Why Presidents Lie
I read this piece in The Atlantic and have wanted to blog it for a few weeks. It is entitled Untruth and Consequences by Carl M. Cannon. The first line is an eye grabber: "From Washington to FDR to Nixon, presidents have always lied. Here’s what makes George Bush different." With all the rhetoric about WMD’s, quagmires, 9/11 conspiracies, Guantanamo, etc. floating around, this article was just begging to be read. The article starts out with lies told by FDR’s aids about his health. He was in poor shape but with Allies getting ready to kick some ass in Europe and the Navy bouncing around in the Pacific it seemed prudent to lie to America about how many hours the President actually worked- at most 4 hours and day, sometimes as little as 1. Roosevelt’s cardiologist described FDR’s condition as "god-awful"- hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac failure, and acute bronchitis all on the chart. But it would have been disastrous for the war effort to reveal the ...