Why Obama lies

Political rhetoric is often exaggerated and filled with hyperbole. We know that and often discount it when we hear it.  There is even an unwritten protocol to political speech.  It may not be the best thing, but we all know what it is. For better or worse, we give politicians a lot of leeway in this regard.  However, President Obama  and his minions’ difficulty being truthful goes beyond the typical behavior of politicians who make  statements in ways that may be less than truthful but which are not blatant, intentional lies. 

Some people lie because having been caught in wrongdoing they seek to avoid punishment. They lie based upon the situation. For example, President Clinton lied about the shenanigans going on in the White House with an intern. The truth finally came out and everyone realized Clinton had been lying. We understand his motive for lying even if we do not approve of it (or the behavior he was lying about).

On the other hand a politician may lie on a strategic basis. A President might lie to the public about certain political or military issues where being truthful could endanger the country. More prevalent, though, are politicians who lie as part of a strategy to achieve a political goal. Maybe a politician lies about what a piece of legislation is intended to do, or what something will cost, etc. This type of lie is common among politicians, who very often try to mask their agenda and motives.  In fact, this is almost a way of life for elected officials.

But the President takes the lying to another level. He lies on a serial basis as a core component of his political rhetoric.  Why?

One possible, and simplistic, explanation is that the facts are so blatantly contrary to his positions that he sees himself as having no choice but to lie, almost like Clinton and his intern “situation”. This would be an attempt to avoid blame or responsibility on the President’s part for a particular act or policy.  I think this is not applicable since the President came into office from day one regularly blaming President Bush for the economy he “inherited”.  President Reagan inherited a lousy economy, too, by the way. Since President Obama so quickly adopted a position of non-responsibility for anything, he would have no motive to lie on a situational, i.e. Clintonesque, basis.  

So this is deeper than that.

President Obama’s occasional lapses are what reveal his real thoughts. There is the “spread the wealth” lapse, the “clinging to guns and religion” lapse and the more recent “you didn’t build that” lapse.  These tell us what he really believes.  It is not pretty and it is obvious why he tries to hide these beliefs as much as possible.  Plus, the President has the advantage of a lapdog media which would crucify a Republican for less.  When the President hides his true intentions and lies about his policies (and about his opponents) he often gets away with it courtesy of much of the major media. The major media took in stride an ad with a Paul Ryan lookalike pushing an elderly woman off a cliff. Would they be so complacent with an anti-Obamacare ad showing an Obama lookalike yanking Granny of the operating table because the government had decided that paying for her hip replacement is not “cost-effective”?

The President even uses his own mother’s death for political purposes.  Aside from the question of what type of man would do such a thing, there is the problem that he is not being truthful in his statements. He does not say that his mother was in fact misdiagnosed in Indonesia and died the next year.  He implies that she was denied coverage by her health insurer (which she wasn’t) when in fact there was a dispute with her disability income insurance policy, something entirely different from her health insurance.  Does he not know the basic facts about his mother or does he not care and just lies anyway?

This is from Wikipedia:

“Dunham’s employer-provided health insurance covered most of the costs of her medical treatment, leaving her to pay the deductible and uncovered expenses, which came to several hundred dollars per month.  Her employer-provided disability insurance denied her claims for uncovered expenses because the insurance company said her cancer was a preexisting condition”.

Recently, ads have been running implying that somehow a steel company Bain Capital could not save was responsible for the cancer death of a laid-off employee’s wife. The ads are run by Priorities USA a group with links to the White House but which is “independent”.  The White House refuses to distance itself from this disgusting ad. Yes, the gentleman in question lost his job in 2001 and with it his health insurance.  What the ad does not say is that he was offered a buyout and that his wife had insurance from her job, although several years later she was later injured and lost the job and insurance.  Six years after the husband was laid off she was diagnosed with cancer and passed away within a few weeks.  A tragic story, but one that only a despicable politician would distort to smear an opponent.  Ironically, the ad says a lot more about the President’s campaign than it does about Mitt Romney.  After all, it was Bain that was trying to save the business. 

And that is who we have as a President, a man who will resort to anything to push his agenda and retain power no matter how vile or dishonest an act is required. Obama lies because is too much a part of his political being.  He cannot be honest and have any hope of getting reelected. Can you imagine how he would govern if he is successful in getting reelected never having to face the voters again?