MANVILLE: If considering the GOP, separate fact from fiction

To the editor:
   President Obama is certainly not a socialist — that claim is ridiculous.
   And, yet, the idea seems to be one of the favorite insinuations, or blatant accusations, launched by the GOP Presidential contenders. Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich have all said that either Obama or his policies were socialist. Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, has hinted that Obama gets his inspiration from “the socialist-democrats in Europe”.
   Now, even though this claim is false, it continues to be made.
   Why? Because it gets the response they’re looking for. Instead of giving a pros and cons list of Obama’s economic policy, it’s much easier to claim he’s a socialist. It gets more attention as well.
Overall, I’ve noticed that the Republican candidates seem to have no problem making outrageous claims, against both the President and fellow contenders, seemingly without regard for “facts.”
   I’ve watched every debate , and I feel like after each one I need to go onto Politifact to verify numerous claims made.
   For example, when I heard Governor Romney say that “eliminating Obamacare would save $95 billion a year,” I was shocked and wondered why Obama could allow such an opportunity to save money go to waste! I said to myself, ‘Good for you, Mitt Romney, for bringing this to our attention!’
   And then I looked on Politifact. This claim was given a “false” rating by Politifact saying “because of the revenue sources that the law established, repealing it actually adds significantly to the deficit over the long haul.”
   Wow, so not only was Romney mistaken, but he was completely wrong. And yet no Republicans seemed to want to call Romney on this claim, not even his competitors.
   I wondered why this could be, and then a scary thought hit me. Do the majority of Republicans want to win so badly that they’re willing to overlook the constant stream of blatant lies from the remaining candidates? I certainly hope not, but I can’t seem to shake the feeling.
   As for me, I know that this November I will be voting for President Obama, but for those Americans out there who plan to vote for one of the Republican candidates, I implore you to separate fact from fiction in this primary and election season and vote based on merit and not on outrageous claims.
   Whoever the Republican nominee turns out to be, I only hope that they are the most qualified and not the one who best exemplified a demagogue, telling the most lies about his enemies, both Obama and fellow candidates.
   This primary season has had numerous attacks, both professional and personal, but hopefully the Republican nominee is the best one to take on Obama, so that we can have a good, clean election where we can vote knowing that regardless of who wins, our President will not have gotten to the Oval Office using false claims and outrageous promises.
Patrick McAvaddy
Hillsborough