You Lie! by Bill Cashill

Syllogism:  Politicians lie.  Barack Obama is a politician.  Therefore, Barack Obama lies.  QED.

Bill Cashill may or may not agree with the first premise, but he sure can attest to the conclusion.  In his new book You Lie! The Evasions, Omissions, Fabrications, Frauds, and Outright Falsehoods of Barack Obama, Cahill categorizes, describes and details the many ways in which Obama has lied and misled the American public.  Following the example of congressman Joe Wilson, who called out to Obama "You lie!" from the floor during a joint session of congress, Cashill describes "the very essence of [Obama]: Sinatra sings, Astaire dances, Obama lies."

This book is much like others of its genre.  If you already can't stand Obama, You Lie! will fuel your contempt for him and cause you wish for a quick end to his term.  If you love Obama, You Lie! will drive you nuts.  You will hate it, and wish for a way to come to his defense.  If there's a theme or a pattern in You Lie! I would say it is this: Whether talking about his past or making promises for the future, Obama is exceedingly self-serving and shapes the narrative to whatever he feels sounds best, truth or not.  The second, indispensable part of that theme is that the press is so infatuated with him that they don't bother with fact checking or calling him out when he lies.  The result is a president who "would transform America from a country whose White House respected the trust to one whose White House played with it."

Obviously, Cashill is no fan of Obama.  But that doesn't mean he throws around unfounded accusations or unsubstantiated facts.  Rather, all of his claims are thoroughly sourced and cross referenced.  I will say this, not really as a criticism, but as an observation.  Many of the examples of Obama's lies in You Lie! are flat out lies, like the "Selma is a part of me"story.  But others are politics.  The biggest and most consequential is the "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" lie.  Obama may have believed it when he said it, so it's not technically a lie.  But his problem is that he talks big like that, and when he can't deliver, he tries to turn it around like he didn't really mean it.  It's his arrogance, mixed with his inexperience, that has made his presidency such a disaster.  Oh yeah, and his lies.

I cynically began this review by pointing out that all politicians lie.  That's not strictly true, of course.  But Obama takes the stereotypical and all-too-common practice of political lying to an extreme level.  Cashill has done a great service by compiling these all in one place.  Obama lovers will never read it, nor would they believe what they read.  But the rest of us know the truth.  More specifically, the rest of us, unlike Obama, know what truth is.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!