How Romney Fibs—and Gets Away With It

"Romney sharpens criticism of Obama." "Romney blasts Obama's 'hide and seek' presidency."

These were some of the headlines accompanying media reports of Mitt Romney's speech to the Newspaper Association of America on Wednesday. The GOP front-runner's address was a harsh assault on President Barack Obama and marked another effort on Romney's part to present himself as the inevitable Republican nominee and to strike at the incumbent president rather than his remaining and hobbling-along GOP primary rivals. But as important—if not more so—as his biting and sarcastic tone was the fact that Romney repeatedly tossed off false accusations against Obama. And he did so—and got away with this—in front of a large audience of journalists.