Comments on: Why Do We Keep Believing Them?

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:04:38 +0000

Are you suggesting, Jason, that Obama has broken a bunch of promises or done something different from what he said he would do? He, in fact, said he would surge in Afghanistan, continue the war in Iraq, remake the economy to be a euro-socialism model, and on and on. That people didn’t believe him is hardly my fault.

By: TerryP

TerryP — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:55:27 +0000

I like to call politicians “skilled liars” and we have one of the best as our President or at least he is extremely good at using and twisting words so that just about everyone can pull the meaning that they want to out of his words. This leaves him a lot of latitude to say that he never said certain things and to do many things that just don’t seem like what he told us.

By: tarran

tarran — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:04:27 +0000

Jason,

Here is an article that explains what Eric is talking about.

Obama Doesn’t Plan to End the Iraq Occupation:

Anyone who took the time to cut past Barack Obama’s campaign rhetoric of “change” and bringing an “end” to the Iraq war realized early on that the now-president-elect had a plan that boiled down to a down-sizing and rebranding of the occupation. While he emphasized his pledge to withdraw US “combat forces” from Iraq in 16 months (which may or may not happen), he has always said that he intends to keep “residual forces” in place for the foreseeable future.

On the economic front, remember his support for Bush’s nationalization of capital markets.

However, Obama was intentionally vague. People who parsed his comments recognized that old Hope ‘n Change was more the “Audacity of Sagflation”

By: jason

jason — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:41:11 +0000

Eric,

Just because you say it with authority doesn’t make it true. Please cite for me where, in the campaign, Obama vowed to continue the war in Iraq? Tell where he promised to “shovel corporate welfare” to investment banks?

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:35:12 +0000

Tarran wrote:

Had Barack Obama vowed to continue the war in Iraq and expand the war in Afghanistan while shoveling corporate welfare at the investment banks that his treasury secretary had worked at …

Ummmm, that is what he vowed. If you listened to his words, read his campaign site, paid attention to the primary campaign, especially, he promised all those things.

Amazing how people are surprised. It reminds me of Chamberlain’s shock in 1938 …