by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s the Lying, Stupid?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLie\u201d is a rather harsh word; the noun and its verb form leave little to context or extenuating circumstances. So I use it sparingly.<\/p>\n But I know no other word for President Obama\u2019s long string of \u201cmisstatements,\u201d especially the blatant ones about closing Guantanamo within a year of his inauguration or serially declaring that he would insist on healthcare debate airing live on C-SPAN.<\/p>\n How odd that the liberal block is quiet that once coined \u201cBush lied, thousands died\u201d (even when the CIA and Defense intelligence was accepted by both parties and in sync with what the Arab world and Europe were insisting upon [recall the charge of a supposed na\u00efve Bush taking us to war against a nut who would gas our troops marshalling in Kuwait.]). In any case, not telling the truth has a lot to do with sinking polls.<\/p>\n So I don\u2019t quite buy the liberal lament that the people will support Obama when the economy improves.<\/p>\n It was roaring in 2005-6, and still Bush was unpopular \u2014 given the violence in Iraq and the administration\u2019s inability to articulate our objectives there. And even when Iraq was winding down in 2008, polls still showed persistent American anger at the media narrative of a botched Katrina, the insurgency in Iraq, and a \u201cjobless recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n No, the American people are losing confidence in Team Obama because quite simply they are tiring of being lied to, and treated like children in need of Ivy-League Platonic guardians.<\/p>\n Yes, they intrinsically liked Obama and put away for a time their suspicions that he had not come clean on his real ideological intentions, his radical leftist past, his intimate association with the creepy Rev. Wright, and his partisanship that had made him the most liberal senator in the Congress.<\/p>\n Let Us Count the Ways<\/strong><\/p>\n But almost immediately, Obama, again, in Platonic fashion, began to say things that could not possibly be true. Remember the categories.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0The bait and switch lies<\/em>. Here, we, the eager voters, were told that there are no more bad blue\/red state dichotomies. We are a purple America. Instead, we immediately witnessed the demonization of the supposed \u201crich\u201d (I say supposed, because the Buffet\/Gates\/Turner plutocrat is exempt), who are not \u201cpatriotic,\u201d do not wish to \u201cspread the wealth,\u201d and must \u201cpay their fair share.\u201d Almost immediately Obama\u2019s Bush became America\u2019s Emanuel Goldstein \u2014 an Orwellian figure constructed to unify the people around an evil predecessor incapable of a single positive act \u2014 whether keeping us safe for over seven years from another 9\/11-like attack, freeing 50 million from the Taliban and Saddam, or generating enormous national wealth from 2002-08.<\/p>\n Some deluded voters in November, 2008, went for Obama on promises of a new kinder, gentler politics. They got instead the most partisan, nasty Chicago politicking in memory.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0The \u201cnoble\u201d lies<\/em>. These are untruths aimed at the common good. In Cairo, we were told Muslims did all sorts of wonderful things in the past like invented printing and sparked the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Why not fabricate and exaggerate when the intentions are global ecumenicalism?<\/p>\n Remember the new tactic of assessing job losses by \u201cjobs saved\u201d? And why not, since we wish to bolster our spirits and believe that our borrowing was not wasted on pork-barrel insanities, rather than \u201cinvestments\u201d that created \u201cmillions of green jobs\u201d that otherwise would not have existed?<\/p>\n And we must believe that health care reform as envisioned by the Obama massive state assumption of private insured care will save \u201ctrillions in waste and fraud.\u201d Believe that, and at last the dream of \u201cuniversal healthcare\u201d is obtainable.<\/p>\n Remember the phrase \u201cusing all our resources\u201d during the high energy prices of the 2008 campaign? Obama then was a centrist who would drill, develop nuclear, look for more gas, burn coal \u2014 all to tide us over as we waited for the dream of Van Jones. That too was a noble lie, necessary for we fools to cling to, while the anointed fashioned a \u201cgreen\u201d cap-and-trade future for us, whose efficacy we could not quite yet fathom.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0Tactical Lies.<\/em>\u00a0Then there are the tactical lies to achieve the desired ends in \u201cthat was then\/this is now\u201d fashion. Turn to Orwell\u2019s\u00a0Animal Farm<\/em>\u00a0for the right landscape. Healthcare debate on C-SPAN\/healthcare debate behind congressional doors. Taxes on Cadillac health plans were an inane McCain idea\/taxes on Cadillac health plans are a way to eliminate waste and fraud; stupid, clueless Bush was pushing unpopular Social Security reform that 65% of the people didn\u2019t want\/wise, hip Obama is pushing noble healthcare reform that 65% of the people don\u2019t want. The list is endless and started in 2007 with public campaign financing as good for dark horse candidates\/public campaign financing as bad for front-runner cash cows.<\/p>\n Apparently two or three \u201clet me be perfectly clear\u201ds and 3-4 \u201cmake no mistake about it\u201ds \u2014 when prefaced to something like \u201cno more lobbyists in government\u201d or \u201cposting legislation well in advance on the internet\u201d \u2014 make it all so.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0The Deadline Lies<\/em>. Remember those? You\u2019ve seen that sort of \u201cif you don\u2019t, then you\u2026.\u201d in the supermarket when the poor harried mom has the three-year-old kid screaming and kicking on the aisle floor, and screams back as she blocks shoppers, \u201cIf you yell one more time, I\u2019m going to spank you!\u201d \u2014 as he screams and kicks all the louder.<\/p>\n Guantanamo shut by January 21, 2010? Iran in non-proliferation compliance by the U.N. summit or the G-20 meetings or the October face-to-face negotiations or the first of the new year? Remember healthcare done by the summer break? By Thanksgiving? By Christmas or else? By the first of the year?<\/p>\n I used to have a relative of sorts who came around the ranch and wanted $500. I gave it to him once and he\u2019d return sheepishly every three months, and promise, \u201cThis spring I am going to pay you back.\u201d \u201cThis summer I\u2019ll paint your barn.\u201d \u201cBefore the first rain, I\u2019ll fix that tin roof on the shed.\u201d Finally, I forgot I ever gave him the money, and now only vaguely recall how silly I was. So too, we forget the promises, so frequent and impossible they now seem.<\/p>\n The list could be expanded exponentially and already, reader, you are screaming even as you read this, \u201cBut Victor, you didn\u2019t list the worst of all, the lie about (fill in the blanks)\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The Catalysts for Such Prevarications?<\/strong><\/p>\n 1)\u00a0Habit.<\/em>\u00a0Obama could more or less say anything in mellifluous tones, and the media would become enraptured. This ability to charm by sounding honey-tongued while saying nothing started perhaps in the Ivy-League and has never ceased. Some habitual liars persist since they are never caught or even admonished. Obama is never called to account (cf. Robert Gibbs\u2019s angry reaction to the blasphemy when asked about the C-SPAN fantasies). The most transparent administration in history hasn\u2019t had a news conference since mid-summer, even amid the toadies (Note to media: photo-ops and interviews are not press conferences). The media and Obama have an unspoken pact that goes something like the following: \u201cWe both are educated elites who know best for the Neanderthals. So from time to time I will have to lie to you to get our shared aspirations realized; and I accept from time to time, you will have to play act as critics to cling to some sort of legitimacy that is likewise necessary for our joint aspirations.\u201d (And then we\u2019ll both have a beer together afterwords.)<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0Morality.<\/em>\u00a0All philosopher-kings believe that the ends justify the means. To make us loving, caring equals \u2014 with no rich, no poor \u2014 we must sometimes adopt the Chicago politics that we insist we abhor. A Tony Rezko is bad, but a Tony Rezko is temporarily necessary to get the sort of hope and change we\u2019ve been waiting for.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0Squaring Circles<\/em>. You can reconcile thinking that the U.S. is culpable for its race\/class\/gender felonious past, and globe-trotting the world on a presidential luxury jet with the red, white , and blue plastered all over it \u2014 the logical manifestation of a uniquely meritocratic, capitalist, and free-enterprise economy. One cannot damn insider, influence-peddling, private-jet flying Wall Street bankers, corrupt insurers, and \u201cthe rich,\u201d and then hire the same, frequent the same, and aspire to be the same. Class warfare is hard when your own profile is the logical target. And so one is bound to change the story as hypocrisy begins to cramp.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0Personal Confusion<\/em>. Read both Obama memoirs (is that the right word for these auto-hagiographies?), and it becomes clear that he is still confused who he is. Barry Soetoro? Barry Dunham? Barack Dunham? Barack Obama? Barry Obama? Prep school upper-middle class in Hawaii or impoverished minority in need of affirmative action? African or African-American or plain old American suburbanite? \u00a0Harvard Law Review<\/em>\u00a0and Chicago Law lecturer or unpublished wannabe legal professor? Harry Reid\u2019s unaccented \u201cNegro\u201d dialect or Harry Reid\u2019s ability to turn it on only as needed? Racial healer who wows the suburbanite and NY-DC insider clique, or angry racialist who throws out \u201cstupidly,\u201d the clingers speech, \u201ctypical white person\u201d and brags about not missing a Rev. Wright sermon to the\u00a0Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>? When one is confused about who one is, one creates alternate narratives and personas \u2014 and, yes, often they will clash.<\/p>\n The economy might just be in what we heard once (wrongly, in fact, in 2004) categorized as a \u201cjobless recovery.\u201d And, yes, the people have roared that they don\u2019t want the remedies of statist healthcare, mega-deficits, higher taxes, more government, green boondoggles, apologetics abroad, blanket amnesty, and more lunatic appointments like Van Jones and Anita Dunn.<\/p>\n But what is taking Obama down below 50% approval is mostly a public awareness that they elected a deeply cynical man, who either cannot or will not speak the truth or keep his promises (note the Nixonian resonance in \u201cperfectly clear about\u2026\u201d). In fact, it is worse than that \u2014 in the postmodern world of Barack Obama there is no truth per se, just competing narratives privileged by the relative degree of power behind them and the relative perceived moral intent involved.<\/p>\n So when the advocates of hope and change, of non-traditional America, of the poor and the needy and the more noble, say something, it must be true because, you see, it should be true.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media It\u2019s the Lying, Stupid? \u201cLie\u201d is a rather harsh word; the noun and its verb form leave little to context or extenuating circumstances. So I use it sparingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[610],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-uv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/rethinking-george-bush\/","url_meta":{"origin":1891,"position":0},"title":"Rethinking George Bush?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Former President George W. Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon. In reaction, for nearly two years President Barack Obama won easy applause by prefacing almost every speech on his economic policies with a \"Bush did it\" put-down. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-george-w-bush-fixation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1891,"position":1},"title":"The George W. Bush Fixation","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Barack Obama remains fixated by George W. Bush. 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Reagan hoped that such an evil empire might collapse from its inability to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2109,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dean-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1891,"position":3},"title":"Dean Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner That was such a strange speech. Deploring partisanship while serially trashing Bush at each new talking point. Sending more troops, but talking more about when they will come home rather than what they will do to the enemy. There was nothing much new in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bush-come-back-bush-come-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":1891,"position":4},"title":"‘Bush… Come Back, Bush, Come Back’","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Why We Suddenly Miss Bush Various polls report that George W. Bush in some states is now better liked than President Obama. Even some liberal pundits call for Bush, the now long-missed moderate, to draw on his recognized tolerance and weigh in on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1903,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bush-did-it-and-really-bush-did-it-and-bush-really-did-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1891,"position":5},"title":"Bush Did It! And, Really, Bush Did It! And Bush Really Did It!","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media That Damn Guantanamo! Obama gave a rather incredible press conference about his review of security lapses. 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