I had dinner with a GOP media strategist last weekend as 100 missiles were fired from the Mediterranean at 4x4 trucks and other “high-value” targets outside Benghazi, Libya. We recapped the 2008 election cycle, both agreeing that something has to be done about Colorado- but that’s for another column and another day.
“You know,” my friend said after watching the CNN coverage of the missile strike, “the problem is that too many people in politics forget that winning and losing over the long-term really comes down to telling the truth.”
On the truth, Obama fails the "smell test."
And that’s why Obama’s declaration of war against Libya is the most decisive step yet in assuring that he becomes a one-term wonder as president. His latest “read-my-lips” moment has shown even the left-wing that “O” stands for zero, nothing, zip, beyond himself.
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Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat, has even suggested that Obama be impeached, saying that Obama isn’t a “king” but a president who needs to consult Congress before declaring another Overseas Contingency Operation in Libya. On this Kucinich is right. Obama’s actions in going to war without a congressional declaration of war very well may be impeachable beyond anything alleged to have happened with other presidents.
Obama, to be sure, will try to paper over the difference with words.
Conservatives have become accustomed to the left using words as an assault the truth. The left deconstructs everything through a kind of moral relativist prism where right means wrong, left means right. Obama, however, has lifted the art form to a level that‘s both Orwellian and Nixonian at the same time.
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One of Obama’s first actions as president, as the economy sagged and swayed, was to rename the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) to the more melodious “Overseas Contingency Operation.” Never mind that millions of sailors, soldiers and airman proudly wear their GWOT ribbons everyday as tribute to their very real sacrifice; or that the little bit of metal and ribbon that sits over their heart might be about the only meaningful thank-you they’ll enjoy from the government.
The administration preceded redefining the terms of war by first redefining terrorism as a “man-caused disaster.” Thank goodness for that!
Now our troops can rest easy knowing that when their time comes their families will be comforted by something like this: “The Department of Defense regrets to inform you that PFC. Smith has died on deployment in the Overseas Contingency Operation Part II from wounds suffered by a man-caused disaster in and around Benghazi. Thank You.”
Look, words that we use or misuse matter. They say a lot about us as a civilization and as citizens. Once you start redefining the word “is,” it’s a short step to claim credit for “jobs saved and created” by shoving a trillion or two into our economy, despite data that says otherwise.
That’s why many of us become enraged when Obama claims that oil production is going up, as his administration does whatever it can to block oil production. That’s why so many of us call him a liar when he tells us he is committed to coal after bragging he’d put the coal industry out of business. That’s why so many people still wonder whether Obama was born in the U.S. or not.
When words are so deliberately and consistently twisted to rob them of any real meaning, people start to search for meaning in words that’s hidden from view.
No man, not even an automaton like Obama, can so contort words again and again, without revealing something about himself to the rest of us, if only, accidentally.
“O,” in a personal sense, has no identity beyond himself. He’s just empty words that add up to a zero, identity-wise.
And that zero, which is the sum of Obama's identity, will lead to the next logical number in the sequence of his life: one.
As in one-term.
For John Ransom's daily market commentary follow him on the Townhall Finance blog: The Ticker.
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