Truthfulness

Deflecting a question by answering it with vagueness is not truthfulness. President Obama's "Nobody is listening to your telephone calls" is an example. This may be the stuff of law schools and debating societies, but it is not truthfulness on a critical matter of government intrusion into private lives. In a media-driven culture this is a dangerous precedent. Lying has become more and more acceptable in the political arena. As newspapers yield to author-promoting Web content, the standard of objective truth in reporting has deteriorated.

 

Yes, I hope nobody specific in the government is assigned to listen to my specific phone calls, but the government is engaged in the business of 'listening' to our private and personal communications through computer technology. This is the truth of the matter, which President Obama wishes would go away, especially while he is wining and dining the Chinese President, who is presumably a master of government intrusion as a manner to clamp down on protest and civil liberties. Perhaps they had a good laugh over dessert about the hypersensitivity of American libertarians.

 

This form of mincing words over an important issue of civil rights is a form of government corruption. It is more subtle than taking lots of money to deliver a political promise made during an election. However, it is just as corrupting over time. Information is power. Power corrupts.

 

Mr. Obama ran as a religious moralist, a change agent, a peacemaker. He has performed as George-Bush-Lite.