AND THE PINOCCHIO GOES TO…

Earlier this week, the Washingon Post issued its annual Pinocchio Awards for the biggest political whoppers of 2013. The list includes the ten worst lies of the year – those that receive four out of four of the adorable little statues with the big noses. Our President received three of the ten for Obamacare, Benghazi and something about Capitol Hill janitors getting a pay cut. These aren’t the only lies he told, of course. Just the very tallest of his tales.

What about the Lame Spin Award? It goes to the Washington Post itself for claiming that Obama’s Syrian red line edict was not a fib and, hence, not deserving of a Pinocchio. In fact, the Newspaper wrote an entire article trying to explain away the President’s unfulfilled threat of military force if the Syrians used chemical weapons. The Paper does not dispute that Obama, and plenty of others in his Administration, repeated the warning on several occasions. Nor does it dispute that the Syrians did use chemical weapons after the warnings were issued. And, of course, there was no American military intervention in Syria.

So, what gives? According to the Post, the first time Obama made the threat was in an unscripted moment during a press conference. We all know what meaningless exercises those are. Unfortunately, his stunned staffers weren’t clued in on what the rest of know. They felt compelled to repeat the threat in order to save face for their boss. And so it went over the months with the warning being re-issued periodically.

The moral of the Post’s story is that it’s o.k. to fib if the whopper isn’t planned in advance. After all, no one can be expected to tell the truth without a script.