Byron York: Why Does This Administration Believe It Must Lie About Nearly Everything?

Good question.

Bill Clinton's critics in Arkansas used to say that he would rather climb a tree and tell a lie than stand on the ground and tell the truth. In other words, Clinton would lie when the truth would do -- and when telling the truth would be easier.

The saying might apply to the Obama administration's public statements about Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier released from captivity in Afghanistan in a trade for five Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo Bay. There is substantial evidence to suggest that Bergdahl abandoned his post in 2009 -- he went AWOL, he deserted, whatever one calls it, Bergdahl walked away from the U.S. Army and his fellow soldiers while on duty in a war zone.

So why did the White House send National Security Adviser Susan Rice to the Sunday shows to claim that Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction"?

It wasn't necessary. Rice, speaking for the White House, could have said something to the effect that "Bowe Bergdahl is a troubled young man who made a terrible mistake. Nevertheless, he is an American soldier, and the United States wants him back. The president had a difficult decision to make in balancing the release of the Taliban detainees with this country's longstanding policy of not leaving U.S. forces behind in a war zone, no matter the circumstances."

There are three reasons, all of which are true to some extent:

1. Obama, the White House, the Democratic Party, and the All Democrat Media no longer think in terms of what's "true" or "false" but only in terms of "giving Republicans a line of attack" or "denying Republicans a line of attack."

Giving Republicans a line of attack is The Worst Possible Evil -- worse certainly than lying, worse even than instituting a tyranny in a formerly democratic republic -- and is to be avoided at all costs.

To give Republicans room to criticize Obama for his political choice is too much an indignity for the Unprecedented to bear. Ergo, the narrative must be rewritten so there is no such room to criticize him.

Therefore, it must be the case that Bowe Bergdahl is an All American Hero, and we should all be euphoric to have him back at the low, low price of only five hardcore Taliban.

2. They think their Words are so potent they change the very nature of reality by speaking them, very much akin to a Djinni's Wish.

This is a combination of them thinking they're that smart, and we're that stupid -- it doesn't matter what the actual facts are, they are confident enough of their own brilliance, and the public's drooling mental slowness, that they can spin exotic new realities in press conferences and #HashtagsForJustice.

3. Obama is an extreme narcissist who is not only incapable of locating fault in himself, but incapable even of acknowledging he ever makes a less than heroic choice.

The circumstances surrounding one Bowe Bergdahl are, at a minimum, murky.

The statement York proposed above reflects that murkiness.

But Obama conceives himself as the All Conquering Hero. He lives in the world of his boyhood daydreams, in which it's always fourth and long and behind by 5 points and he hurls the Hail Mary pass sixty yards downfield right into the arms of his receiver in the endzone.

Therefore, in ObamaWorld, the murkiness surrounding Bergdahl's disappearance can't be permitted to exist. Those facts, were they true, would undercut Obama's fantasy conception of himself as All Conquering Hero, and therefore, of course, must not be facts.

What we see happening now is what happens when an Unstoppable Ego collides with an Unavoidable Fact.

It's not pretty.

posted by Ace at 03:31 PM

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