The candidates, their issues, their campaigns and the media coverage thereof is a carefully-managed show. Unless you actually show up at a campaign stop, you do not see anything that a candidate's handlers don't want you to see---and they make sure that the wishes of their biggest donaters are honored. In a rare moment of honesty, the video below shows this process at work; it stars Mitt Romney fending off accusations that his campaign is <iq>run by lobbyists</iq> from a reporter who had deluded himself into thinking that journalism---and truth---matters. <media src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hhRyo6rn1hs&rel=1" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhRyo6rn1hs" source="YouTube" caption="Keith Olbermann's Segment on Romney & The AP Reporter" class="frame" align="center"> In the clip above, Romney does not, at any point, lie. His campaign is <i>not</i> run by lobbyists. He is, however, being very disengenuous, as he has at least one very high-powered lobbyist (Ron Kaufman) in a very strategic role. But the guy is not the titular head of Romney's campaign<fn>, so he's not lying. Good for him---that's the kind of semantic hair-splitting we've come to know and love from seven years with the Bush administration (and a year of campaigning before that). Romney's talk was ended by his communications director<fn>, after which Romney sought out Glen Johnson, the reporter who'd asked the wrong question. Romney exhorted Johnson to <iq>listen to [his] words. Alright? [sic] Listen to my words</iq> with the implication being that these were far more salient to the discussion that his actions. It's a neat moment in history to actually see how deeply a candidate believes that his words create reality. Is Kaufman a high-powered lobbyist? Yes. Does he fly everywhere with the Romney campaign? Yes. Has he been in an advisory capacity for the Romney campaign since the beginning? Yes. Is he the titular head of the campaign? No. Therefore, Romney is not <iq>run by lobbyists</iq> and considers himself lobbyist-free. Being deeply beholden to lobbyists and their paymasters doesn't enter into it. When Romney's efforts to get Johnson to drink his kool-aid failed, the communications director told the reporter that he <iq>should act a little more professionally instead of being argumentative with the candidate.</iq> You see? He gets it. Candidates are to be listened to and revered, not disputed. Regardless of history, facts or truth, what a candidate says <i>becomes</i> truth. That which was---seconds ago---truth, but now contradicts the <i>new</i> truth put forth by the candidate, has become <i>opinion</i>. Thankfully, the average American was there to see through this charade and spoke up to tell the reporter that he was <iq>rude and ugly</iq>. <hr> <ft>That singular honor falls to Beth Meyers.</ft> <ft>Played by Eric Fehrnstrom ... and apparently a communications director decides when and what the candidate is allowed to communicate.</ft>