You Can't Handle The Truth!

In one of the greatest film scenes of all times, Jack Nicholson admonishes a younger, saner Tom Cruise that American's "can't handle the truth." The great thing about fiction is that integrity and truth always get to win, and Nicholson's character goes to jail for lying. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we held our political leaders to the same standards that we hold our fictional characters?

This issue is generally a bipartisan one, and it's easy to point out equally in both parties the politicians who regularly bend the truth. Barack Obama and Joe Biden play this game better than most. You practically have to stand around the corner from them to hear what they are saying. But the game has always been about shading the truth with a quote or a stance that has at least some factual evidence while leaving out the less interesting whole story. That's part and parcel in politics, and most people accept that politicians ride the ragged edge of honesty. However, what we've witnessed from the Bush administration in the past eight years is clearly a policy of lie first, dissemble if necessary, and cite executive privilege or national security whenever you receive a subpeona.

That's what is quickly dragging down Governor Palin's approval numbers. Immediately after the Republican convention, she was the most popular celebrity in America, and for good reason. As I mentioned in an earlier post, her background represents a large section of our population who have been invisible for a long time. However, she is quickly falling from the pedestal of popular support mostly due to her repeated lies but also due to her refusal to answer questions. Palin doesn't shade the truth with a bit of evidence, she blatantly contradicts herself and John McCain on virtually every issue raised. From her support for the "bridge to nowhere," to how she accepted the invitation as McCain's running mate, to her involvement in "Troopergate."

When I was a young boy, my mother and I were watching a movie in which a man jumped from the top of a tall building to commit suicide. I told my mother, "Gee, that would be fun!" To which my mother could only utter a horrified "WHAT?" I calmed her with the reply, "Well, at least until you reached the bottom." Palin is not walking the ragged edge of honesty in her political speeches, she has leaped with arms wide off the cliff and is now hurtling at terminal velocity toward her political demise, dragging McCain's campaign with her.

In this past week, Palin has shown her colors in her only legitimate television interview since the nomination. She has been caught in an ever increasing number of lies, and she and her husband are now refusing to honor subpeona's for their testimony in the Troopergate scandal. This sounds eerily familiar to Americans who have watched Bush, Cheney and their staffs do the same thing. Do we really need another vice president who doesn't know how to tell the truth?