The canard is attributed to the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Clearly, in increasing order of vileness. However, as a politician himself, Disraeli must surely have known that the words of politicians outclass all these types of lies.
Consider the following statement:
"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."
Undoubtedly the words of a far right Israeli politician? Lieberman perhaps? No.
Must be Bibi Netanyahu in his more aggressive mood? No.
In fact, these are the words of Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, on 4th June 2008, addressing an AIPAC audience. Of course, this was before he was elected, with a not unsurprisingly huge Jewish vote - 78% of Jewish voters actually believed what he told them!
Abraham Lincoln, an even more eminent statesman than either Disraeli or Obama, once said "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
Honest Abe - I wouldn't bet on it.
Come next month with the mid-term United States elections, Obama is putting his money on being able to fool most of the people most of the time.
And he might just be right.
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