An inci­dent that hap­pened on Fri­day dis­plays the nature of America’s cur­rent polit­i­cal climate.

In a major eco­nomic pol­icy state­ment as part of a press con­fer­ence (watch the state­ment here; go ahead, I’ll wait), Pres­i­dent Obama chided Con­gres­sional Repub­li­cans for declin­ing to move for­ward on job cre­ation. Repub­li­cans in the House and Sen­ate, and Mitt Rom­ney on the cam­paign trail, responded by mis­rep­re­sent­ing the President’s words (that is, by lying about what he said), and so refused to address the under­ly­ing issues. (more…)