I thought this was quite good… just for the fact that we ALL KNOW IT and that it’s SO OBVIOUS.

The Stink of Desperation: Why Republicans Lie
esquire.com

In the world I grew up in, this episode of “truthiness” would have ended Hannity’s career. It’s certainly far worse than the charges that sank Dan Rather just five years ago. And there are many, many more such examples, from “death panels” to the way so many Republican politicians have encouraged the absurd “birther” controversy.

I don’t think there’s any equivalent to this on the left. Liberals can be annoyingly self-righteous and swept away by hyperbole — calling George W. Bush a moron, for example — but I don’t see much deliberate lying. Certainly nothing on the scale of Fox or Limbaugh.

I have two theories about this. One is that the conservative intelligentsia is deliberately training the Republican base to be irrational. I can almost see them chortling: “If we can get them to believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, we can get them to believe anything!”
But while this theory provides a little consolation, I don’t actually think it’s true. Far more likely is theory No. 2 — that Republicans have lost all confidence in their ability to convince the American people with honest arguments. Their triumphalism about November conceals a stink of desperation.