Romney defends false ads.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Romney: My ads have been 'spot on'

Vandalia, Ohio (CNN) – Mitt Romney defended his campaign's television ads Tuesday, saying they've been "absolutely spot on," including ads deemed false by independent fact checkers.

"Anytime there's been anything that's amiss we correct it or remove it," Romney told CNN.

Ads from Romney's campaign have hammered President Barack Obama for supposedly "gutting welfare" by removing the work requirement from the federal assistance program.

An independent and non-partisan fact-checking organization, PolitiFact, rated the ad's claim as "Pants on Fire." CNN also rated the ad 'false." And the Obama campaign, the White House and former President Bill Clinton, who signed the original legislation into law, all attacked the Romney spot, saying the claims were false and misleading.

On Tuesday, Romney said those analyses were flawed.

"It has been shown time and again that the president's effort to take work requirement out of welfare is a calculated move, the same thing that he did in regard to food stamps," Romney said.

Pushed on the fact checks that claim Romney's ads are false, the GOP nominee maintained that Obama's administration was making a concerted move to remove work requirements from welfare.

"You look at the facts," Romney said. "Did he take the work requirement out of welfare?"

The Obama administration directive, issued July 12, allows individual states to experiment with changes to their welfare-to-work programs, which are federally funded. The intent, according to the directive, is to "challenge states to engage in a new round of innovation that seeks to find more effective mechanisms for helping families succeed in employment."

The welfare-to-work program affected by the directive – the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) – was created by the welfare reform law signed by Clinton in 1996. That measure was considered a win for conservatives, who long pushed for a provision that required work training for Americans receiving government assistance.

The Obama administration argues the potential changes would help people move quickly from welfare rolls to paying jobs by reducing burdensome requirements, including excessive paperwork.

Romney said Tuesday that argument was bogus.

"You always have the capacity to add work," Romney said. "There's never been a requirement that you can't have more work. The requirement that they're waiving was saying that people don't have to work to get welfare. That's the change that they proposed. I disagree with that direction."

"Taking work requirements out of government assistance is a very bad course to take and creates a culture of dependency," the Republican nominee concluded. "We help people who need help, we want to help people who need help, but the idea of removing work requirements I think is a mistake."

In Tuesday's interview, Romney also hammered Obama again for suggesting that recent events in the Middle East, including the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, were merely "bumps in the road."

"I'm not sure what developments in the Middle East he would consider bumps in the road," Romney said. "I consider the developments in the Middle East a very troubling course."

The GOP candidate also said Obama's wasn't treating Iran "like the pariah that they are," saying more could be done to prevent the nation from developing nuclear weapons.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/25/romney-my-ads-have-been-spot-on/?hpt=hp_t2

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6 weeks or so left. He can't admit he's a liar now. He just has to plug on and hope Obama says/does something that helps him close the gap.

Of course, lots have already voted. We mailed in our ballots this morning.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

From a newspaper in Florida over the weekend:

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/herald-tribune-runs-seriously-ugly-and-false-anti-obama-ad