“Let Me Be Perfectly Not Clear” and “Make Lots of Mistakes About It”
by Victor Davis Hanson Pajamas Media January 19, 2010
It’s the Lying, Stupid?
“Lie” is a rather harsh word; the noun and its verb form leave little to context or extenuating circumstances. So I use it sparingly.
But I know no other word for President Obama’s long string of “misstatements,” 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.
Let Us Count the Ways
1) The bait and switch lies.
2) The “noble” lies.
3) Tactical Lies.
4) The Deadline Lies.
The Catalysts for Such Prevarications?
1) Habit.
2) Morality.
3) Squaring Circles.
4) Personal Confusion.
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 “perfectly clear about…”). In fact, it is worse than that — 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.
Phi Beta Iota: Each of the above sub-titles has a paragraph associated it with in the original article. We recommend a full reading.
The Bush-Cheney Administration told 935 documented lies, and Dick Cheney committed at least 23 documented impeachable offenses–see our summary of VICE–Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency. It is wrong for the “Republican Right” to be angry about a partisan system that was converted into a two-party tyranny under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose destruction of Speaker Jim Wright marked the end of gentlemanly discourse and respect for the merits of any given reality-based argument.
It is our view that the lack of a public intelligency as a baseline for public discourse is a major factor. The public does not know who to believe and realizes that both parties cannot be trusted to be truthful or effective. A neutral, non-violent professional way to address this from within is by creating a multinational public intelligence network that serves both domestic and international needs across Whole of Government and the entire Coalition.
We need the Open Source Agency recommended by the 9-11 Commission and later by others including Undersecretary of Defense Stephen Cambone, who was prepared to fund it at $2 billion a year at Final Operation Capacity (FOC), starting at $125 million as agreed with Sean O'Keefe at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Memorandum: $2 Billion Obligation Plan Centered on Defense, for a New Open Source Agency
Memoranda: Creating a New Agency with a New Mission, New Methods, and a New Mind Set
Memoranda: OSS CEO to DNI One-Pager
