1. Specious or excessively subtle reasoning intended to rationalize or mislead.
Mitt Romney is having a hard time convincing people that he hasn't been relentlessly lying about Obama's economic record since he officially kicked off his campaign. Let me offer my assistance.
In the fundamentally misleading speech with which Romney launched his campaign, he said this about Obama:
When he took office, the economy was in recession. He made it worse. And he made it last longer.
A video by DemRapidResponse catches Romney saying substantially the same thing repeatedly since then, e.g., in the GOP debate:
What this president has done, is slowed the economy. He didn't create this recession, but he made it worse. And longer.
Challenged yesterday by an NBC reporter who pointed out that the economy is, in fact, growing, Romney said:
"I didn't say that things are worse. What I said was, that the economy hasn't turned around."That is really as clever as Clinton's "There is no sexual relationship." It's true, Romney did not say things are worse. He said that Obama made it (the recession) worse, presumably starting on Jan. 19, 2009, and made it "last longer."
