In a past life known as the '90's, I directed a few plays. My staging style was one where I would not give any instructions to the actors first and watch what they came up with. I would then judge whether or not their natural choices were consistent with what I thought the characters needed to convey and give notes accordingly. On rare occasions (perhaps not so rare), my choices were worse than the actor's. When that happened, I would say to that actor, "Remember when I said 'X' I lied."
I want to be clear here, that I had not actually uttered a statement that was untrue. Saying "I lied" was my way of acknowledging my error, the actor's instinct had been better than mine and he or she should go back to it. In the Hal to English dictionary, "I Lied" = "I was wrong."
There's an old adage in politics that only 2 things can kill a political career- being caught with a live boy or a dead girl. I'm going to presume that his adage only applies to male politicians and move on. For my money, lying should be taboo for a politician, but I now accept it as their stock and trade (or is the expression stock in trade?). However, as much I would love to have elected officials who never lied, I would much rather have a collection of liars who were willing to admit mistakes.
As exhibit one, I submit the Iraq war. The chief architects of that war defend it to this day. Even when presented with the "if you knew then. . ." questions they defend it. Most of the defense argument boils down to statements to the effect that other governments saw the threat- that the Democratic President, Bill Clinton saw the threat. I will stipulate that other governments saw a threat in Iraq if Bush officials will also stipulate that those other governments got their intel from us (which they did).
I will likewise stipulate that President Clinton saw a threat in Iraq if the Republicans will admit that he did not see a need to send troops to eliminate that threat. When President Bush (43) asked Congress to give him the authority to use force against Iraq, he said he would only do so as a last resort. What happened between October 2002 when the AUMF was passed by Congress and March 2003 to make war the only option? I have never seen a member of the administration asked this question.
Regarding Iraq, I don't need anyone to say "I lied" even though they did. I just want one person to say, "I was wrong." All those tax cuts that were supposed to spur the economy even though they were the same tax cuts that were proposed when the economy was humming along well- I don't need an admission of guilt. I just want an acknowledgement of error.
Republicans are talking about the "failed leadership" of President Obama on every issue. At a recent debate, on the question of Libya, a candidate said he would do the opposite of what President Obama did. Really? The bad guy is dead, the people won no Americans lost their lives, and it didn't cost much. What part of this do you not like?
The right is saying we can't raise taxes on job creators during a fragile economy. Okay fine. However, rich people aren't job creators, they're just rich people. If they were job creators, they would have created jobs and we wouldn't be in the mess we are in. If tax cuts spur economic growth and tax hikes kill an economy, then why did the Reagan recovery take place after he raised taxes. Why did unprecedented economic growth to the tune of 8 years averaging 225,000 new jobs per month occur after the Clinton tax hike? The simple answer- from those politicians against those policies- "I Lied."