Michael Gaynor
The pretense that President Obama doesn't lie must stop
By Michael Gaynor
For America's sake, truth must trump "civility" and lies must be exposed regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, sex or presidential status.
Abraham Lincoln said: "If given the truth, [the people] can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
George Washington stated that "[t]ruth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."
Unfortunately, there are those who choose to try to conceal the truth and to make it as painful as possible for those who seek to have the truth prevail.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) recently declared: "We know from the House rules that the president never lies, but he is taking advice and information from somebody apparently who is willing to lie, because it's just not true. The fear mongering needs to stop."
Astute Americans got the message, while Rep. Gohmert deftly avoided possible sanction by the House of Representatives for calling President Obama a liar!
After all, the reaction when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) called President Obama a liar during the 2009 State of the Union Address indicated that the need to maintain "civility" trumped the truth.
Rep. Wilson shouted "You lie!" at President Obama as he outlined his health care plan and claimed that his proposed reforms "would not apply to those who are here illegally.
The incident attracted national and international attention. Then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel immediately urged senior Republican lawmakers to identify the shouter and urge him to apologize immediately. Members of Congress from both parties condemned the interruption. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) not only pronounced it "totally disrespectful," but opined that there's "no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately."
That evening Rep. Wilson issued a statement to the effect that he had "let [his] emotions get the best of [him] listening to the President's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill" and extending" sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility."
Obama accepted the apology, noting that it was made "quickly and without equivocation" and pronounced himself "appreciative." Nevertheless, House Democrats called for a formal apology on the House floor and, after Rep. Wilson responded that "one apology is sufficient," passed a "resolution of disapproval" against Wilson, on a nearly party-line vote. Former President Jimmy Carter attributed Rep. Wilson's "dastardly" charge to "racism." Then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama disagreed.
Even before he was elected President, questioning President Obama's integrity was risky. In 2008, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) publicly wondered whether then Democrat presidential candidate Obama had anti-American views during an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and likewise was pilloried for her temerity. Rep. Bachmann criticized Obama for his association with Rev. Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright and Bill "domestic terrorist" Ayers, commenting: "...usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us, and it seems that it calls into question what Barack Obama's true beliefs, and values, and thoughts are...I am very concerned that he [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views." Bachmann added, "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look...I wish they would...I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America, or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose like that."
Reaction was swift and fierce. The Democrats in Minnesota's Congressional delegation issued a joint statement questioning Rep. Bachmann's ability to "work in a bipartisan way to put the interests of our country first in this time of crisis. Rep. Bachmann clarified that she was not questioning Obama's patriotism, but was "very concerned" about his views" and did not "believe that socialism is a good thing for America."
By March 2010, Rep. Bachmann declared that she "look[ed] like Nostradamus" for having said that she "had very serious concerns that Barack Obama has anti-American views.
A year later, on "Meet the Press," Rep. Bachmann was asked if she still believed that President Obama had un-American view and responded that she believed that "the actions of this government have...been emblematic of ones that have not been based on true American values" and she had "very serious concerns about the president's views."
People who believe in traditional American values certainly should have such concerns!
"Civility" and decorum should be maintained if possible, of course, but the truth is the truth and pretending otherwise is unacceptable.
"Liberal" Paul Krugman of The New York Times had a point when he wrote "...what are we supposed to have a civil discussion about? The truth is that the two parties have both utterly different goals and utterly different views about how the world works" in an April 16, 2011 article titled "Civility Is the Last Refuge of Scoundrels" (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/civility-is-the-last-refuge-of-scoundrels/?emc=eta1).
President Obama's re-election strategy is clear: having run and won on "hope and change" and then presided over unprecedented deficit spending that failed to keep unemployment at or below 8% and forced through Obamacare (and then issued 1,500 waivers to favored applicants), he's posing as a centrist, confident that the Far Left will support him on Election Day 2012 regardless of whom the Republicans nominate to oppose him, and hoping that Republican Congressional leaders can be bamboozled or intimidated into a debt ceiling increase plan that will induce the Tea Party to support a third party candidate.
Tragically, the chance that Republican Congressional leaders will capitulate instead of stand strong is increased significantly by the media-promoted myth that President Obama is an honorable man who tells the truth (or at least thinks he's telling the truth).
Then candidate Obama blatantly lied in the last presidential debate in order to win the Presidency, and being elected and inaugurated does not transform a liar into an honest man. Obama during the last of the three presidential debates:
"...with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they've done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn't really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names.
"It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved. The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.
That was NOT Obama's only involvement with ACORN, and he very well knows it. See "Does NYT Know MORE About Obama/ACORN?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081020).
Led by The New York Times, the liberal media establishment put President Obama in the White House, by eschewing their responsibility to the American people and sparing him scrutiny.
Fox News was willing to bring ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief to New York to appear on "Fox & Friends" on the Friday before Election Day 2008 and to stay over the weekend to make more appearances, but she was then a "liberal" wary of Fox and supportive of Obama and she declined. See "ACORN WHISTLEBLOWER: OBAMA'S THIRD STRIKE?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081022), "Why Obama and ACORN Fear Anita MonCrief" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081029), "Anita MonCrief: Obama Supporter and Exposer, ACORN Whistleblower and Blogger" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081102) and "Will ACORN Steal the Presidency for Its Man, Obama?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081104).
Thereafter, Fox News cautiously kept its criticisms of President Obama to policy.
Ironically, Fox News even welcomed ACORN alumna Jehmu Greene as a Fox contributor.
ACORN founder Wade Rathke describes the "ACORN family of organizations" as including "a variety of other supports for direct organizing and issue campaigns, such as Project Vote..." (http://chieforganizer.org/biography/).
Jehmu Greene served as ACORN's national director (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehmu_Greene) and MonCrief worked with her.
Is Project Vote radical?
Suffice it to say that Frances Fox Piven of the notorious Cloward-Piven strategy to undermine America (see James Simpson's "Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis" at www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html) is a board member (www.projectvote.org/our-board.html).
For America's sake, truth must trump "civility" and lies must be exposed regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, sex or presidential status.
© Michael Gaynor
July 26, 2011
For America's sake, truth must trump "civility" and lies must be exposed regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, sex or presidential status.
Abraham Lincoln said: "If given the truth, [the people] can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
George Washington stated that "[t]ruth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."
Unfortunately, there are those who choose to try to conceal the truth and to make it as painful as possible for those who seek to have the truth prevail.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) recently declared: "We know from the House rules that the president never lies, but he is taking advice and information from somebody apparently who is willing to lie, because it's just not true. The fear mongering needs to stop."
Astute Americans got the message, while Rep. Gohmert deftly avoided possible sanction by the House of Representatives for calling President Obama a liar!
After all, the reaction when Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) called President Obama a liar during the 2009 State of the Union Address indicated that the need to maintain "civility" trumped the truth.
Rep. Wilson shouted "You lie!" at President Obama as he outlined his health care plan and claimed that his proposed reforms "would not apply to those who are here illegally.
The incident attracted national and international attention. Then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel immediately urged senior Republican lawmakers to identify the shouter and urge him to apologize immediately. Members of Congress from both parties condemned the interruption. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) not only pronounced it "totally disrespectful," but opined that there's "no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately."
That evening Rep. Wilson issued a statement to the effect that he had "let [his] emotions get the best of [him] listening to the President's remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill" and extending" sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility."
Obama accepted the apology, noting that it was made "quickly and without equivocation" and pronounced himself "appreciative." Nevertheless, House Democrats called for a formal apology on the House floor and, after Rep. Wilson responded that "one apology is sufficient," passed a "resolution of disapproval" against Wilson, on a nearly party-line vote. Former President Jimmy Carter attributed Rep. Wilson's "dastardly" charge to "racism." Then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama disagreed.
Even before he was elected President, questioning President Obama's integrity was risky. In 2008, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) publicly wondered whether then Democrat presidential candidate Obama had anti-American views during an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" and likewise was pilloried for her temerity. Rep. Bachmann criticized Obama for his association with Rev. Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright and Bill "domestic terrorist" Ayers, commenting: "...usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us, and it seems that it calls into question what Barack Obama's true beliefs, and values, and thoughts are...I am very concerned that he [Barack Obama] may have anti-American views." Bachmann added, "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look...I wish they would...I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America, or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose like that."
Reaction was swift and fierce. The Democrats in Minnesota's Congressional delegation issued a joint statement questioning Rep. Bachmann's ability to "work in a bipartisan way to put the interests of our country first in this time of crisis. Rep. Bachmann clarified that she was not questioning Obama's patriotism, but was "very concerned" about his views" and did not "believe that socialism is a good thing for America."
By March 2010, Rep. Bachmann declared that she "look[ed] like Nostradamus" for having said that she "had very serious concerns that Barack Obama has anti-American views.
A year later, on "Meet the Press," Rep. Bachmann was asked if she still believed that President Obama had un-American view and responded that she believed that "the actions of this government have...been emblematic of ones that have not been based on true American values" and she had "very serious concerns about the president's views."
People who believe in traditional American values certainly should have such concerns!
"Civility" and decorum should be maintained if possible, of course, but the truth is the truth and pretending otherwise is unacceptable.
"Liberal" Paul Krugman of The New York Times had a point when he wrote "...what are we supposed to have a civil discussion about? The truth is that the two parties have both utterly different goals and utterly different views about how the world works" in an April 16, 2011 article titled "Civility Is the Last Refuge of Scoundrels" (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/civility-is-the-last-refuge-of-scoundrels/?emc=eta1).
President Obama's re-election strategy is clear: having run and won on "hope and change" and then presided over unprecedented deficit spending that failed to keep unemployment at or below 8% and forced through Obamacare (and then issued 1,500 waivers to favored applicants), he's posing as a centrist, confident that the Far Left will support him on Election Day 2012 regardless of whom the Republicans nominate to oppose him, and hoping that Republican Congressional leaders can be bamboozled or intimidated into a debt ceiling increase plan that will induce the Tea Party to support a third party candidate.
Tragically, the chance that Republican Congressional leaders will capitulate instead of stand strong is increased significantly by the media-promoted myth that President Obama is an honorable man who tells the truth (or at least thinks he's telling the truth).
Then candidate Obama blatantly lied in the last presidential debate in order to win the Presidency, and being elected and inaugurated does not transform a liar into an honest man. Obama during the last of the three presidential debates:
"...with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they've done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn't really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names.
"It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved. The only involvement I've had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.
That was NOT Obama's only involvement with ACORN, and he very well knows it. See "Does NYT Know MORE About Obama/ACORN?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081020).
Led by The New York Times, the liberal media establishment put President Obama in the White House, by eschewing their responsibility to the American people and sparing him scrutiny.
Fox News was willing to bring ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief to New York to appear on "Fox & Friends" on the Friday before Election Day 2008 and to stay over the weekend to make more appearances, but she was then a "liberal" wary of Fox and supportive of Obama and she declined. See "ACORN WHISTLEBLOWER: OBAMA'S THIRD STRIKE?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081022), "Why Obama and ACORN Fear Anita MonCrief" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081029), "Anita MonCrief: Obama Supporter and Exposer, ACORN Whistleblower and Blogger" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081102) and "Will ACORN Steal the Presidency for Its Man, Obama?" (www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=gaynorm&date=081104).
Thereafter, Fox News cautiously kept its criticisms of President Obama to policy.
Ironically, Fox News even welcomed ACORN alumna Jehmu Greene as a Fox contributor.
ACORN founder Wade Rathke describes the "ACORN family of organizations" as including "a variety of other supports for direct organizing and issue campaigns, such as Project Vote..." (http://chieforganizer.org/biography/).
Jehmu Greene served as ACORN's national director (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehmu_Greene) and MonCrief worked with her.
Is Project Vote radical?
Suffice it to say that Frances Fox Piven of the notorious Cloward-Piven strategy to undermine America (see James Simpson's "Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis" at www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html) is a board member (www.projectvote.org/our-board.html).
For America's sake, truth must trump "civility" and lies must be exposed regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, sex or presidential status.
© Michael Gaynor
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
