In the past there have been all sorts of presidential fibbing. Some chief executives make promises that they know they probably cannot or will not keep. Before his reelection for his third term in the midst of a world war, Franklin Roosevelt swore that he would never send American boys to fight in a foreign war. In just a little over a year, he did just that. Lyndon Johnson likewise before the 1964 election said he would not send troops to Vietnam. But once reelected, he sent nearly 200,000 troops to fight the North Vietnamese; by the time he left office, over a half-million Americans were deployed in Vietnam.
In 1988 presidential candidate George H. W. Bush pledged that he would not raise taxes and did so emphatically: “Read my lips — no new taxes!” But in 1990 he flipped and agreed to tax hikes.
Barack Obama has offered all sorts of similar empty pledges, like promising to close the federal detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year of taking office. It is still open. Obama also promised to halve the deficit by the end of his first term. Instead he doubled it. Ditto Obama’s promises on the good things to follow Cash for Clunkers, on the shovel-ready jobs that would follow the stimulus, and on the summer of recovery to be spawned by massive borrowing. At your own job, if you promise the boss that you will do something and then don’t, you’re likely to get fired; when presidents do the same, it’s called politics. Read more →
Bring up Iraq — and expect to end up in an argument. Conservatives are no different from liberals in rehashing the unpopular war, which has become a sort of whipping boy for all our subsequent problems. Read more →
There was only one presidential debate in 1980 between challenger Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Just two days before the Oct. 28 debate, Carter was eight points ahead in the Gallup poll. A week after the debate, he lost to Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. Read more →
A Teen-age President in Search of an Adult Identity
Barack Obama keeps looking for a presidential identity not his own [1]. In 2008, he wished to be JFK—whom he often referenced as a youthful and charismatic figure supposedly similar to himself. Read more →
There are plenty of good arguments for imposing a no-fly zone in Libya. Without Libyan-government air strikes, the rebels might have a better chance of carving out permanent zones of resistance. Read more →
Victor discusses the neutron bomb effect of COVID, Biden and 2022, lefty Stanford profs and their Hoover Hate, Trump wows CPAC, Cancel Culture bites Dr. Seuss on Mulberry Street while Democratic congressman try to de-cable the Right.
Amazon disappears Ryan Anderson’s important 2018 book, When Harry Met Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, amigo Rush Limbaugh remembered, Joe Biden’s into-war stumbling, and the race card played quickly against Senate foes of a nasty lefty nominee. Today’s episode is sponsored by the new documentary, The Dissident, and by the Bradley Foundation’s “We the People” speaker series.
Victor takes on the Lincoln Project’s muddied moralists, Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial lethality, Big Tech’s Trump-hate, the reemerged Parler and its fight to survive, the lies about Officer Brian Sicknick’s death, and their role in the Trump impeachment follies.
Victor Davis Hanson explores how military history can illuminate current foreign policy challenges, delineates which nations pose the greatest threats to the United States, explores the role that human rights should play in international affairs, looks at the changing shape of America’s alliances, and provides a reading list for future commanders-in-chief.
Victor Davis Hanson explains the work of President Trump’s 1776 Commission (a body on which he served), describes the decline of history as an academic discipline, and explains why humility is an essential ingredient when judging figures from the past.
Victor Davis Hanson diagnoses the biggest challenges facing America in the years ahead, from debt to immigration to Chinese aggression — and pauses for a special remembrance of his friend Rush Limbaugh.
Area 45: Victor Davis Hanson: Holding The Trump Card
Iran’s next move, a Senate impeachment trial, and the beginning of the Democratic primaries. Despite January and February’s uncertainties, Victor Davis Hanson, the Hoover Institution’s Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, believes in this certainty: President Trump is on a path to reelection this fall.
Victor Davis Hanson discusses the damaging disclosure about Obama keeping tabs on the FBI Hillary Clinton email investigation, State Department unmasking, why Hillary’s and Obama’s hubris may be their own downfall and how this can very well be a Watergate or Iran-Contra type scandal.
How Presidents Lie
It’s nothing new for a president to lie to us, but Obama’s style is unique.
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online
In the past there have been all sorts of presidential fibbing. Some chief executives make promises that they know they probably cannot or will not keep. Before his reelection for his third term in the midst
of a world war, Franklin Roosevelt swore that he would never send American boys to fight in a foreign war. In just a little over a year, he did just that. Lyndon Johnson likewise before the 1964 election said he would not send troops to Vietnam. But once reelected, he sent nearly 200,000 troops to fight the North Vietnamese; by the time he left office, over a half-million Americans were deployed in Vietnam.
In 1988 presidential candidate George H. W. Bush pledged that he would not raise taxes and did so emphatically: “Read my lips — no new taxes!” But in 1990 he flipped and agreed to tax hikes.
Barack Obama has offered all sorts of similar empty pledges, like promising to close the federal detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year of taking office. It is still open. Obama also promised to halve the deficit by the end of his first term. Instead he doubled it. Ditto Obama’s promises on the good things to follow Cash for Clunkers, on the shovel-ready jobs that would follow the stimulus, and on the summer of recovery to be spawned by massive borrowing. At your own job, if you promise the boss that you will do something and then don’t, you’re likely to get fired; when presidents do the same, it’s called politics. Read more →
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