does he actually believe this?

This afternoon, I was in a brokerage office that had CNBC playing on a large television behind the service counter. While I was waiting to complete my transactions, I got to watch a portion of President Obama's address in New Hampshire in which he spoke of the need for fiscal responsibility. I was alternately angry and amused to listen to the President.

First he announced that he had followed the record deficit of the Bush administration. Needless to say, he did not mention that Bush left a $400 billion deficit which Obama quickly pushed up to 1.4 trillion dollars. Second, Obama said that in hard times families tighten their belts and that is what he wants to do with the federal government; unfortunately, the Republicans were not cooperating with him on deficit reductions. That was the funniest bit -- it sounded more like SNL than CNBC. Imagine, Obama pushed through 800 billion in stimulus spending over Republican opposition, he pushed through an expanded budget over Republican opposition, and he pushed for enormous expenditures for healthcare "reform" meeting Republican opposition, but according to Barack, it was the GOP opposing spending restraint. Indeed, his new budget pushes spending up so much that the deficit will increase from 1.4 trillion to 1.8 trillion dollars for 2010 -- but it is the GOP who are the spendthrifts. Third, Obama pushed the merits of his spending freeze -- only this would stop profligate spending. Of course, he did not mention that the freeze does not affect anything for another year. We will first see the two biggest spending increases in history for Obama's first two years and then the numbers will be frozen at the amazing heights to which Obama pushed them. This is supposed spending restraint.

As Obama read from the teleprompter, I was trying to determine if he actually knew how dishonest his remarks were. I could not tell. I believe Obama to be an intelligent man, so I find it hard to accept that he does not realize that he is lying. Still, it may be that he finds it so hard to accept reality that he truly believes his statements. I also cannot tell which is worse: do we have a president who cannot recognize reality, or a president who blatantly and repeatedly lies thereby showing his clear contempt for the American people?