Shameless

Politicians lie.  That is what I call a blinding flash of the obvious.  Normally, their lies start with a kernel of truth.  A politician takes that small truth and spins a narrative around it.  The small truth adds credibility to the narrative. The narrative is always beneficial to their position.  When taken in total, it is still a lie.  This doesn’t make it right.

Lying is not the exclusive domain of either political party.  The current campaigns of both Obama and Romney have their share of Pinocchio awards.  I have noticed a stark difference however.  What I have noticed is that Barack Obama has a clear campaign strategy.  That strategy is to lie.  Not the normal half-truth lies, but totally fabricated lies.  The strategy is to lie often, to lie big, and to be prolific with the lying.  The strategy leverages the fact that you can lie faster than fact-checkers can rebut.  In the time taken to investigate and respond, several more lies can be told.  The truth can be overwhelmed.  By the time truth is known, several more lies are top of mind.  The truth never catches up.

A good example of an Obama lie is his claim that Romney’s tax plan would cost middle class Americans an average of $2,200 each.  He has repeated this lie often.  That is a complete fabrication without a kernel of truth.  Romney’s tax plan calls for lowered tax rates across the board.  Every tax payer gets a lower tax rate.  That is not hard to understand, so how can Obama claim the middle class will pay more taxes?  The Obama narrative on Romney’s tax plan is constructed around fabrications.  Obama claims that since tax revenue will decrease to the federal government (fabrication #1), Romney will need to increase taxes on someone to recover the revenue (fabrication #2).  Since Obama wants to make the case that Romney favors the rich and not the middle class, he says the middle class will be taxed to replace the lost revenue (fabrication #3).  Romney has announced no such plans, and history tells us that decreasing taxes grows the economy and increases tax revenues.  Obama’s lie is completely fabricated.

Although shameless, the strategy of lies is all Obama can do.  He cannot run on his record.  He has only 2 notable accomplishments over the past 3½ years.  He forced Obamacare through the Congress.  Depending on the given day and how the questions are asked, 65% of Americans want nothing to do with Obamacare.  Obama can’t run on it. 

Obama killed Osama.  The decision wasn’t a hard one, but to his credit he did make it.  Most informed people realize that he wouldn’t have gotten Osama without the policies put in place by George Bush that produced the leads that ultimately led to the bin Laden compound in Pakistan.  Obama can’t run solely on getting Osama without crediting Bush for policies that he opposed.  That is a tough road – to credit the man on who you have blamed everything for his entire presidency.

If you can’t run on a record, you have few choices.  You could hunker down like Carter did.  You can decline your party’s nomination as LBJ did.  Or you can lie.  That is what Obama has decided to do.