And the Pulitzer Prize in fiction goes to . . .

In a surprise turnabout, the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction was Mitt Romney. Or at least he should have been. I haven’t seen his patrician nose growing longer, but Mitt has been lying, boldly and frequently, during the GOP primary campaign.

If he were funny, I could imagine him as Jon Lovitz, floating the lie, then starting to believe it himself. “Yeah, I may have strapped my dog to the roof of my car, but Obama ate a poached poodle when he was a kid in Indonesia. Yeah, yeah.”

We all expect a certain amount of spinning and exaggeration during a campaign because we’ve come to distrust politicians, but Mitt has been going for the gold.

We’ve heard commentary ad nauseam about his Etch A Sketch platform, which changes with the audience and the needs of the moment. But the fact that we’re sick of hearing about his lying doesn’t mean we should let go of the issue. We don’t want a chameleon president; we need someone who will tell us the truth, even if it’s tough to take.

I’ve heard pundits on the left and right say that Barack Obama is really a terrific guy. Those on the left also think he should get a second term; on the right they think he’s a good person, but they’re not ready to vote him in again. I say it really matters what kind of human being lives inside the political shell that office-seekers grow. It matters that President Obama is a decent man, an admirable family man and, when pressed for a difficult answer, given to careful, deliberate speech rather than a facile lie.

Last week, Romney spoke in an empty factory in Ohio. He talked about how bad Obama has been for the economy. The lie inherent in his appearance and performance was that the factory had been shut down while President Bush was in office. Those put out of work were let go during a GOP administration.