Rove: Obama's Stretching Truth

Barack Obama is a man who "instinctively resorts to parsing, evasions, and misdirection" writes Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal. Take the Rev. Jeremiah Wright episode—in 62 days, Obama offered eight different characterizations of the controversial preacher ranging from "an old uncle" to someone who "denigrate[s] both the greatness and the goodness of our nation."

Last October, Rove notes, Obama accused people who wear flag pins as using a substitute for "true patriotism." Six months later, he claimed he never said such a thing, and a month after that, he was sporting a flag pin, saying, "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't." Obama runs the risk of solidifying a reputation as revisionist, Rove warns—which will give him "a very difficult time in November." (More Barack Obama stories.)