The Glib Factor [View all]
Glib: (adjective) readily fluent, superficial, or insincere.
My father used to say that an honest person is often at a disadvantage in an argument with a liar: the honest person has only the truth to tell, while a liar has unlimited options. However, he noted, the honest person only needs to remember the truth, while even that liar with a strong memory rarely can recall all of lies he has told.
I thought about that last night, as I watched the presidential debate. From the opening statements on, I thought that President Obama seemed flat. He provided the only truth in the contest, but his presentation was not as energetic or forceful as I had hoped. Willard Romney, on the other hand, was lying with the gusto that resulted in many people -- and not only the anti-Obama and/or pro-Romney folks -- declaring Mitt the “winner.”
In a historical perspective, that’s not a surprise. It makes Barack Obama the 4th out of five sitting presidents to lose the opening televised debate against his challenger. And, for better or for worse, last night’s debate is now part of American political history. Yet that is not the only context in which we can and should view the debate. Indeed, in purely political terms, it is but the first of three presidential and one vice presidential debates set for this month.
More, in the larger political sense, a candidate who appears “flat” in the first debate can rebound far more easily than one who can be shown to be a pathological liar. But to more fully explain this, let me use a non-political illustration. Before retiring, as some here know, I was employed at a county mental health clinic. Much of my work was in forensic mental health, which simply means working on cases that involved the judicial system. And before that, I worked in another county, investigated incidents of family violence -- most often child abuse. No surprise that I have had the experience of encountering some of the damnedest liars our society produces.
I rarely found it productive to confront pathological liars in general, pre-trial situations. Rather, I would document, document, and document their lies. Then, I’d document some more. When the court process began, I was well-prepared to show each and every lie. The “little” lies were often as important as the “big” ones, because they show that pathology we know as “glibness.” And, oh my glibness, no judge or jury likes a glib liar. Just can’t trust them.
No matter if one thinks that President Obama did okay last night, or that he gave a sub-par performance, the fact is that the national media is focusing on two primary issues today: first, that Romney exceeded expectations, while President Obama was flat; and second, that Romney -- at very least -- stretched the truth to the point that many of his previous positions were unrecognizable.
The VP debate next week will be important. I find Joe Biden to be one the most most respectable politicians of my lifetime …..not because he is perfect -- no one is -- but because he is usually passionate about telling the truth as he sees it. On the other hand, I hold Paul Ryan beneath contempt. The fact that since being selected for the vice presidential slot, Ryan has been exposed as a petty liar is just -- because his “rep” was built upon the old “even if you disagree with him, you like him, because he is honest” baloney.
Likewise, Romney’s campaign relies upon a “clean-cut” image. And in politics, it is not just if you get tripped up: it’s how far you fall. The Democratic Party has the ammunition needed to show the general public that Mitt is yet another lying politician. But it is up to Barack Obama to expose Romney as the glib, pathological liar that he is. The President has two more debates in which to do so.
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