This perception versus reality thing is rearing it’s ugly head again in regards to the Presidency. Just about every conservative pundit and blogger out there (myself included) looked at Obama’s record in the Illinois legislature and U.S. Senate (what record there was) and assumed that he would immediately make good on his campaign promise to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately. He promised to be a different kind of politician, putting together an administration that did not represent Washington insiders, but outsiders, with new, fresh, progressive ideas.
I don’t know that I’ve ever been more comforted to discover that Obama is the same old kind of mendacious, obfuscating, say-anything-to-get-elected-and-then-do-what-you-have-to-no-matter-what-you-promised brand of politician. In short, Obama lied. He gave every indication that he was going to tilt our defense and homeland security hard to the left. In fact, if we can judge future performance by his cabinet nominees, he’s going straight to the center, bypassing a main course of “dove” with a healthy serving of “hawk.”
Thank God. [Read more…] about The Paradox Effect.