While the relationship has been on rocky ground, Obama’s honeymoon with CBS news is over. They might even be heading for a divorce. CBS news reporter puts two stakes into Obamacare at a recent White House press conference. The president himself was at the podium and working without a net.
BARACK OBAMA: Major Garrett.
MAJOR GARRETT: Thank you, Mr. President. You said while the law was being debated, if you like your plan, you can keep it. You said after the law was implemented or signed, if like your plan, you can keep it. Americans believed you, sir, when you said that to them over and over. Do you not believe, sir, the American people deserve a deeper, more transparent accountability from you as to why you said it over and over and when your own statistics, published in the Federal Register, alerted your policy staff, and I presume you, to the fact that millions of Americans would, in fact, probably fall into the very gap you are trying to administratively fix now? That’s one question. Second question. [Laughter in room.] You were informed or – several people in this building were informed two weeks before the launch of the website that it was failing the most basic tests internally. And yet, a decision was made to launch the website on October 1. Did you, sir, make that test and if so, did you regret it?
OBAMA: Okay. On the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to. Had I been informed I wouldn’t be going out saying “boy, this is going to be great. You know, I’m accused of a lot of things but I don’t think that I’m stupid enough to go around saying this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website open it if I thought it wasn’t going to work.
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GARRETT: Did you decide, sir, that the simple declaration was something the American people could handle but this nuance was something they couldn’t handle and didn’t trust the American people with the fuller truth?
OBAMA: No. I think, as I said earlier, major, Major, my expectation was that for 98 percent of the American people either it genuinely wouldn’t change at all or they would be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace.
Things People Do When They are Lying
1. Less finger pointing, 2. Lip licking, 3. Lip puckering/tightening of lips, 4. Increased drinking and swallowing, 5. Fewer hand gestures, 6. Hand-to-face grooming, 7. Sighs/deep breaths, 8. Hand and shoulder shrugs, 9. Handling objects, 10. Looking away to the side or down, 11. Touching nose, 12. Crossing arms, 13. Closing hands into fists. 14. Covering of ones mouth 15. Stroking a mustache 16. Scratching of the nose 17. Twisting of the hair 18. Scratching the face 19. Lack of eye contact 20. Crossing of the arms 21. Adjusting clothing 22. Using the hands to fiddle with objects 23. Nervous tics and jitters 24. Speech that is too slow 25. Speech that is too fast 26. Frequent hesitations 27. Lack of direct eye contact 28. Qualifiers/modifiers: not necessarily, but, however, almost, generally, basically. 29. Denials of lying: frankly, obviously, to be 100% honest with you, as far as I know. 30. Speech errors: this is the old Freudian slip, changing your thoughts and details mid-stream. 31. Pause-fillers: filling empty spaces with um, er, ah, uh. 32. Stuttering: a liar gets tongue-tied, runs words together, stammers and slurs his speech Add them up yourself, one point a piece. Where is Obama on your Lying Scale?
