]
Romney's entire campaign is based on the claim that he has what it takes to create jobs, based on his record at Bain. But there's no way to prove Romney created any jobs at Bain Capital, much less 100,000 of them. Regardless, Romney continues to run with the number, with little pushback from reporters.
