Don’t Lie To Me

There is no shortage of punditry and spin these days associated with President Obama’s policy and popularity crash.

Many people would like you to believe that Obama is merely unpopular at the moment because of the ‘rough start’ to Obamacare. I do not think that is the case. I think there is something more fundamental going on.

The latest CBS poll shows Obama’s job approval numbers have crashed to 37%. That is basically down to family, friends, and die hard partisans. 37% is nearly the floor for Presidential approval numbers.

Sure, Obamacare’s roll-out has been disastrous, but that is not the real issue. Knowledge that the roll out was as disaster was very broad last month, but last month the same poll showed President Obama’s approval at 46%.

So why the crash?

Trust.

There are 37% of the population that will stick by Obama no matter what and another 37% that made up their minds that he is a socialist crumb-bum a long time ago. And then there is the 26% in the middle. The 26%, that up until now, were willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt. They generally liked him and generally trusted that he was trying to do the right thing.

You might ask, “How could they possibly trust him?” Obama has been a liar from the beginning! Even during the scandals of the last year, scandals in which the President’s veracity was more than a little suspect, people continued to like him and give him the benefit of the doubt. Even though the President and his administration have been scandal-ridden, lying, and covering up for some time(See Benghazi, IRS scandal, spying and lying, etc.) people still trusted him.

So why now?

In all the other scandals, Obama was lying to them. Lying to Republicans who are out to get him, lying to cover up and avoid trouble, and so on. In all these scandals, many Americans perceived that the President was not entirely truthful or forthcoming, but they cut him some slack.

They cut him some slack because he was only lying TO THEM.

But now, now the President is lying TO ME.

President Obama has been lying TO the American people and they can no longer ignore it. He lied TO THEM about something that it is critical to them and their families. And then he continued to lie about it, even lying about the lie. The lie was so craven and so obvious that the American people pierced the veil and they saw. Not only did he lie to them, but he treated them like idiots in the process.

And when they saw, the trust was broken. When that trust was broken, that and the accumulated weight of all the other lies have crushed the President’s approval numbers.

There is no benefit of the doubt anymore, only doubt now. Is suspect that the President’ approval will never truly recover. They may not stay this low, but this is no passing fit of anger by the American people. When you lose trust, it is very difficult to regain it. It is particularly difficult to regain it when you continue to lie. But after all, that is what liars do. They lie.