PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FOUR TRUTHS!

By Edwin Cooney

As far back as I can remember, I’ve been told how important it is to know and to tell the truth.

I’ve generally been successful at admitting the various truths about myself to others (although I often lie to myself about myself), but identifying worldly truths or reality is quite another task.

The first time I was ever aware of my president lying to me was back in May of 1960 when Ike said the U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union and piloted by Francis Gary Powers was a “weather plane.” What made President Ike’s lie worse was that it was uncovered by Nikita Khrushchev, a “fat little pig-eyed godless communist” whom
J. Edgar Hoover warned us not to trust. That was the beginning of my political disillusionment, but I didn’t realize it then. After all, I knew who I could really bank on for good judgment and especially for the absolute truth on all occasions: his name was Richard Nixon. (I was a childhood prodigy; I had wisdom beyond my years!)

Since my traumatic teen years, I have been looking for truths. I have been told that the clergy are the main source of truth, since their truth comes from Holy Scripture and from “above.” Yet it seems that too many of them are preaching divergent versions of the truth, so it gets rather confusing.

So, I stick to politicians. No, it’s not quite as bad as that: I wait for a politician to be nominated for the presidency and then I become a believer.

So, let’s see now: there was Ike and the weather plane -- then there was JFK’s fidelity to Jackie -- then there was Lyndon Johnson’s “generation gap.” President Nixon, who wasn’t a crook, had an honest wife and two lovely daughters. Honest Jerry, who taught us that “truth is the glue that holds us together,” had lots of questionable friends -- especially Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter was a man of sterling truth and morality, who probably took himself more seriously than he did truth on occasion. Ronald Reagan undoubtedly was truthful in his intention to cut the size of government and government spending, but the real truth is that he did neither. George Herbert Walker Bush invited all of us to “read his lips” while promising us that he’d never raise taxes -- of course, he would not have raised taxes had it not been for those evil Democrats. President Clinton would have always told us the truth but, like the word “is,” he found truth difficult to define. President George Walker Bush thought he was telling the truth about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but that nasty untrustworthy Saddam Hussein let him down!

Last Thursday night, however, President Barack Obama offered us four truths:

Truth One is that we live in an economic emergency that has left millions of people jobless.
Truth Two is that both Republicans and Democrats have supported government programs when they have considered it politically and patriotically beneficial to their constituents.
Truth Three is that the public deserves to be protected from unscrupulous environmental, economic, and social forces beyond their control.
Truth Four, the most profound of these Obamian truths, is that in the current economic emergency, the public cares much less than politicians and media talk show hosts do about who will be elected in 2012.

Of course, President Obama isn’t the first leader to be truthful.
Ike told us the truth about the existence of the pervasive military industrial establishment.
JFK was truthful when he asserted that we could afford to go to the moon by the end of the 1960s.
Lyndon B. Johnson was truthful on the subject of civil rights.
Richard Nixon was truthful about the importance of our future relations with China.
Gerald Ford was truthful when he explained the Nixon pardon.
Jimmy Carter was truthful when he asserted that human rights were more important than international political or diplomatic conveniences.
Ronald Reagan was truthful when he characterized the USSR as “the evil empire.”
George H. W. Bush told the truth about the seriousness of drugs in America.
Bill Clinton told the truth when he said he had much to be forgiven for.
Finally, George Walker Bush told the truth when he assured America that the 2007 “surge” in Iraq would be successful.

I know, you all would like to know when Barack Obama might be less than truthful! Okay, here it is:

He may know damn well, although he isn’t telling us, that Americans have less in common than he has insisted we do! He may finally realize, after nearly four years of trying to work with his political opponents, that their political principles matter more to them than the common good!

If that possibility doesn’t scare you, it ought to!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY