Even Obama's opposition repeats his mythology as fact. Jim Geraghty, in No, You're Wrong observes that Obama has changed from his earlier, less partisan self:
Perhaps one of the best examples of [Obama promoting mutual respect and trust] came shortly after he was elected to the Senate. In 2005, he wrote his second book, The Audacity of Hope, and described an e-mail from a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical School. The message expressed how the campaign’s website made it impossible for the doctor, a pro-life Christian, to support Obama....
So Geraghty accepts, based solely on Obama's word, that he used to be the kind of politician who reached across party lines. But what verification is there of Obama's story? Did it actually happen?
Like Slate's John Dickerson, Geraghty is assuming that Obama has changed, using Obama's own highly unreliable narrative as the basis for his belief.
Four years ago, the author of this site, who voted for John Kerry, was involved in a just-for-fun 527 called Football Fans for Truth, which said that John Kerry was not fit to be our sports-fan-in-chief. (See? Not a very good Democrat.)
The best source for Kerry sports absurdities was this ESPN Magazine interview, in which the candidate tried to be a "regular guy" and talk sports. After finding several inaccuracies with a number of his comments, the truth suddenly hit home: Everything he said about sports was a lie. Absolutely everything. And that meant that Kerry wasn't at Game 6, mourning, when the ball went between Buckner's legs.
And indeed, he wasn't, as Football Fans for Truth proved. At least, he was at a dinner that same evening. Kerry actually had to send his senior campaign adviser out to argue that Kerry left the dinner to hop a copter to the game. Oooookay.
The parallel is instructive.
Obama's past reveals a man with ambiguous convictions who relied almost entirely on patronage and political affiliations to move ahead. He was friendly with the far left. His own stated political views were those of a standard liberal hack who never had to worry about winning over the center. He wrote an entire memoir on his obsession with race.
Then suddenly, in 2004, he is a man who rejects political labels, claims he wishes to "transcend race", and wants to renounce "politics as usual". Yet in case after case, he is found to be distorting or flat out lying about his past. Given the role Obama's life story plays in his campaign, his lies represent a far more serious problem than, say, not actually having attended Game 6.
The conservative side of the media aisle should start with the premise that everything Obama says about his life is a lie.
Jim Geraghty should ask when Obama's actions have done anything other than belie his rhetoric, instead of bemoaning a change that probably never took place.
Obviously--or perhaps, hopefully--a few of Obama's touching stories will turn out to be true. But journalists should stop accepting them at face value and make him work to prove his life narrative. He's more than earned the doubt.
Jun 12, 08 06:05 AM