Big Lie or Small Truths?

In this week's New Yorker, Hendrick Herzberg discusses what he calls the Big Lie, that Barack Obama " is a corrupt, enraged, anti-American, drug-dealing, anti-Israel, pseudo-Christian radical leftist, black militant, plagiarist, and liar, trained as a Muslim and mentored by a menagerie of Marxists, Communists, crypto-Communists, and terrorists. "

We deconstruct:

corrupt - he arranged for convicted Chicago fixer Tony Resko to purchase a plot of land next to his million dollar house.

enraged - have you been to his Fight the Smears web site? I'd say he's enraged.

anti-American - maybe a little bit, we've reported that here.

drug-dealing - Obama has fessed to doing drugs but not to dealing them but that's often a thin line (and a bad coke pun).

anti-Israel - he has said a couple of nice things about Palestine so he'll have to concede that.

pseudo-Christian - as are half to three-quarters of the people who sit in Church each Sunday.

radical leftist - that just goes with saying he is a community organizer.

black militant - perhaps that's only a half truth.

plagiarist - his speechwriters were plagiarists which is not quite the same thing.

liar - he's a politician, what do you expect?

trained as a Muslim - he did go to grade school in a muslim country, and read up on Malcolm X.

mentored by a menagerie of Marxists, Communists, crypto-Communists, and terrorists - he went to Harvard Law School in the late 1980s so he'll have to concede that one too.