Obama and the George Burns Presidency

George Burns was a clever man. He was more than a wry comedian; he was also a perceptive observer of the human condition. One of his more famous observations was that the secret to acting was sincerity. At this he would pause, then tellingly add, “if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Our current president is a master at faking sincerity. He is among the most articulate chief executives the nation has ever had, but more than this he is also among its most earnest. It almost always sounds as if he means every word that he says. Whether he is delivering a speech, or speaking off the cuff to a Jay Leno, there is conviction in every syllable he utters.
The problem is that Obama has trouble with the truth. His predecessor habitually stumbled over his words, whereas Obama does the same with the facts. He seems content to arrange these anyway that he pleases. Thus, he has a habit of making up numbers. He does what Mitch Snyder, the late homeless advocate, did, albeit with less candor.
Two decades ago Snyder was asked how many homeless there were in the country and he replied that there were three million. This became the official figure repeated in the press for years to come. Even when the census bureau reported that it could find only three hundred thousand, its numbers were suspected. Media experts assumed that the government had a vested interest in minimizing the problem.
Eventually an enterprising reporter asked Snyder where he got his figure. At this point, something unusual occurred. Snyder was honest. He told the journalist that he had made it up. Because those who had originally asked had wanted an answer, he decided to give them one. Obama regularly does something similar, but he is far less up-front about it.
How many times has the president told the nation that his stimulus package would produce, or save, three to four million jobs? How many times has he declared that his green energy program would create five million unexportable jobs? Obviously he has done so many dozens of times—always with complete sincerity.
Yet where did he get these figures? Even his own economists, if they are being honest, have to admit that he made them up. Economic predictions are notoriously unreliable; nevertheless the president presents them with a conviction that sounds as if it were grounded in irrefutable facts. There is a stentorian quality to his voice and a straightforward look in his eye that are difficult to contradict.
Nonetheless, he is faking it. He is making promises designed to elicit support, not predictions that will later be subjected to rigorous test. Count on it; if the numbers do not add up as currently stated, they will be revised without any acknowledgement that there has been a revision. The president will simply count on voters having short memories.
In the meantime, he will rely on a time-honored formula for persuading people that something is in their interest. He will continue to repeat his fictitious numbers with an undiluted conviction. He understands that even blatant lies are believed if they are reiterated frequently enough. Such is the way that an aura of sincerity is created.
And what will be the reaction of the American public? Will our response be the one that Burns predicted? Will we be taken in and confer on Obama the success that he desires? And if we do, will there be a penalty awaiting us down the road?
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University