President Barack Obama walks on stage at a campaign concert at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 7. Obama is on a three-day trip to California and Ohio.
Air Force One leaves a shadow as it passes over the Forum on approach to Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday.
Obama leaves the White House on Sunday to board Air Force One.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, greet workers at the Tin Fish restaurant following a rally Sunday in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
Romney casts a shadow on a banner as he speaks during a campaign event in Apopka, Florida, on Saturday, October 6.
A supporter holds a photograph of Romney in Apopka on Saturday.
Jon Bon Jovi performs at an Obama for America event at the House of Blues in Las Vegas on Saturday. It was the last day people in Nevada could register to vote in the upcoming presidential election.
Romney speaks during a campaign event in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday, October 5.
Romney supporters listen during Friday's campaign event in St. Petersburg.
Obama smiles as he speaks during a campaign rally in Fairfax, Virginia on Friday.
Obama is assisted with putting on a raincoat onstage during a campaign rally at Cleveland State University on Friday.
Romney speaks in Fishersville, Virginia, as Secret Service members keep guard on Thursday, October 4. A day after the first presidential debate in Denver, Romney headed to Virginia to continue campaigning.
Romney supporters bow their heads in prayer during Thursday's event at the Augusta Expoland in Fishersville, Viriginia.
Obama addresses the crowd at the University of Wisconsin in Madison on Thursday.
Romney greets police officers before boarding his campaign plane in Denver on Thursday.
Obama speaks at a campaign rally in Denver on Thursday. He accused his Republican challenger of dishonesty over tax policy and other issues brought up in Wednesday night's presidential debate.
Audience members cheer as Obama makes his way onto the stage at Sloan's Lake Park in Denver on Thursday.
Reporters watch the final minutes of the debate between Romney and Obama in Denver on Wednesday, October 3. The first of four debates for the 2012 election -- three presidential and one vice-presidential -- was moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS.
A member of the U.S. Secret Service keeps watch from the top of a building as Obama takes part in a debate walk-through at the University of Denver on Wednesday.
A seat is assigned to first lady Michelle Obama prior to Wednesday's debate.
Obama stands at the podium as he speaks during the debate on Wednesday.
Michelle and Barack Obama, left, join Mitt Romney and his family at the conclusion of the first presidential debate.
University of Denver student Sam Garry sits at the moderator's desk before a presidential debate dress rehearsal at the University of Denver on Tuesday, October 2.
Volunteers sit in for on-air television reporters on Tuesday in preparation for the first presidential debate in the Ritchie Center at the University of Denver.
Romney greets a father and his daughter after having lunch Tuesday at a restaurant in Denver.
Obama stares at the Hoover Dam in Nevada during a visit Tuesday.
Romney boards his campaign plane in Bedford, Massachusetts, on Monday, October 1. The Republican candidate was heading to Denver for the first presidential debate on Wednesday.
Obama hugs Chasstiry Vazquez after she indroduced him at a campaign event at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas on Sunday, September 30.
Obama supporters cheer during Sunday's event in Las Vegas.
Romney leaves his campaign headquarters in Boston on Sunday.
A boy reaches out to shake hands with Obama on Sunday in Las Vegas. The president was in Nevada ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate in Denver.
Romney arrives at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Belmont to attend Sunday services.
Obama talks on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the Oval Office on Friday, September 28.
Romney speaks during a rally at Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Pennsylvania on Friday.
Romney talks to journalists aboard his campaign plane about his phone call with Netanyahu on Friday.
Cadets listen to Romney speak at a campaign rally Friday at the Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Romney addresses Friday's rally at the Valley Forge Military Academy and College.
Vice President Joe Biden hugs U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, as he arrives for a campaign event Friday in Boca Raton, Florida.
Romney speaks at a Veterans for Romney campaign event in Springfield, Virginia, on Thursday, September 27.
Obama supporters cheer at a campaign rally Thursday in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Veterans at the American Legion Post 176 pray before Romney speaks Thursday in Springfield.
People listen to Obama speak at the Farm Bureau Live arena in Virginia Beach on Thursday.
Obama delivers remarks Thursday in Virginia Beach.
Supporters cheer as Romney speaks at SeaGate Convention Centre in Toledo, Ohio, on Wednesday, September 26.
Romney speaks during a roundtable discussion on manufacturing at American Spring Wire in Bedford Heights, Ohio, on Wednesday.
Supporters wait to see Obama on Wednesday at Toledo Express Airport in Bowling Green, Ohio. Air For One aborted an initial landing attempt in Ohio due to weather conditions.
Obama addresses supporters at Bowling Green State University on Wednesday.
Romney delivers remarks during a campaign rally Wednesday at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio.
Former President Bill Clinton introduces Obama during the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York on Tuesday, September 25.
Supporters cheer during a Republican campaign rally Tuesday with Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, at Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio.
Ryan speaks Tuesday in Vandalia as Sen. Rand Paul, from left, Sen. Rob Portman and Romney listen.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush hugs a waitress as they wait for Ryan's arrival during a campaign stop at a restaurant in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood on Saturday, September 22.
Supporters cheer as they listen to Romney speak during a Juntos Con Romney Rally at the Darwin Fuchs Pavilion on Wednesday, September 19, in Miami.
Romney shakes hands with supporters during the Juntos Con Romney Rally in Miami on Wednesday.
Obama and David Letterman speak during a break in the taping of the "Late Show with David Letterman" on Tuesday, September 18, at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.
A crew member opens the door to Air Force One after the jet arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Tuesday.
From left to right: Romney, his wife Ann, and son Tagg watch one of Tagg's sons play soccer in Belmont, Massachusetts, on Saturday, September 15.
Ryan arrives onstage to address the Family Research Council Action Values Voter Summit on Friday, September 14.
Supporters wait for Romney to speak at a campaign rally at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, on Friday, September 14.
Obama arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Thursday, September 13. Obama returned to Washington after a two-day campaign trip with events in Nevada and Colorado.
Supporters cheer as Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Fairfax, Virginia, on Thursday.
An Obama supporter attends a rally in Las Vegas on Wednesday, September 12. Obama focused on economic policies during his two days of campaigning in Nevada and Colorado.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks in support of Obama during a campaign stop in Miami on Tuesday, September 11.
Obama is lifted up by Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, during a visit to the restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Sunday, September 9. Obama was on a two-day bus tour across the state.
President Obama greets supporters during a campaign stop at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
Mitt Romney walks through the garage area during a rain delay before the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, September 8, in Richmond, Virginia.
Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, waves to the crowd before speaking at a rally in Leesburg, Virginia, on Friday, September 7.
Supporters try to stay dry in between rain showers while waiting for President Obama to speak at the University of Iowa on Friday. It was Obama's first day of campaigning after accepting the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A girl listens to President Obama speak at the University of Iowa on Friday.
Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama, President Obama and Biden's wife, Jill, wave after Friday's campaign event at the University of Iowa.
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- LZ Granderson: Romney's foreign policy speech full of lies, distortions, flip-flops
- He says it claims no trade pacts under Obama, but there have been three, one Ryan voted for
- He says Romney seems to think people forgot his comments that two-state solution was hopeless
- LZ: On Iran, Syria, Libya, Romney gives alternate reality; supporters want to believe it
Editor's note: LZ Granderson, who writes a weekly column for CNN.com, was named journalist of the year by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and is a 2011 Online Journalism Award finalist for commentary. He is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter: @locs_n_laughs.
(CNN) -- I was waiting for my bags at the airport when I saw Mitt Romney delivering his foreign policy speech on TV.
Coincidentally, I was holding the latest issue of Time, which has Romney and President Obama on the cover, and between them the question,
"Who Is Telling the Truth?"
I was in Chicago, but by the end of Romney's speech I thought I was in the twilight zone. Here's why.
The Time article debunks a lot of the lies and distortions put forth by both candidates. As I was reading about Romney's untruths, I was watching him repeat them, on TV.
One example that stood out was about trade. On Monday Romney said, "The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years."
False, said the Time article: "Obama signed previously negotiated trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea."
Not one to just go along with whatever the "liberal media" put in front of me, I looked for a fair and balanced source. That's when I came across this 2011 headline from Fox News:
"Obama Signs 3 Trade Deals, Biggest Since NAFTA."
Hmmmmm.
The story went on to say that the South Korean deal was renegotiated by Obama to expand access for U.S. vehicles in Korea, supporting 70,000 jobs; that Republicans supported the signings; and that Obama actually went against a large number of Democrats in the House to get the deal done.
A little more digging revealed that Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, voted in favor of the deal -- called HR 3080 -- on October 12, 2011.
So either Romney has no idea what he's talking about, or he stood in front of the good folks at Virginia Military Institute and told a big old fat lie. Sadly, neither possibility is all that unusual in this year's election. As the Time piece pointed out, Obama also straddles that fence from time to time on the campaign trail.
So the trippy, twilight zone part of Romney's speech wasn't his misrepresentation of the president's foreign policy, but that Romney was talking as if no one had seen him express, for example, the uncensored version of his own foreign policy, thanks to the secretly taped video from the
now infamous Boca Raton fund-raiser.
Analyzing Romney's foreign policy speech
Romney rep on foreign policy differences
Pres. Obama rep.: Red line for Iran
On Monday, as he criticized Obama, he said "hope is not a strategy."
But at that dinner, when he thought no one outside of that room was watching, Romney said that "the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish" between Israel and the Palestinians, and that the best we can hope for is to "kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve."
Now if that's not hope as a strategy, I don't know what is.
Last week during the debate, Romney was criticized for pivoting away from some of the economic policies he'd been pushing for nearly two years.
Monday, he just seemed to be pivoting away from reality, trying to deliver a big robust foreign policy speech -- as if none of us had heard his foreign policy adviser Robert O'Brien describe Obama's focus on foreign policy as a "distraction" barely a month ago.
While there may not have been anything in Romney's speech that sounded as loony as when Herman Cain said he was afraid China was "trying to develop nuclear capability," there were certainly enough moments to make you wonder if Romney was just trying to toss as much garbage as he could against VMI's wall to see if anything would stick.
He criticized the president for being too passive in supporting forces trying to overthrow a dictator, forgetting that a year ago he
condemned the president for being too aggressive in helping forces overthrow a dictator.
"Qaddafi must go and go for good," is what the president said in a 2011 joint New York Times
op-ed article with David Cameron, prime minister of Britain, and Nicolas Sarkozy, then president of France.
In response, Romney said our involvement was "another example of mission creep" and agreed with former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, who said Obama had set himself up for "massive strategic failure" by demanding Gadhafi's ouster.
Romney talked a lot about Libya on Monday but failed to mention Gadhafi. Curious.
And while Libya is hardly a bastion of democracy, Romney is
embarrassingly wrong in saying "the president has failed to offer the tangible support that our partners want and need."
He said the U.S. should be aiding the rebels in Syria.
We have been for months.
He said the U.S. needs to support Israel. This administration has allocated more aid to Israel than any other.
He said the U.S. needs to be tough on Iran. Iranians were
rioting in the streets last week because their currency has lost more than half of its value against the dollar over the past two months because of the Obama-led sanctions.
I'm all for constructive criticism, but it would help if Romney actually had something to say. And by "something to say" I mean something truthful to say. But then again, as Republican master manipulator Frank Luntz said in the Time article: "We don't collect news to inform us. We collect news to affirm us."
That's why instead of asking "Who is telling the truth?" maybe the better question is "Does the truth even matter?" In July, Pew found 30% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim -- still.
Face it, Romney gave the vacuous foreign policy speech that he did because at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to his supporters what he says, just as long as he's the one saying it. In their eyes, the president can do no right, while in the eyes of Obama supporters, the president can do no wrong. In that kind of cuckoo political reality, "truth" is just another obstacle to overcome.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.
