Not as I say, do as I do

I enjoy finding or stumbling upon or otherwise having sent to me an election candidate schematic or web page that asks questions and shows you the best candidate to satisfy your positions. I think we would all like someone to just tell us our choice is the right choice. That is a separate issue from this post, but it does say something about the candidates.

The point of this bit is doing as I say and not as I do - it can be any issue: medical care, Iraq, military support, Iran, or on whatever issue a candidate speaks.

For example: I am candidate C and I would like to be the next occupant of the White House, which supported and funded a war I voted for or agreed to when it was very popular. Now the war is not popular and my base of support comes from a bunch of losers who would eat me alive if I supported it. I have suddenly decided I oppose the war and had I known everything I know now I would have always opposed the war and would have fought against the war and would never have taken us to war.

Easy to say now. Position taking is a remarkable ability of politicians. Find an issue, one that has already been decided, and take the most popular position. It cannot be reversed, you may, in your heart, know it was the right decision, but you also cannot get elected without your idiot base supporting you. The decision: oppose it and claim you would have always opposed it. It doesn't matter now. It is not like you would, if elected do anything different than the guy who started the US into the conflict, but you pretend, you make-believe, you devise for yourself and your idiot base an alternate universe, one where you would do what they (would / have) (approve/d) of. What I am still perplexed about is - why they are not called on this tactic. Why a columnist, however dim-witted he or she may be, why they do not punctuate the airwaves and print media with details about this tactic - for everyone in politics is aware of this option, and anyone outside who is at all half awake knows that politicians make statements to contrast themselves from someone else, but may, personally, believe just the opposite.

In my world, we call them liars and hypocrites.