Romney: One Word Shy of a Lie

By now, most of us have watched the heated exchange between Mitt Romney and that seated, laptop-wielding fellow named Glen Johnson, whose job it is to follow the good candidate around and write about it for the AP.

Most pundits have either criticized Johnson for injecting his opinion/attacking the candidate at an inappropriate moment or, conversely, commended him for holding Romney's feet to the fire. I don't buy either analysis. Check out the nut of the exchange:

Romney: I don't have lobbyists running my campaign. I don't have lobbyists that are tied to my-
Johnson: That is not true Governor, that is not true.

Mitt Romney doesn't have a lobbyist running his campaign. His campaign manager, Beth Myers, may be many things, but she isn't a lobbyist.
But Romney obviously has at least one prominent lobbyist, Ron Kaufman, in the capacity of an "unpaid adviser," giving him lots of advice.

Johnson, by interrupting Romney a moment too early, didn't give the good candidate time to finish telling his lie.