The Politics of the Big Lie (vs. all the little lies)
In the beginning, there was only Iowa. Iowa, innocent and unknown, was most likely tiring of all the political focus. Iowa was weary of the political saturation from the ceaseless efforts of ten presidential candidates, no twelve, okay, maybe more than a dozen. At some point Iowa just wanted it over. There were so many political ideas, ways of ‘getting IT done’, and ‘this is the right process’, that it was confusing. I mean they (the dozen or so presidential hopefuls) professed solutions that were in complete conflict with each other. They were downright divergent. They were ‘all the little lies’ to anyone who thought differently from whomever was espousing the idea or remedy of the day.
So where is a ‘Big Lie’? Was there a ‘Big Lie’ too? Yes, it was in Iowa. It happened in December. It fell from the lips of the candidate who would later claim victory (albeit: the slimmest of victories, a meager third of the vote) in the Democratic Caucus. He said (and this is a quote from the NY Times), “….the only nuclear legislation that I’ve passed. I just did that last year….” (The Big Lie). This was in response to a discussion on leaks in Illinois of nuclear plant groundwater contamination. Nuclear contamination.
Again, I quote the author, Mike McIntire from his February 3, 2008 article in the New York Times, titled, Nuclear Leaks and Response Tested Obama in Senate.
The Big Lie was told to a crowd in Iowa and was in response to nuclear plant regulation concerns. It went like this…
“…Mr. Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was “the only nuclear legislation that I’ve passed.”
“I just did that last year,” he said, to murmurs of approval.
A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon (contributed over $225,000 to Obama) and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks…”
It is ‘The Big Lie’ because he never passed the legislation, many in Iowa believed him, and the Illinois senator was never quizzed about it. He then moved forward basing a part of his entire campaign on something he didn’t do, but said he did.
To base your first win on ‘The Big Lie’ is to have the rest of your wins cast in that shadow of your ‘First Big Lie’. Judgment is critical to Senator Obama’s presidential hopes. He has little else, no bills or legislation of his own passed, no lengthy time in the US Senate, and maybe just his veracity as his only virtue. But where is that ‘good judgment’, and veracity, if you told ‘The Big Lie’ first?
By
A. Ross Morris
