As well-funded super PACs — including the Club for Growth Action, FreedomWorks for America, and the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund — poured millions of dollars into independent expenditures encouraging Indiana voters to support for State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) and against incumbent Sen. Dick Lugar (R) in tomorrow’s Republican primary, one pro-Lugar super PAC cried foul. But their ads decrying out-of-state influence are the height of hypocrisy as they were largely funded also by out-of-state donors.

Hoosiers for Jobs (formerly Hoosiers for Economic Growth & Jobs) has spent at least $175,000 on mailings and television ads in support of Lugar. Two spots by the group attack efforts by outside groups to “buy the election.” One ad, ironically called “Hypocrites,” attacks the Wall Street Club for Growth’s support of Mourdock as a “D.C. special interest bailout of his campaign.” The other, “Not for Sale,” says the Club is “trying to buy our Senate seat by spending millions of dollars of secret Wall Street money” attacking Lugar.

Watch “Hypocrites”:

Watch “Not for Sale”:

But, as the Center for Public Integrity notes, more than two-thirds of the donations reported to date by Hoosiers for Jobs come from outside of Indiana. The group’s filings reveal that through April 18, it received $170,000. Just $55,000 of that came from Hoosiers, whom the group claims to represent.

Who did fund the misnamed “Hoosiers for Jobs?” Former lobbyist Roy Pfautch of St. Louis, Missouri donated $50,000, Swift Boat funder Sam Fox of St. Louis gave $25,000, and the Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. kicked in $25,000.

Why is the convenience store franchise helping Lugar? He “understands our issues,” a spokesperson told the CPI. Lugar also supported the Slurpee-seller in a congressional battle against banks, and his daughter-in-law is a lobbyist for a trade association tied to the omnipresent retailer.

As Super PACs spend more and more on statewide and congressional races, voters should take their messages with a shaker of salt. After all, the TV ads calling out out-of-state funding and hypocrisy may well be paid for by out-of-state hypocrites.

At a town hall event in Ohio this afternoon, a woman asked Mitt Romney what he would do to roll back the size of government, and commented that President Obama “should be tried for treason.” She didn’t explain why Obama had committed treason — which is punishable by death. Her comments received a big round of applause from the audience.

Romney responded to her question, but didn’t condemn or acknowledge her comments on treason. Watch it:

While Romney can’t be held responsible for everything his supporters say, it seems reasonable to expect him to stand up to the fringe in his party, especially when he’s providing a platform for their views (it was his microphone, after all).

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) understood this. At a town hall event in October, 2008, McCain fielded a comment from a woman who said Obama “is an Arab.” “No ma’am,” McCain said, shaking his head and taking the microphone from her hand. “He’s a decent, family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with,” he said, earning a mix of applause and boos.

This isn’t the first time Romney has let the fringe push him around. The Romney campaign muzzled, and then accepted the resignation of, former foreign policy adviser Ric Grennell, who had come under fire from social conservatives for being openly gay. “How is he going to stand up to Putin? How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me?” asked the man who led the charge against Grennell, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer.

JANESVILLE, Wisconsin — Last month, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) disavowed his one-time political muse, Ayn Rand, because of her “atheist philosophy.” Some of his constituents, however, aren’t buying it.

Ryan praised Rand’s ideas at length during a 2005 gathering in her honor and declared that “the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.” But in an April interview with National Review, Ryan took a far different tone, telling Bob Costa, “I reject her philosophy.”

At a town hall meeting on Friday, Ryan was pressed by a constituent to explain this about-face. “Mr. Ryan, are you telling us that your political career was founded on the concepts of a rally of hers, but until recently, you never realized Ayn Rand was an outspoken atheist, that she felt altruism was evil, supported abortion, and condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor?” the constituent asked.

Ryan professed no inconsistency in his views, arguing instead that “just because you like someone’s novels doesn’t mean you agree with their entire worldview philosophy.” He called the notion that he supports Rand’s views “a canard,” though still insisted that Atlas Shrugged is “a great book” that he recommends to those in his office.

CONSTITUENT: My question concerns your current and previous feelings toward the author and philosopher Ayn Rand. [...] Mr. Ryan, are you telling us that your political career was founded on the concepts of a rally of hers, but until recently, you never realized Ayn Rand was an outspoken atheist, that she felt altruism was evil, supported abortion, and condemned Christianity for advocating compassion for the poor?

RYAN: [...] Just because you like someone’s novels doesn’t mean you agree with their entire worldview philosophy. She has a worldview philosophy which is completely antithetical to mine because she has an atheist philosophy. [...] It’s really kind of a canard, is what I would say.

CONSTITUENT: You spoke as a keynote speaker for Ayn Rand banquets. You were quoted at length about how you loved her. You say you grew up and Ayn Rand taught you who you are and what your values are. I think we’ve learned the question of your honesty.

RYAN: It’s a great book! It’s a great book! Let’s go on to somebody over here, I think we’ve covered it pretty well. By the way, I don’t require it. I have a reading list. Lots of young people ask me what are good books. I give them Alexis de Tocqueville, I take the Founders, Friedman, Hayek, Atlas Shrugged. There are lots of good books worth reading if you want to study freedom, free enterprise, the Founders, economics. There are a lot of good books out there to read, it doesn’t mean that you subscribe to the person’s worldview and philosophy. That’s really kind of a stretch.

Watch it:

To learn more about Ayn Rand and her backwards views on altruism, poor people, feminists, Arabs, and others, check out this short ThinkProgress video.

North Carolina is apparently ground zero of the latest resurgence of the birther movement, as a number of Republican candidates in the state are expressing doubts about President Obama’s birthplace.

ThinkProgress has previously noted that Richard Hudson, running for a congressional seat in the state’s 8th district, said Obama is “hiding something on his citizenship,” while the Charlotte Observer rescinded its endorsement of Jim Pendergraph, running in the 9th district, after he expressed his own doubts about Obama’s birth certificate.

Now, the Observer reports that Dr. John Whitley, one of Hudson’s opponents in tomorrow’s GOP primary, has also gone birther. He declared Obama’s birth certificate a “poorly reproduced forgery” after comparing it to the Hawaiian birth certificate of one of his campaign workers. “There is a tremendous amount of smoke here,” Whitley said. “In fact, it’s called a smoke screen.”

Meanwhile, Ilario Pantano, running the 7th district, also has “real questions” about Obama’s birthplace. “The way I see this is whether he was born on the moon or Nicaragua or Honolulu, the bottom line is he has to be defeated in November,” Pantano said.