| October 30, 2008 | Herb Denenberg
Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 10:11:47 AM by jazusamo
Sen. Barack Obama, as a world-class liar, has come to the top in the list of the greatest lies ever told. Move over such old staples as, "Your check is in the mail," and "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." Consider the output of Sen. Obama.
The lies bursting forth from one of the great world-class liars are so numerous and extraordinary it is impossible to rank the Top 10 or 20. They all deserve first place recognition. This column has already discussed some of the more noteworthy Sen. Obama lies, such as the first few listed among the long list of the greatest lies ever told.
* "William Ayers [the unrepentant terrorist] was only a guy in the neighborhood." Mr. Ayers it turns out was in fact a close collaborator, friend and associate. But that should surprise no one as Sen. Obama seems to have attracted a list of friends, associates and collaborators who come closer to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List than to what you would expect a candidate for president to be running with.
* Or how about Sen. Obama's claim he didn't know what Rev. Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright stood for. When it comes to lies this has to be almost first place among equals. Sen. Obama sat in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years, sought him out because he was a political activist, worked with him, took the title of his book from one of his sermons and on and on. If that doesn't prove Sen. Obama's a liar and can't be trusted, I don't know what will.
* One of Sen. Obama's signature lines is that 95 percent of Americans will get tax cuts or at least avoid tax increases. That means if your income is less than $250,000 a year you're in good shape. But now we've just heard from Sen. Joe Biden the figure is $150,000 and on occasion Sen. Obama's people have used $200,000. You can be sure this is a lie, as the Obama people know you can't pay for the $700 million bailout, tack on another trillion dollars in new spending, give everybody health care and adopt all kinds of other new spending programs and still cut all those tax rates.
It sounds too good to be true and it is too good to be true. It is a lie, pure and simple, and all too typical of the campaign. Before believing that lie, consider his record. He recently voted in favor of raising taxes on those with income as low as $42,000. There's another reason Sen. Obama knows it won't work. He is also going to "soak the rich" and "spread the wealth around." That's his terminology for taxing small business, big business, investors and entrepreneurs out of existence. They are the engines of prosperity and job creation.
When you start raising the capital gains tax rate, the dividend tax rate and the rates on small business entrepreneurs and when you insist on a corporate tax rate among the highest in the world and then slap on windfall taxes, higher payroll taxes for some and other taxes, you kill the goose that lays the golden egg. When you make the risk benefit ratio look much less attractive, when the benefits go down as the tax rate goes up, business just won't play the game. Whether you call this socialism, Marxism or something else, the button line is the same: Our engine of job growth and prosperity slows down big time under the Sen. Obama tax plan, and we all pay the big time price tax for such reckless policies made all the more reckless by their application in bad economic times. You learn in Economics 101 not to raise taxes in an economic turn down. So, of course, Sen. Obama wants to raise taxes in the teeth of a recession.
* Here's another slick Sen. Obama lie. It is slick as it seems to be truthful, but it carries a message Sen. Obama and his campaign know to be false. He says 98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000 and so his tax plan won't adversely impact small business. The lie is in the details.
Twenty-one of the 27 million small businesses don't even have employees. But when you take the small businesses with income of more than $250,000 you're talking about 70 percent of all small business income. So his tax plan, despite the misleading and meaningless statistic relied on, will severely impact "Joe the Plumber" and most small businesses that provide the jobs and economic prosperity we need. Because of this ill-conceived tax, small business will raise prices, cut back on employment, or not create new jobs.
* Here's the all-time Sen. Obama foreign policy lie: Iran is just a tiny country and not a real threat. Well, maybe that's not a lie. Maybe it's just an untrue statement Sen. Obama actually believes. But if that's the case, it's an even more damning indictment of the foreign policy views of Sen. Obama. His advisers eventually told him his statement was ridiculous and he retracted it. But a president can't take two or three passes to get it right. On foreign policy, Sen. Obama (when without his teleprompter and 200 foreign policy advisers), gets it wrong the first or second time around, and then eventually gets it right.
* Another signature line is that Sen. Obama will bring change, change you can believe in, and all that jazz. Sen. Obama represents, and has always been, an extremist, radical, left-wing liberal Democrat and would revive all the rejected and failed policies of the Democratic Party, most notably more taxes, more spending, bigger government, more onerous regulation and a weaker military and timid and ineffectual foreign policy. That's not change. It just the same old Democratic stuff repackaged with fancy rhetoric.
* Here's a Sen. Obama lie that has to be considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest, lies of the campaign. That lie is that Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party are responsible for the present financial crisis because of their stance on deregulation. In fact, Sen. McCain and the Republican Party wanted to put an end to the abuses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were making unsound mortgages in an ill-founded and dangerous plan to make housing affordable for even the credit unworthy.
Sen. McCain issued warnings and proposed remedial legislation. Who told us all was well and went along with the status quo that was heading toward catastrophe: The Democratic Party, spearheaded by Sen.Chris Dodd (who took a sweetheart loan from one of the mortgage companies in on the gravy, that some might view as a bribe), and Rep. Barney Frank who reassured everyone as recently as June 2008 that all was well at Fannie and Freddy. And what was Sen. Obama's role? He was raking in political contributions from those connected with Fannie and Freddy. In fact, he was second only to Mr. Dodd, but in terms of contributions per year he got more tainted money from Fannie and Freddy connections than anyone in the Senate.
The irony and tragedy is that the Republicans and Sen. McCain are being blamed for the financial meltdown that was brought upon us by the improper, shortsighted, unethical activity of the Democratic Party and Democratic legislators such as Messrs. Dodd, Frank and Sen. Obama.
* Another classic lie is that Sen. Obama is a centrist. He tries to portray himself as a moderate and a great compromiser. In fact, he is an extremist, a radical, a socialist, a Marxist and a highly partisan legislator. His proposals are to the far left. His voting is to the far left. And his administration will be to the far left. He is the most liberal member of the Senate, followed by socialist Bernie Sanders in second place followed by Sen. Biden in third. This is probably the most liberal ticket in the history of presidential politics.
* Still another classic lie is he is non-partisan. He has never reached across the aisle and worked with the other party on any issue of real significance. He is, and has always been, a hardline, leftist, extremist and radical. There isn't a non-partisan bone in his record. That quality is reserved for speeches only.
* Sen. Obama constantly harps he wants to help the middle class. That's his rhetoric but his record turns statement into a lie. That's because he's never done anything for the middle class but talk.
* One of his most vicious lies was made right after Russia launched its illegal aggression against neighboring Georgia. Sen. Obama's comment included a statement that we'd have more credibility in such matters if we "set a better example." This suggested that our internationally sanctioned liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein was somehow a bad example, and that detracted from our ability to protest Russia's aggression against Georgia. Sen. Obama knows better. America has set the best example in the history of the world for using its treasure and blood to help others, to free others and to fight for the rights and freedom of others.
We saved Europe, and the world, from Nazism, communism and Japanese imperialism. We rebuilt our defeated enemies after World War II. We have sent endless aid to other nations and regions after national disasters. We are responsible for one of the great humanitarian projects to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa. We have given the whole world the benefit of our endless inventions to improve the health and welfare of all from medical advances of all kinds to the invention of all kinds of technology. We are indeed the golden city on the hill that pours forth the endless benefits of our system of freedom and liberty to all of our citizens and the rest of the world. So where does Sen. Obama, who has had every advantage of our system, come to complain about the example we set.
* One of Sen. Obama's biggest lies is his pledge and promise to take public financing of elections. He broke his promise in a minute, as soon as he saw that private rather than public financing would bring his campaign more money.
Sen. McCain kept his promise. Sen. Obama's promise breaking is especially significant for several reasons. First, he is breaking his promises even before the election. WOW, after the election he'll break them even faster. Second, public financing was one of his key tenets, but it went under the bus as soon as Sen. Obama saw it wasn't expedient at the moment. Third, he went into his usual disingenuous spin to try to excuse himself and lie himself out of it, suggesting his version of private financing was in effect public financing because so many contributions came from small donors. He breaks his promise and then tells a ridiculous lie to excuse his breaking that promise. How good is his promise to hold the line on taxes of everyone making less than $250,000? What are any of his promises worth?
* Sen. Obama claims he is a friend of Israel. Yet he honors and gets grant money for Rashid Khalidi and his organization, knowing that Mr. Khalidi is a virulently anti-Israel operative with links to terrorist organizations. He attended a going-away party for Mr. Khalidi, an Arafat associate, along with unrepentant terrorist Mr. Ayres and pays tribute to Mr. Khalidi. At that party, Mr. Obama sits around and listens to all kinds of anti-Israel speeches. Mr. Khalidi also held a fund-raiser for Sen. Obama and was often his dinner companion.
Investor's Business Daily on its Web site, www.ibdeditorials.com (Oct. 27) concluded, "This should be enough for Obama supporters who stand behind Israel to rethink their vote. Those concerned about honesty and integrity should do the same, since Obama has sworn to be a friend of Israel." When confronted with this, Sen. Obama will probably say (as he did in the case of terrorist Mr. Ayers) he is just a guy in the neighborhood.
Incidentally, the Los Angeles Times has a tape of the Mr. Khalidi going away party, an Israel-bashing session in which Sen. Obama participated. The Times has refused to release the tape, in keeping with the mainstream media's campaign to sell Sen. Obama and keep the truth from the public. For that reason, you can be sure Sen. Obama is a hundred times more dangerous and unqualified than portrayed by the mainstream media.
Sen. Obama also attended Rev. Wright's church. Rev. Wright was and is well known for his speaking and writing was often laced with anti-Israel commentary. Sen. Obama says he's a friend of Israel, but if he were would he be supporting, working with, and praising a stable of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic friends?
* One of the cruelest lies of the Obama campaign was the claim Sen. McCain is out of touch because he doesn't make a lot of use of the computer. He doesn't because of war injuries.
* There are many other Obama campaign spots that depend on lies. For example, one suggested Sen. McCain was willing to stay and fight in Iraq for 100 years. Sen. McCain had simply made the point that, as for example, in Germany we still have troops there more than 60 years after the end of World War II. So that's entirely different than fighting a 60-year or a 100-year war.
* I won't even get into the whopping lies from Sen. Biden, as that would require a 30-volume encyclopedia. I will mention perhaps the latest. He said, in the now famous Florida satellite interview Sen. Obama didn't say he wants to "spread the wealth around."
He did say that and he said much worse in the now famous 2001 interview in which he says one of the great failures of the civil rights movement was its failure to get more redistributive justice, i.e., spreading the wealth around.
I could go on, but remember this is only a small sample of Sen. Obama's lies proving his basic dishonesty and proving he is unfit for high office. Remember, also, he has not been vetted by the mainstream media, and even when it made feeble attempts to do so, he usually stonewalled or brushed aside the questions.
We don't know enough about him to even consider him seriously as a candidate. But we do know enough about him to compel a vote against him.
Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and professor at the Wharton School. He is a longtime Philadelphia journalist and consumer advocate. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences. His column appears daily in The Bulletin. You can reach him at advocate@ thebulletin.us.
