Like Barack Obama, fellow narcissist Adolf Hitler was a master of crowd behavior, developing and maintaining a cult of personality, and manipulating the dissatisfied masses by telling them just what they want to hear. Also like Obama, Hitler wrote an autobiography when he was still basically a nobody- so did Josef Stalin. For the naricissist, no subject is as important as one's self.
Naturally, an evasive arrogance and cogent oratory are useful in misleading people. And the more brazen and unblinking the delivery, the more believable the messenger. What is fast becoming clear is that Barack Obama has the "audacity" and skill that it takes to be a world-class liar.
The tactics of Obama mentor Saul Alinsky call for deception and deflection- how many times has Obama said one thing but done another? Alinsky's techniques were also employed in the recent disinformation campaign against Rush Limbaugh and others.
Some had noted during the presidential campaign a pattern of misleading statements and lack of disclosure from Obama, who rose inexplicably fast from the Chicago Machine- while for some reason still assumed to be pure as the driven snow. Instead of the MSM scrutinizing such inconsistencies, motives were suspect- or it was all dismissed as a "distraction" from the "historical moment".
While Obama now treats him like a leper, in the days following the election no less than three news outlets, as well as David Axelrod, stated that Obama had a meeting with Blagojevich specifically to discuss Obama's replacement in the Senate. Later, when Blago was arrested, Obama claimed that he had "never met" with Blagojevich to discuss the seat he was attempting to auction-off. Axelrod later retracted his statement of a month earlier, claiming that he "misspoke".
FBI tapes feature Blago's aides informing him that PEBO had to "suck it up" for a "couple years". Does that mean that someone from Team Obama informed Blago's pepes that Obama had to temporarily refrain from illegal and/or unethical activities? Because that's what it sounds like.
Also of interest would be how they were informed that Obama would "only offer appreciation" in exchange for Obama's favored candidate being appointed by Blagojevich. Or how they found out the offer was later upped to include the possibility of seats on corporate boards for his wife, Patty. Who passed all that along? Emanuel? A little bird?
PEBO then announced an "internal investigation" that promptly cleared his own administration of any and all involvement! This Obama is a genius, I'll have to remember that one next time I get stopped for speeding... and just have my wife in the passenger seat "clear me of any wrongdoing".
Obama had sat on a board with former bomb-tossing member of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers- but claims he "barely knew him". How can that be when Ayers and his ex-terrorist-wife held a meet-and-greet party for Obama in 1995 in their Chicago home? And when records show Obama repeatedly called and e-mailed Ayers... despite his claims to the contrary?
Barack attended Reverend Wright's church for over 20 years, was married by him, and had him baptize both his daughters. Obama had called him his "spiritual advisor" and mentor. When the Rev's racist and anti-American rants became public, Obama claimed he was "unaware" of such statements, and "vehemently condemns" them. Note that Rev. Wright, who Barack was so out-of-touch with, was also an official member of the Obama campaign at the time.
In the mid-90s, State Senator Obama obtained millions in government money for his political backer Tony Rezko to create low-income housing in Chicago. In the event, only about half the homes were ever built, and the ones that were completed were full of problems. Most now sit empty. No government money was ever returned by Rezko... but instead was donated to Obama's campaign fund. On the day Rezko was indicted, Obama suddenly donated $100s of thousands to charity. When it became public that these projects were beset with code violations, some without heat and dangerous structural defects, Obama claimed he "wasn't aware" of the conditions, even though he had done so much to fund them- and 11 of the slums were in his own diminutive South Side Chicago district.
The Chicago Sun-Times said that during his 12 years in politics, Sen. Barack Obama had received nearly three times more campaign cash from Tony Rezko and his associates than he had publicly acknowledged... prior to Rezko's trial, that is, when he decided to fess-up.
Obama also offered early examples of just how flexible he considered his "promises" to be. He broke one of the earliest ones in grand fashion, when he declined public financing for his campaign- so he could raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on his own. This single broken pledge could spell the death-knell for campaign public financing, and obviously runs counter to Obama's earlier statements in favor of campaign finance reform.
Obama has also often been less that forthcoming when posed legitimate questions regarding his background, personal connections, and past statements. He stonewalls and deflects those he doesn't like, and completely unlike any previous American president. He is rarely pressed, as many journalists appear to be cowed- and Obama knows he owns them. Most of the media are now too vested in this presidency to offer anything resembling balanced coverage and analysis. The President now even treats them with contempt, hectoring them to not "waste their question", telling them when they've "got enough pictures", and even when to "get back on the bus"- ouch.
To suggest that Barack Obama has a healthy, good-faith relationship with the media is pure fantasy. In press-conferences, Obama goes right-down a list, calling only upon journalists who submitted suitably-lame questions in advance, so White House speechwriters can apply their craft to them. Obama then delivers the calculated, canned responses like an automoton hard-wired to a TelePrompter. He smiles a lot and wears nice neckties though, maybe that's what they like.
If the many promises of high ethical standards in his cabinet weren't an outright lie, Obama was at best comprehensively negligent in delivering upon the pledge. Despite media mantras heralding Obama's "vaunted vetting process" and "strict ethics guidelines", the promises of a clean break from business as usual in Washington have yet to be fulfilled.
On his first day in office, and with much fanfare, Obama issued an executive order barring any former lobbyists who joined his administration from dealing with matters or agencies related to their lobbying efforts. Nor could they join the agencies that they had lobbied in the previous two years.
Soon after that, William J. Lynn III was his choice for #2 at the Defense Dept- but he had recently lobbied for Raytheon. Instead of honoring his own order from just weeks before, Obama issued Lynn a "waiver". Now Obama is issuing two more "waivers" for appointees who are former lobbyists, Jocelyn Frye and Cecilia Munoz. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' explanation went: "Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions". The truth is that this statement is worlds-apart from what Obama said on the campaign trail: "I won't take a dime of their money...and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."
But other ethics issues with cabinet nominees have overshadowed the lobbyist "waivers". And it appears that these choices were vetted only superficially, or not at all- instead, positions were given to those like Hillary and Richardson to co-opt rivals, make political deals, and pay back debts. In spite of all the "soaring" rhetoric, it seems that neither character nor principles had much influence on the selections. When nominated, Bill Richardson already was under investigation for pay-to-play allegations... and more crash-n-burn nominees were to follow-
In an extremely embarassing episode for Obama, Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration for Health and Human Services secretary amid questions of "tax errors" that motived him to pay $140,000 to the IRS. And while Daschle was not technically a lobbyist, he was paid over $5M over the last two years as he advised health insurers, hospitals, and others.
On the day that Daschle withdrew, Obama's choice for White House performance officer, Nancy Killefer, pulled-out of the process after coming-forward with concerns about her tax returns. Killefer stated that she somehow "forgot" to pay unemployment comensation taxes for employees.
Next, the nominee for US trade representative, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk also withdrew due to tax problems. And this is the team Obama proposes should be in-charge as he initiates the largest single tax increase in American history. Wasn't it Joe Biden who said that paying taxes is "patriotic"? But truthfulness has never really been Biden's strong-suit, either; he's one of those people who you're never quite sure if they actually believe all the stuff they're telling you.
A most pressing appointment in the midst of an economic meltdown was that at the Treasury Dept.. Obama chose Timothy Geithner, former head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. But Geithner, who now oversees the IRS, is yet another Team Obama tax-cheat. Due apparently to his ability to speak Mandarin, and therefore in-theory having the ability to charm the Chinese into buying the new mountain of Obama-generated debt, Geithner was pushed-through the confirmation process regardless of his tax problems.
A recent episode invloves White House Office of Urban Affairs appointee Adolfo Carrion, who it was discovered received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from developers who's projects he approved in The Bronx. This sounds very similar to the donations Obama himself received from shady slumlord-felon Tony Rezko in Chicago in the 90s- but for some reason was never really asked to explain fully.
With most of Obama's nominations, the reasons presented to the public have little or nothing to do with the political deal or hidden agenda behind the dubious picks... and he's clearly not looking for the best available talent. His ethics pledges are considered flexible and/or disposable, and instead of Obama being called on his misrepresentations and broken promises, the MSM continues to bring us articles on Labradoodles- and how Barack likes to play basketball.
Obama also ran on a promise to bring "bipartisanship" to Washington- but the reality has been anything but. When you have serial-aisle-crosser John McCain turning on him in the first month, that's a pretty strong indicator that the "post-partisan" president that was promised was just a rhetorical flourish.
Instead, Obama has rammed his left-wing agenda down the GOP's throats with big-bang legislation meant to transform the country, while overwhelming opponents. Standard appropriation-committee procedures were bypassed, and promises for public disclosure on the internet and elsewhere abandoned... even the legislators had only one day to read the 1100-page "stimulus" prior to the vote. When faced with questions or resistance, the hubristic Obama retorts "I won" and that the country "voted for change". But President Obama knows full-well that he was vague as possible last year, and often misleading. And his "bipartisanship" consists of his being willing to speak to you and take a picture, if you support his programs- and with no revisions.
The inherently dishonest fear-tactics employed by Obama to get the "stimulus" package passed did much damage to consumer confidence and the markets- note that his "mood" perked-up considerably once the bill was passed. Team Obama employed alarmist propaganda to scare legislators and the public, forcing change through an orchestrated crisis, per the Cloward-Piven Strategy. While Obama largely inherited this crisis, he magnified it psychologically to a level that ensured the adoption of major spending programs as the solution to our woes, both real and imagined.
Obama now turns his considerable grinning-car-salesman skills to the passing of a record-setting federal budget. In Charles Krauthammer's recent column "The Great Non Sequitur", one can see how the President is using extremely misleading and deceptive arguments to pass his massive budget. And it is loaded with a liberal dream-list, like steps towards nationalized health care, a cap-and-trade tax on energy, a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.
In another attempt to make false implications regarding the financial crisis to promote his radical agenda, Obama stated in a recent press-conference:
"..as we've learned very clearly and conclusively over the last eight years, tax cuts alone can't solve all of our economic problems, especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few Americans. We have tried that strategy time and time again, and it's only helped lead us to the crisis we face right now."
This is a absolute falsehood- Obama knows full well that the Republican alternative to his "stimulus" bill contained spending as well as tax cuts. And his claim that tax cuts are responsible for the economic crisis is nonsensical. It is a charge he repeated two more times during the press conference - and is either a blatant lie, or evidence of complete ignorance.
This is a absolute falsehood- Obama knows full well that the Republican alternative to his "stimulus" bill contained spending as well as tax cuts. And his claim that tax cuts are responsible for the economic crisis is nonsensical. It is a charge he repeated two more times during the press conference - and is either a blatant lie, or evidence of complete ignorance.
The Obama administration also claimed that virtually all economists support their approach to "stimulus" spending, but this is patently false. Nobel Laureates Ed Prescott, James Buchanan, and Vernon Smith recently joined 200 other economists signing a letter opposing the legislation. More liberal economists such as Alice Rivlin and Alan Blinder have also strongly criticized certain aspects of the spending bill. It is very difficult to believe that the president didn't know full-well that opposition to his proposals is nuanced and targeted.
Initially, Obama and his own staff sponsored hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of earmarks in this legislation themselves. Obama had said during the campaign "We can no longer accept a process that doles-out earmarks based on a member of Congress' seniority, rather than the merit of the project". But, instead of fufilling his promises, Obama cynically had lawmakers scrub his name from the list of earmark sponsors... with no change to the legislation whatsoever. Then Rahm Emanuel went on the Sunday news shows to dismiss it all as "last year's business".
In the selling of his tax-and-spend policies, Obama has also been very misleading in saying that the "rich" haven't been paying their fair-share for the last few years, due to "unjust" tax cuts implemented by George Bush. However, the Americans that Obama targets are those making over $250K/yr (initially), and are largely the entrepreneurs and small-business-owners that create most of the economic growth in this country... and who are already paying most of the taxes. And a large proportion of Obama's base, the ones he's saying aren't getting "justice" from the tax-code, are the one-third of Americans who already pay no income tax whatsoever. As for capital gains taxation, government reciepts actually increased in the wake of Bush's rate-cut... and how was that bad for anybody?
Bush's mistake was spending... but Barack doesn't want to talk about that. One could make the argument Obama knows his legacy will likely be in tatters by 2010-2012.. and is ramming through as much of his far-left agenda as he can before the day comes when people cringe at the mention of his name... sure seems like it.
Can Obama possibly believe such obliquity won't come back to bit him someday? It's doubtful, he doesn't appear to be delusional or ignorant. He is out to force a liberal vision of the country on us- whatever it takes... and will lie, cheat, and steal to get it done. He likely assumes there will be some base that will continue to support his new socialized America, and he's also taken many pre-emptive actions to shore-up support over the long run, while attacking opponents. Obama has already co-opted Democratic rivals, orchestrated attacks on Palin, Jindal, Rush Limbaugh, Jim Cramer, and even the legacy of Ronald Reagan. He maintains an army of foot-soldiers and netizens, and his massive federal hiring will create co-dependants that owe him for their job-
It's about time this President was asked about his incredulous statements and disingenuous "goals"- for Obama to portray himself as some sort of deficit hawk just three days after signing the largest spending bill in US history is like Josef Stalin giving a speech deploring conditions in the Siberian gulag. He's been writing his own story as the MSM just parrots it for far too long, and very little of it squares-up with reality. This president is habitually dishonest... and maybe he should finally get called-out on some of it.
Last week, Obama feigned surprise when a New York Times reporter (finally) pressed him on the question "are you a socialist?". Obama acted shocked and amazed to be asked the question, and later even called the reporter from his helicopter to ask him if he was "joking". Instead of addressing such legitimate concerns, he put on a show- as if asking such a question was completely absurd. Seems like someone struck a nerve there- this is the last thing Team Obama wants on the front-page of The Drudge Report as he works to get trillions more in reckless spending programs rolled-through Congress with as little friction as possible.
Not only is Barack Obama a shameless prevaricator, but as Pat Buchanan said:
"If he's not a socialist, he does the best impression of one I'VE ever seen."