Yes, lying is a campaign strategy (as if we didn't know)

Two different viewpoints on the same theme - the Romney-Ryan campaign plan to lie themselves into the top two offices in the land.

Washington Post's "The Plum Line" by Greg Sargent
Romney and Ryan don't really want a great debate

Basically you have to trust them, because they won't get specific about anything.  They are auditioning for the role of Rubber Stamp-in-Chief and First Replacement Stamp.

"So this will be the entire point of the Romney-Ryan campaign. Lie lie lie. Muddy the waters. Turn day to night, fire to water, champagne to piss. Peddle themselves as the precise opposite of what they actually are. That is clearly the m.o."

Secondly (Steve Benen writing on The Maddow Blog):
Maybe you can just make stuff up

This stuff is juicy.  And rings true, too.

"But Romney believes he can ignore this maxim and win anyway. He's working under the assumption that the political rules have changed, we've entered a new era of post-truth rhetorical norms, and there are no longer punishments for deliberately saying the opposite of the reality.

Indeed, we've created a system of incentives -- Romney will benefit by crafting a racially-charged lie, which has no bearing in fact, but which rallies his base, for whom the distinction between fact and fiction isn't terribly important. At the same time, the lie will begin to permeate the mainstream's understanding of current events, thanks to reporting that tells voters, "Romney claims Obama gutted welfare law; Obama disagrees."

Greg Sargent added, "It's true that there's serious truth-stretching on both sides.... But it remains the case that we are seeing nothing from the Obama side that's anything like what Romney is attempting. Romney right now is premising one of the central arguments of his whole campaign on a complete lie."

And with each passing day, Romney appears increasingly certain he can get away with it."

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There's another aspect to this, similar to what's happening with the generally Republican denial of climate change.  Most Republican voters don't care what Romney's positions are or if he's lying or not.  They basically have the expectation that if they can get him into office, he will be exactly what they're trying to make him into -- a positionless wind vane, who will vote as the winds blow -- and the Republican voters are expecting that the winds will blow where the GOP House is blowing them.  They've become accustomed to the House holding the country hostage to ideology, and gutting the country's financial house in service to the agendas of the wealthy, like the Kochs and the Adelsons (who are so used to funding liars that Romney is their perfect candidate).

Romney knows that he's got a lot of states locked up and doesn't need to worry about what he says to those voters (or what they hear).  He only has to convince a few gullible and susceptible voters in swing states that he's trustworthy, and he can get elected.

And that's just plain SCARY.