Mitt Caught In 36 More Lies This Week

It was a busy week for Mitt Romney, possibly alarmed at President Obama bouncing out of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte with a widening lead in tracking polls. The Republican nominee again played fast and loose with the facts in attempting to close that gap.

Steve Benen, in the 34th installment of his "Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity" series at Rachel Maddow's blog, documented at least 36 more departures from the truth on Romney's campaign path. By our count, that raises the total of lies Mitt has told to 654 since Benen started keeping count in January.

Benen also noted that, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos Friday morning, Romney looked ahead to the upcoming debates and said he'll have a challenge to deal with: "[T]he president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren't true."

Benen commented, "There's no sense of shame and no sense of irony."

Benen also noted that a Washington Post/ABC News poll out Friday shows a plurality of Americans believes the Obama campaign is saying things "it believes to be true" rather than "intentionally misleading people." On the other hand, a plurality of Americans believes the opposite about the Romney campaign.

See Benen's previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII.