The Narrative

We are a little more than a week away from a historic election-- one in which we will choose between a European social democracy or a more free market oriented system.

This blog has been critical of President Obama, mainly for his disdain for business, the capitalist system, and individual liberty.  No statement by Obama encapsulates that more than his infamous, "You didn't build that."  He consistently derides wealth creation with comments like, "After a certain point, you've made enough money."

But even more distressing is his penchant for creating narratives that don't fit the facts.  He did this early on in his presidency when he jumped to the conclusion that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" when they dealt with Henry Louis Gates.  Gates had a hissy fit while the police officer ascertained his identification when he tried to gain entrance to his own home.  Obama jumped to the conclusion that the Cambridge police were engaged in racial profiling when in fact they were simply following protocol.  Obama cooled the matter with his silly "beer summit," but the damage had been done.  Obama had invented a story.

Likewise, during the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Obama ascribed its root causes to the vitriol of the political discourse.  The left wing media landed on this immediately and began to blame Sarah Palin for putting out ads with districts with bullseyes on them.  It turned out that the political discourse had nothing whatsoever to do with the shooting of Giffords.  It was simply a single mentally ill individual with no political motive.  Again, Obama takes facts and makes up a story to try to fit his agenda.

But now his yarn spinning has taken a deadly serious turn.  For weeks after the attack on our embassy in Libya, his administration tried to peddle the story that the murder of our ambassador and three other Americans was a consequence of a mob protesting an anti-Muslim film that got out of hand.  Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, and Obama himself railed for weeks afterward that this film was disgusting and in concert, they clearly tried t o mislead the American people.  The facts now show that there was no "mob" and we knew early on that this was a terrorist attack.

Why did the administration falsely ascribe this attack to the film?  Because it fit the narrative.  The liberal script is that whenever there is aggression, it is America or Americans that are to blame.  It could not be that radical Islam is the aggressor.  We provoked them.  Is it any surprise that despite Obama's vows to bring the perpetrators to justice, the only person sitting in jail is the fool that made the film.

Taken together, these incidents tell us that Obama has a ready made view of the world that he attempts to mold facts to fit.   As we get closer to the election, I hope voters will taken these into account and decide that we want a commander in chief that deals with facts as they are, not as they would wish them to be.