"He made it worse"...compared to what?

ca·su·ist·ry... n. pl. ca·su·ist·ries

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."

Bypassing the bomb throwers

Bush tinkered a bit on the brink, but did the right thing:

"In the midst of a financial crisis...allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action," Mr. Bush said.

The terms are more lenient than in the deal the Senate Republicans scotched:

The deal generally tracks key provisions of the bailout legislation that nearly passed Congress earlier this month. But it is relatively lenient in allowing the companies to show their viability. It defines viability as having a positive net present value -- a way of gauging the companies' worth, taking into account all their future obligations.

Notably, it provides significant flexibility to the companies in showing their viability. It sets out targets for the companies to hit in determining their financial health, such as reducing debt and current cash payments for future health care obligations.

But according to a White House fact sheet, the targets "would be non-binding in the sense that negotiations can deviate from the quantitative targets...providing that the [company] reports the reasons for these deviations and makes the business case to achieve long-term viability in spite of the deviations."

One potential move that could help the companies achieve some savings: the companies will be required to reach new agreements with major stakeholders, including dealers and suppliers, by March 31.

Determining viability apparently will be up to the Obama administration. The agreement designates a person to oversee the government's effort, although officials stopped short of referring to that as a "car czar." For the outgoing Bush administration, that person will be Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. President-elect Barack Obama will choose his own point person later.

Sometimes, kicking the can down the road is the only responsible course of action. Obama has said that he wants to bring all the auto industry stakeholders together to hammer out a deal. Bush has given him space to do it.