Romney's Ridiculous Hyperbole

Summary
Romney says in a TV ad that the U.S. will see more change in the next 10 years "than in the last 10 centuries." More than since the Dark Ages? More changes than the advent of the printing press, railroads, constitutional democracy, penicillin, electricity, telecommunications and the Internet all put together? We don't think so.

A Romney spokesman said he didn't mean what he said as fact, calling the statement "a metaphor." We call it a ludicrous exaggeration.

Analysis
Romney announced the 30-second spot Jan. 1 and said it would run in New Hampshire.

1,000 years of progress?
The ad features Romney talking straight to the camera, exuding confidence and optimism and saying "I'm ready" to "unleash the promise and innovation of the American people." We have no quarrel with that; any candidate is entitled to lay out goals.

But Romney goes over the top when he predicts that "in the next 10 years, we'll see more progress, more change than the world has seen in the last 10 centuries."

Lacking a crystal ball or time machine, we can't predict the future. But based on available evidence we judge Romney's claim to be so far beyond the usual bounds of campaign exaggeration as to be worthy of ridicule.