{"id":6241,"date":"2013-07-23T11:40:03","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T18:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6241"},"modified":"2013-07-23T11:40:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T18:40:26","slug":"lying-in-the-age-of-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lying-in-the-age-of-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"Lying in the Age of Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A Nation of Liars<\/strong><\/p>\n

The attorney general of the United States\u00a0lied recently to Congress<\/a>\u00a0[1]<\/sup>. He said he knew of no citizen\u2019s communications that his department had monitored. Lie!<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0Holder knew<\/a>\u00a0[2]<\/sup>\u00a0that his subordinates were targeting reporters. He also did not tell the truth\u00a0about the New Black Panthers case<\/a>\u00a0[3]<\/sup>. He had sworn that there was no political decision to drop the case. Not true; the decision came from the top. He again lied about the time frame in which he first learned of\u00a0the Fast and Furious case<\/a>\u00a0[4]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"2879853255_b8754a23dc\"
Ben Ellis; Flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The director of national intelligence also lied, likewise while under oath to Congress. At first James Clapper confessed that he had given the\u00a0\u201cleast untruthful\u201d account<\/a>\u00a0[5]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Nixon\u2019s Washington used to call that sort of neat lie\u00a0\u201ca modified limited hangout.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0[6]<\/sup>\u00a0Later, Clapper admitted that he had just flat-out lied to Congress. Was he disgraced? Fired? Further confirmation of his \u201clargely secular\u201d lie?<\/p>\n

Nope. Nothing followed.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Warren simply\u00a0invented an entire pedigree<\/a>\u00a0[7]<\/sup>. That blatant lie helped to earn her a Harvard tenured professorship and a U.S. Senate seat. Ward Churchill was doing well until he dared the country to call out his lies. Who is to say that Warren or Churchill cannot be Native Americans by professing to be Native Americans?<\/p>\n

Barack Obama, as is the wont of politicians, has lied a lot \u2014 and from the very beginning of his national career. He knew Bill Ayers well, Tony Rezko too. He lied about his decision not to seek the presidency as a newly elected senator, and lied about his willingness to take public campaign financing funds in 2008. He misled about what he would shortly do about most of the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism protocols. Obama lied about much of his own biography.<\/p>\n

When the president uses emphatics like \u201cmake no mistake about it,\u201d \u201clet me be perfectly clear,\u201d and \u201cin point of fact,\u201d we know what follows will be untrue. He did not cut the deficit in half in his first four years. He had no intention of ever doing so. He lies about the circumstances of America\u2019s gas and oil production surge \u2014 occurring despite, not because of, him. He lied about his involvement in the radical ACORN community action group, and fabricated about his father\u2019s and grandfather\u2019s World War II involvement.<\/p>\n

Tally up what Barack Obama said about his health care initiative, the border fence, and his fiscal policy. Almost all of the major assurances proved lies.<\/p>\n

Ministers of Lies<\/strong><\/p>\n

But why pick on the president?<\/p>\n

The media routinely peddles \u201cnoble\u201d untruths.\u00a0ABC manipulated a video<\/a>\u00a0[8]<\/sup>\u00a0to show George Zimmerman without much injury to his head.\u00a0NBC edited a tape<\/a>\u00a0[9]<\/sup>\u00a0to suggest that he was a racist. The\u00a0New York Times<\/i>\u00a0invented a new journalistic category,\u00a0\u201cwhite Hispanic,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0[10]<\/sup>\u00a0to suggest George Zimmerman was not Latino in a way that the paper would never suggest that Barack Obama is not African-American or Bill Richardson was a \u201cwhite Hispanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the prosecutorial testimony in the George Zimmerman case could not be true \u2014 unless someone gets grass stains on his back and contusions on the back of the head from pounding on someone atop him. Prosecution star witness Rachel Jeantel made up much of her racist testimony, and boldly confessed as much in her paid-for after-trial interviews.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Not Really the Cover-up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our current scandals are predicated on lies. No one believed the official White House version that the IRS miscreants were rogue agents from a Cincinnati field office.<\/p>\n

No one believes much of the official version of the Benghazi killings \u2014 least of all that the violence\u00a0was prompted by a single video maker<\/a>\u00a0[11]<\/sup>\u00a0in the fashion that Susan Rice assured the nation.<\/p>\n

The attorney general of the United States lied about the AP\/James Rosen monitoring while under oath before Congress.<\/p>\n

James Clapper lied about the NSA scandal. All four travesties are still being sorted out. For now the one commonality is that our officials lied about all of them.<\/p>\n

Harry Reid knew nothing about Mitt Romney\u2019s tax returns.\u00a0But lied about them all the same<\/a>\u00a0[12]<\/sup>. It is hard to know whether Joe Biden lies, or simply believes his fantasies. He assured us that\u00a0President Roosevelt addressed the nation on television after the panic of 1929<\/a>\u00a0[13]<\/sup>. Remember in 1987 when he lifted much of his campaign stump speech\u00a0from British Laborite Neil Kinnock<\/a>\u00a0[14]<\/sup>?<\/p>\n

Our most treasured icons in the media and literature lie. They tell untruth sometimes in the most serious fashion of claiming the work of others as if it were their own \u2014 or simply inventing things out of thin air.\u00a0Fareed Zakaria plagiarized<\/a>\u00a0[15]<\/sup>. So did\u00a0Maureen Dowd<\/a>\u00a0[16]<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Nearly all of Stephen Ambrose\u2019s work, book by book, was characterized by both plagiarism and false statements about archives and interviews.\u00a0Michael Bellesiles<\/a>\u00a0[17]<\/sup>\u00a0was given the Bancroft Award for a mytho-history. If historians could not initially spot the lie, who else could? Or did they try all that much, given the enticing but mythic thesis that today\u2019s gun nuts, not our hallowed forefathers, dreamed up a nation in arms?<\/p>\n

Is There Anyone Left Who Doesn\u2019t Lie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do they lie? Because they can. Or to paraphrase Dirty Harry, they like it. We are a celebrity-and wealth-obsessed society, in which ends, not means, count. Barack Obama got to be president \u2014 who now cares how?<\/p>\n

That Joe Biden habitually makes things up is the stuff of \u201cthat\u2019s just old\u2019 Joe,\u201d not a career-ending felony. Hillary Clinton lied a lot when she was first lady about documents under subpoena. She lied as a candidate\u00a0about being under fire in the Balkans<\/a>\u00a0[18]<\/sup>. And she lied as secretary of State about the train of events in Benghazi.<\/p>\n

And? Those lies were either forgiven or forgotten, or contributed to the \u201ccomplex\u201d persona that now is among the most widely admired in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Lying, of course, is a symptom of hubris. The once leftist and long-haired radical Stephen Ambrose finally assumed that he was Lord or Master Stephen Ambrose, voice of an entire generation, accustomed to instant TV access, huge advances, and minute-by-minute adulation on the street.<\/p>\n

Lying won him all that, and he knew it. I remember him over three decades ago flat out lying about most of the details he offered on World War II while on\u00a0The World At War<\/i>. So to be sure, I watched the young Ambrose lie again last night on that documentary. But no matter:\u00a0he seemed cool with long hair, a sweater, and an attitude<\/a>\u00a0[19]<\/sup>, far more hip than the old plodding Brit historians who were meticulous in their honest recollections.<\/p>\n

When caught, a dying Ambrose was unapologetic. He must have reckoned, why say \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d to a society that did not care how he had become famous, only that he was? Had Martin Luther King, Jr. told the truth that he stole sizable work from other scholars to write his doctoral thesis, he would never have become Dr. King.\u00a0Omitting that detail<\/a>\u00a0[20]<\/sup>\u00a0paid dividends.<\/p>\n

We claim that no one fools history, especially in the age of the Internet. I grant few do, at least in the long run. Yet in the 21st century, the rub is not getting caught for plagiarism, but doing a cost-benefit-analysis of the downside of now and again agilely lying and plagiarizing, versus the upside of short-cutting to fame and riches.<\/p>\n

Doris Kearns Goodwin\u00a0is a plagiarist<\/a>\u00a0[21]<\/sup>. But after a brief sojourn in the Washington doghouse, she is back again on television. Bringing up her untruth would be bad manners.<\/p>\n

In Ambrose\u2019s case, it seemed a simple decision. It was \u201ctake another multimillion-dollar advance and spend 3,000 hours out of the limelight\u201d \u2014 or \u201ctake the money and simply cut and paste the work of others over a few hundred hours.\u201d Did he fear that his widely read publishers and editors worried about sales, or the integrity of their branded text?<\/p>\n

Bernie Madoff<\/a>\u00a0[22]<\/sup>\u00a0was a liar par excellence, but for most of his life\u00a0his investors<\/a>\u00a0[23]<\/sup>\u00a0did not question his miraculous luck, given their miraculous returns that came in the mail each month.<\/p>\n

It was not entirely money that drove columnists or reporters like\u00a0Mike Barnicle<\/a>\u00a0[24]<\/sup>,\u00a0Patricia Smith<\/a>\u00a0[25]<\/sup>, or\u00a0Jayson Blair<\/a>\u00a0[26]<\/sup>\u00a0to lie, but the desire for attention, prestige, and being something more than an honest reporter in our empty metrosexual elite urban culture.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

The Cover-up Pays<\/strong><\/p>\n

We repeat the nauseous canard that \u201cit is not the crime, but the cover-up\u201d that gets you in trouble in Washington. But that too is often a lie, at least most of the time. Had Eric Holder told the truth about Fast and Furious, the New Black Panther case, or the AP\/James Rosen case, he would not be attorney general now.<\/p>\n

If Susan Rice had gone on television and confessed the details about the status and recent history of the security measures in Libya, or the true nature of the post-\u201dlead from behind\u201d misadventure, or the spread of post-bin Laden al-Qaeda franchisers in 2012, she might have been out of a job \u2014 either by dismissal or by the failure of her president to win reelection. Lying worked. Obama is president. She is national security advisor.<\/p>\n

Had Jay Carney confessed that the talking points about Benghazi were doctored from the outset, it might have mattered in the 2012 election. Lying then and now worked.<\/p>\n

Why Do Our Best and Brightest Lie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are both age-old and more recent catalysts for lying.<\/p>\n

One, lying and plagiarism are forms of narcissism. I know fabrications are born out of feelings of inferiority that makes an otherwise fine historian like a\u00a0Joseph Ellis<\/a>\u00a0[27]<\/sup>\u00a0or a good actor like Brian Dennehy\u00a0make up an entire war career<\/a>\u00a0[28]<\/sup>, replete with tales of personal gallantry. But they persisted in such seemingly destructive behavior because they assumed that they had reached a level of fame and stature that made them immune from the normal accounting laws of the universe. There is no servant running along our triumphant masters when they star on television, muttering to them \u201cRespice te, hominem te memento<\/i>,\u201d or at least \u201cmemento mori.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Sic transit gloria<\/i>? We would counter with\u00a0vero possumus<\/a>\u00a0[29]<\/sup>!<\/i><\/p>\n

Two, lying more often than not pays. Take an ethical shortcut and the odds are small that one gets caught. Yes, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Fareed Zakaria were found out. But after brief anguished penance, they reinvented themselves and returned to the level of their prior stature. Perhaps some young journalist one day will do an Ambrose on them, and review all their previous work. But for what purpose? We know they have been dishonest once, and suspect the\u00a0modus operandi<\/i>\u00a0was not a one-time occurrence. But we also know that the purified water in which they swim is not too toxic for liars and the dishonest.<\/p>\n

Liars are good at what they do. Eric Holder certainly is. Again, like a shoplifter, why stop when you have mastered the craft? Does anyone think Patrick Fitzgerald is going to come out of retirement to indict Holder the way he did Scooter Libby for a crime that did not exist, and had it existed was committed by\u00a0Richard Armitage<\/a>\u00a0[30]<\/sup>\u00a0\u2014 and known thusly to both Colin Powell and Fitzgerald himself at the outset?<\/p>\n

Three, more recently postmodernism has blurred the divide from reality and truth. Tsarnaev is not quite a mass murderer,\u00a0given his looks and youth<\/a>\u00a0[31]<\/sup>. Major Hasan is guilty of work-place violence. For thirty years, the acolytes of fakers like Michel Foucault have taught our elites that truth is socially constructed \u2014 a relative thing, a power narrative fabricated by those of the right race, gender, and class to perpetuate their privilege. Howard Zinn could publish fantasies because who was to say that they were entirely wrong, and who would dare suggest that his myths were not put to a good cause?<\/p>\n

Note that Maureen Dowd, Fareed Zakaria, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mike Barnicle, and Eric Holder shoot their sometimes false arrows at the right targets. Does it then matter that their missiles were occasionally plastic rather than of authentic Native American wood?<\/p>\n

Much of what Barack Obama has weaved about his past girlfriend, his parents\u2019 meeting, his father\u2019s\/grandfather\u2019s war service, or his upbringing in Hawaii at one point or another is false. But why would I mention that if not for illiberal political reasons? And what a 59-year-old, rural white guy from the Central Valley calls \u201ctruth\u201d may not be so for a young multiracial child coming of age in Hawaii, anguished at having door locks clicked by \u201ctypical white\u201d people as he crosses the street.<\/p>\n

So Why Not Lie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I end with three reasons to tell the truth. The majority has to tell the truth \u2014 to the IRS, to the police, to the DA, to the census \u2014 if a consensual society is to work. You readers tell the truth so that the society can survive an Eric Holder or Mike Barnicle. Average people must speak honestly or our elites\u2019 lies will overwhelm, even destroy us. If 100 million tell the IRS lies during audits or take the 5th Amendment, our voluntary tax system collapses. We can take only so many Lois Lerners.<\/p>\n

Two, this often sordid, sometimes beautiful world is not the end. There is transcendence. Lies damage our soul. Selling out in the here and now has consequences later on. If you are religious, your immortal soul is lost. If you are not, at least consider that your legacy, heritage, and remembrance are forever ruined. Ask the ghost of Stephen Ambrose. What good was all that money, all those interviews if based on a lie? All the insight and delight that he brought millions of readers was tarnished. And for what, exactly?<\/p>\n

Third, we must strive to be tragic heroes, perhaps not as dramatic as Ajax, not as cool as Shane. Would you rather have been Ethan Edwards or Will Cane or have run Lehman Brothers in 2008? Sometimes, in less dramatic fashion, the choices are that Manichean.<\/p>\n

We must try to tell the truth, not to doctor films, edit tapes, erase talking points, or lie before Congress, fabricate heroic war records, or invent false sources. Again, why? Because we seek to do the right thing with the full resignation that in the here and now we will often still lose and will lose often and gladly telling the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always lose,\u201d says Chris at the end of the\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Magnificent Seven<\/i>\u00a0after he did the right thing. Or to paraphrase the cinematic T.E. Lawrence about Auda Abu Tayi, we will not lie, as do our elites, because it is simply\u00a0\u201cour pleasure\u201d<\/a>\u00a0[32]<\/sup>\u00a0not to.<\/p>\n

URLs in this post:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1] lied recently to Congress:\u00a0http:\/\/news.investors.com\/ibd-editorials\/053113-658465-eric-holder-repeatedly-lied-to-congress.htm?p=full<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[2] Holder knew:\u00a0http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/InstaBlog\/2013\/05\/23\/Official-Holder-Approved-Warrant-for-Fox-News-Reporter-s-Emails<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[3] about the New Black Panthers case:\u00a0http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Government\/2012\/08\/13\/Did-Holder-Lie-Under-Oath-About-Black-Panther-Scandal<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[4] the Fast and Furious case:http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/opinion\/opedcolumnists\/fast_furious_lies_0EAFsSpd9y1RaeAxikkGUN<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[5] \u201cleast untruthful\u201d account:http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2013\/06\/14\/james_clappers_least_untruthful_answer_118817.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[6] \u201ca modified limited hangout.\u201d:\u00a0http:\/\/www.dailypundit.com\/?p=71954<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[7] invented an entire pedigree:\u00a0http:\/\/news.investors.com\/ibd-editorials\/050812-610773-warren-scholarship-found-deeply-lacking-academic-vigor.htm?p=full<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[8] ABC manipulated a video:\u00a0http:\/\/newsbusters.org\/blogs\/pj-gladnick\/2012\/03\/30\/did-abc-news-purposely-use-unnecessary-chyron-cover-zimmermans-head-bru<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[9] NBC edited a tape:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2012\/04\/07\/nbcs-edit-gate-worse-than-cbs-rathergate\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[10] \u201cwhite Hispanic,\u201d:\u00a0http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Journalism\/2013\/07\/13\/Media-Zimmerman-Coverage-Rap-Sheet<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[11] was prompted by a single video maker:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2013\/05\/07\/hillary-pushed-internet-video-meme-at-victims-funeral\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[12] But lied about them all the same:\u00a0http:\/\/blogs.ajc.com\/kyle-wingfield\/2012\/08\/02\/harry-reid-manages-to-turn-romneys-tax-returns-into-a-good-story-for-romney\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[13] President Roosevelt addressed the nation on television after the panic of 1929:\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0Jf17Yo7hBM<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[14] from British Laborite Neil Kinnock:\u00a0http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/barackobama\/2607505\/Joe-Biden-plagiarised-Neil-Kinnock-speech.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[15] Fareed Zakaria plagiarized:\u00a0http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2012\/08\/10\/fareed-zakaria-plagiarism-new-yorker-time_n_1764954.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[16] Maureen Dowd:\u00a0http:\/\/theweek.com\/article\/index\/96650\/maureen-dowds-plagiarism<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[17] Michael Bellesiles:\u00a0http:\/\/old.nationalreview.com\/seckora\/seckora121702.asp<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[18] about being under fire in the Balkans:\u00a0http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/fact-checker\/2008\/03\/hillarys_balkan_adventures_par.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[19] he seemed cool with long hair, a sweater, and an attitude:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2010\/07\/15\/world-war-ii-clearly-needed-better-writers\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[20] Omitting that detail:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1991\/10\/11\/us\/boston-u-panel-finds-plagiarism-by-dr-king.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[21] is a plagiarist:http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/chatterbox\/2002\/01\/doris_kearns_goodwin_liar.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[22] Bernie Madoff:\u00a0http:\/\/thecapitalist.newsvine.com\/_news\/2009\/03\/14\/2547996-bernie-madoff-an-obama-democrat<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[23] his investors:\u00a0http:\/\/www.rightpundits.com\/?p=3273<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[24] Mike Barnicle:\u00a0http:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/11\/mike-barnicle-fabricator-plagiarist-and-now-a-grantland-contributor\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[25] Patricia Smith:\u00a0http:\/\/www.ajr.org\/Article.asp?id=648<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[26] Jayson Blair:\u00a0http:\/\/nymag.com\/nymetro\/news\/media\/features\/n_8723\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[27] Joseph Ellis:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2001\/08\/21\/opinion\/the-lies-of-joseph-ellis.html<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[28] make up an entire war career:\u00a0http:\/\/www.freerepublic.com\/focus\/news\/776476\/posts<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[29] vero possumus:\u00a0http:\/\/politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com\/2008\/06\/20\/when-the-obama-logo-and-presidential-seal-morph\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[30] Richard Armitage:\u00a0http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2006\/POLITICS\/09\/08\/leak.armitage\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[31] given his looks and youth:\u00a0http:\/\/pjmedia.com\/blog\/the-affable-psychopath\/<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

[32] \u201cour pleasure\u201d:\u00a0http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0056172\/quotes?item=qt0294159<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2013 PJ Media. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media A Nation of Liars The attorney general of the United States\u00a0lied recently to Congress\u00a0[1]. He said he knew of no citizen\u2019s communications that his department had monitored. Lie! In fact,\u00a0Holder knew\u00a0[2]\u00a0that his subordinates were targeting reporters. He also did not tell the truth\u00a0about the New Black Panthers case\u00a0[3]. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6242,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11,187],"tags":[12,1045,321,1053,726,88,447,372,398],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/2879853255_b8754a23dc.jpg?fit=500%2C333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1CF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1491,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/holders-hypocrisy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":0},"title":"Holder’s Hypocrisy","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Attorney General Eric Holder has developed a bad habit of accusing others of acting in bad faith while doing so himself. Take the issue of Guantanamo Bay. In Aspen, Colorado, Holder accused Congress of playing politics in preventing President Obama from closing the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10620,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-lying-quartet\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":1},"title":"A Lying Quartet","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness Rarely has an intelligence apparatus engaged in systematic lying\u2014and chronic deceit about its lying\u2014both during and even after its tenure. Yet the Obama Administration\u2019s four top security and intelligence officials time and again engaged in untruth, as if peddling lies was part of their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comey"","block_context":{"text":"Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7776,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-face-in-the-crowd\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":2},"title":"Our \u2018Face in the Crowd\u2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia Elia Kazan\u2019s classic\u00a0A Face in the Crowd\u00a0[2]\u00a0is a good primer on Barack Obama\u2019s rise and fall. Lonesome Rhodes arises out of nowhere in the 1957 film, romancing the nation\u00a0as a phony populist\u00a0[3]\u00a0who serially spins yarns in the most folksy ways \u2014 confident that he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/obama_face_in_the_crowd_on_brick_wall_8-17-14-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7272,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-truth-drips-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":3},"title":"The Truth Drips Out","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO's The Corner\u00a0 For over a year and a half the White House successfully withheld communications between public servants, apparently in hopes that the death of four Americans in Benghazi would not become an issue in the 2012 election (at the eleventh hour CNN\u2019s Candy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Benghazi"","block_context":{"text":"Benghazi","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/benghazi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6088,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lies-subvert-demovracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":4},"title":"Lies Subvert Demovracy","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama and his team have subverted the government they pledged to serve. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Truth is the lifeblood of democracy. Without honesty, the foundations of consensual government crumble. If the Internal Revenue Service acts unlawfully, our system of citizens\u2019 computing their own taxes implodes. Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democracy"","block_context":{"text":"Democracy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/politics\/democracy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6769,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-noble-lies\/","url_meta":{"origin":6241,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Noble Lies","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Stop worrying whether the president's statements conform to ossified standards if truth. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 What is the common denominator of the Obama administration\u2019s serial scandals \u2014 the Justice Department\u2019s spying on AP, the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the\u00a0NSA\u00a0surveillance, the lies about Benghazi and the\u00a0ACA\u00a0\u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2207094409_38daec5ed3-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6244,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6241\/revisions\/6244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}