<p>As a bit of a disclaimer, I should confess that I believe that politicians, by their very nature, exaggerate, fib, lie. Their resume narratives are often apocryphal. (ß That is a lie with a college education.)</p>
<p>The most often asked question is “why.” Why do politicians tell lies that are so easily debunked? Trump is accused of the so-called BIG LIE about the election, but I find it more perplexing that he has repeatedly said his dad was born in Germany when he was actually born in the United States. Senator Richard Blumenthal repeatedly told voters that he served in Vietnam during the war – until he remembered he did not. Then there is Congressman George Santos. That would take a separate commentary.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton said her plane came under sniper fire in Iraq. She was mistaken. It was only a child bringing her flowers. (That is similar to the bogus story that got Brian Williams kicked off of his perch as primetime anchor for NBC. In case you forgot, he falsely reported that his helicopter was hit by enemy fire in Iraq.)</p>
<p>Since President Biden is Irish, perhaps we should call his inventions “malarkey.” His most recent malarkey was telling an audience on this 9/11 that he had come to the site the day after the attack. Actually, he came to the site as a member of a bipartisan delegation twelve days later. That is not something to be so easily forgotten. If he really does not remember his visit, then the issue of mental acuity arises.</p>
<p>CNN’s fact checker Daniel Dale jumped on that bit of malarky. He also reminded viewers of Biden’s history of … “inaccuracies.” He noted that Biden misrepresented the truth three times in his Inflation Reduction Act speech in Milwaukee.</p>
<ol>
<li>He claimed to have witnessed the collapse of the bridge in Pennsylvania when he actually viewed the scene a day later.</li>
<li>He reported an anecdotal conversation with his favorite Amtrack conductor, Angelo Negri, about his having traveled more than one million miles on Air Force planes while Vice President. At the time Biden had reached that mark and announced it publicly, Negri had been dead for more than a year. He told Negri that he was on the train to visit his ailing mother. Her condition was far worse than Biden relayed. She had been dead for five years at that time. Biden responded to the applause of the audience by saying: “True story. I swear to God.” In fact, Biden frequently follows up with his bull crap by reaffirming that it is true.”</li>
<li>Biden had similar mental lapse when talking about the death of his grandfather. Biden tells how he was born in the same Scranton, Pennsylvania hospital in which his “grandpop” died two weeks prior to his birth. Actually … his grandfather died in a Baltimore hospital more than a year before the President’s birth.</li>
</ol>
<p>Dale also reviewed a number of other Biden fibs, calling his being truth-challenged “a pattern of invention.”.</p>
<ol>
<li>As a senator, Biden claims to have been arrested as a protester for civil rights. He may have been on the scene as an observer, not protester, and he was reportedly given a courtesy ride home by a local police officer. He was not arrested.</li>
<li>Long after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, Biden spoke of his visit to the site and meeting with the rabbi. He never visited the site. (Is remembering something that never happened worse than forgetting what did?)</li>
<li>Biden often referred to his days of driving an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer truck. He was never trained or licensed to drive a big rig. It ever happened. Perhaps he got confused with the time he drove a school bus.</li>
</ol>
<p>CNN had previously called out Biden for claiming that in his first two years as President, he cut the National Debt by $1.7 trillion dollars. In fact, the National Debt has risen to record levels during his presidency – more than a $5 trillion increase. When the White House said he meant the “deficit” not the National Debt, CNN challenged Biden on even that claim – arguing that the overwhelming reduction was due to the scheduled end of pandemic emergency funding. Nothing to do with his policies.</p>
<p>Going beyond Dale’s report, we should also recall how Biden claimed to have been at the top of his law class, when he was actually in the bottom quarter. Or how he had won a full scholarship when he got a small partial scholarship. Or how he thought he wrote stuff that others really wrote. (That bit of plagiarism created a scandal that got him booted off his 1988 presidential campaign.)</p>
<p>Even when he is corrected by fact checkers and others, Biden continues to repeat his favorite lies. Biden has spent a lifetime embellishing the facts – or just inventing them. If his aging brain is not the entire explanation, it could now be a mix of habitual prevaricating and deteriorating mental cognizance.</p>
<p>To put it politely, Old Joe is full of malarky.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Is Biden a liar or just losing it?
