Obama Lies but Voters Projection of What They Wanted to Believe

See June 4, 2010 Wall Street Journal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575284693139359582.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Author and blogger Virginia Postrel, in an interview in the June issue of Reason magazine:


"Glamour is a particular form of illusion. It's an illusion that tells a truth about the audience's desires, and it requires mystery and distance. During the campaign people projected onto Barack Obama whatever they wanted in a president or even in a country. Lying is usually a bad thing, but they would project onto him that he was lying about his positions because he secretly agreed with them: 'Anyone that smart has got to be a free trader at heart. He's just saying this to pander to those idiots. He can't really mean it.' . . . [T]here is always this capacity for disillusionment. People have projected so much of what they think, including things that are sort of impossible, onto a glamorous figure, that when any flaw shows up the glamour is dispelled and suddenly he becomes terrible."