Washington Post finally wakes up

It has only been over two years, but the Washington Post finally catches on that when Obama says "let me be clear" it really means "please disregard all my previous statements on the issue that I am about to contradict."

When Obama is being "clear" these days, he is saying something quite different than when he was being clear in 2007 and 2008. His shifting use of the phrase traces the arc of Obama's time on the national stage, from campaign sensation to a president beset with challenges that rhetoric alone cannot overcome. In a presidency in which everything is murkier than Obama could have imagined, the "let me be clear" preface has become a signal that what follows will be anything but.

The Post even suggests that Obama trots out the phrase as cover when he is being less than truthful.

Instead of making bold declarations, Obama was now setting policies that threatened to conflict with campaign promises, such as his vow not to raise taxes on anyone except the wealthy. Very quickly, "let be me clear" went from offense to defense, becoming a rebuttal on points where the facts were not that evident. To his opponents, it became a sign of obfuscation or indecision to follow.

"Now let me be clear -- let me be absolutely clear, because I know you will end up hearing some of the same claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people," he said in his joint address to Congress in February. "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, a quarter-million dollars a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime." Since then, several proposals have muddied that assertion, including the Obama-approved tax on costly health insurance plans.

As the health-care debate heated up last summer, Obama's calls for clarity intensified. "Let me be absolutely clear about what health reform means for you," he said in July. ". . . It will keep government out of health-care decisions. It will give you the option to keep your insurance if you're happy with it." In fact, the government's role in health care would increase under the legislation, and the changes would, in all likelihood, result in many people ending up with different coverage through reasons not of their own choosing.

Of course it would have been more helpful if they had pointed this out prior o the election; you know, that period of time when the media tells us that it is their duty to vet the candidates. But I guess it is kind of easy to miss these things when your face is buried in the candidate's crotch.