BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

How Obama maintains his popularity. by Fred Barnes In football, it's called misdirection. When the ball is snapped, offensive linemen pull from the line of scrimmage and head to the right or left. A running back takes off in the same direction. But it's a deception. The play, a run or a pass, actually goes in the other direction. It's a clever tactic--pretending to head one way while going another--that also works in politics. President Obama is the master of misdirection. His skill in using this tactic is a key to his success as a candidate and to his popularity as president. He is a great salesman, marketing his product--the liberal agenda, plus a few add-ons--in a manner that disguises what he's really up to. Misdirection isn't the same as exaggeration. Everyone understands that politicians inflate their accomplishments. So their self-puffery is discounted. Misdirection is different. It is meant to deceive. When Obama intervened to prop up General Motors, he said...

By Frank J Ranelli Within weeks of the nation’s first postal service delivery, somebody must have uttered the now infamous and proverbial lie, “The check is in the mail”. Richard Nixon’s, “I am not a crook”, and Bill Clinton’s, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”, all certainly conjure up images of famous falsehoods. George W. Bush’s, “Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program”, proved to be a toweringly tall tale. Have we become a nation of liars? Lying, it would seem these days, is fashionable. Sure, politicians have always lied, but with each passing generation, they lie more and the lies become larger. Have once stately statesmen, who now fib with every breath and word, become the replica for our own deceitful deeds? Is this finally the generation that embraces pious propaganda, haughty half-truths and marvelous mendacities as the measure of morality? Fibbing, it would seem, is no longer faux. Some have made a living off of lying in order to enlighten us with...

Bush's truth decay I originally posted this article on this blog in August 2005. Since people are FINALLY waking up to what many of us knew from day one - BUSH IS A LIAR - I thought it was a good time to post again (trying hard not to say TOLD YOU SO...) By KENNETH R. BAZINET -- DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON (August, 2005) - One of President Bush's most attractive traits has been his reputation for straight talk, but a new poll yesterday found that fewer than half of Americans think he's honest. Only 48% of respondents to an AP-Ipsos survey think he's honest, while 50% do not, the poll indicated. That is a five-point drop from January, when 53% of Americans thought Bush was an honest President. Moreover, some 56% of Americans think he's too cocky, up from the 49% in January who said they view Bush's confidence as arrogance. A solid majority still see Bush as likable and a strong leader, but Bush's overall job approval was at 42%, with 55% disapprov...