20 November 2007

Bush's Big Lie

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan reveals in a new book that Bush asked him to lie about the outing of Valerie Plame. Sadly, Bush wanted McClellan to lie in order to restore his credibility after the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

It would be hard to think of a more poignant symbol of this lost presidency than a lie told to restore credibility. But the real lie of his presidency is not a lie that will be revealed in memoirs. Rather, it's a lie that is always and never mentioned.

One of the first lessons learned studying economics is the lesson of opportuinty cost. Any one thing you choose to do with your time or money comes at the expense of countless other things. If you spend the money on remodeling, you won't have money for a new car. If you spend the evening at the opera, you miss the basketball game.

The big lie that Bush has been telling is that nothing this country could do would better the planet or the lives of Americans more than spending a trillion (or two) in Iraq. The lie McClellan revealed pales in comparison to this. I can think of no bigger lie that Bush could have told. And this is a lie that Bush has never tried to hide. He doesn't even know that it is a lie.

2 comments:

Life Hiker said...

RWorld, you got it exactly right. There is nothing worse than a powerful manager who is devoted to stupid ideas and has no clue regarding the chaos he is creating.

We we've Bushed. In eight short years he's wrecked our economy out of negligence, shown us to be both arrogant and impotent in foreign affairs, overtaxed our military, and put a few holes in our constitution. Good intentions gone terribly awry.

The Plame scandal will be a mere footnote in the story of his disastrous presidency.

David said...

Scott denies that story. So, whoever told it lied. How about that? I thought only Bush lied.