POTUS Gets 3 Pinocchios

Anyone that regularly reads the Washington Post knows that they have a group of staffers fact-checking the various distortions of fact used by public officials. To be fair, many such distortions are actually laudable efforts to simplify complex issues into more digestible component parts. In other instances, such oversimplifications cross the line into distortions so large that they deliberately mislead the public. Part of the problem is that which of these one sees in the pronouncements of public officials is often in the eye of the beholder. The Washington messaging machine is in a constant spin-cycle where, too often, coming up with a clever-- but too frequently disingenuous-- sound bite for the 24 hour news cycle is all that really matters.

This weekend, the Post decided to fact check some of President Obama's claims regarding the merits of the Keystone XL pipeline. Many of you know that the Keystone XL debate heated up again last week as both the House and Senate took up measures supporting the line's construction (see my post on this). As many of you also know, the key measure under consideration was taken up in the Senate and ultimately defeated 59-41(link).

Yet, in many ways it was comments by President Obama about Keystone XL made while he was in Asia that struck many observers because they suggested a strongly negative view of the merits of the project. The essence of his remarks was that Keystone XL was essentially a conduit through American territory for Canadian oil to be exported to overseas markets. Americans, he argued, would see few of the benefits. It is a line of argument that the Washington Post has called the President out on and issued him a dubious award of 3 Pinocchios out of 4 (see story here).

I think President Obama has lots of good reasons (politically) to hold off approval of Keystone XL. As I've argued in previous posts, Keystone is a small card he could play with Republicans on some other issue during his next two years as an increasingly lame-duck president. However, he doesn't help his own credibility on the issue by stooping to the same level of oversimplification as his political opponents. For a president that is often accused of being so deliberative that he is often indecisive, his simplistic statements on Keystone XL are both a bit of a surprise and indicator of the steep political hill Keystone XL still needs to climb.

3 Pinocchios!!!! Nicely done, Mr. President.