David McElroy

We don’t see traveling men selling snake oil as a cure-all anymore, but we still see plenty of people peddling it. The hucksters no longer drive from town to town in wagons. They appear on television and ask us to elect them president.

It’s no surprise that politicians tell lies. We talked Thursday about the fact that they’re just following the incentives the voters give them. The more interesting question is why people believe the claims. My view is that they believe because believing the fantasy is easier than confronting the truth.

The latest snake oil to catch my attention is a scheme to balance the federal budget that’s become popular among the Republican presidential candidates. It’s called “Lean Six Sigma,” and at least six GOP candidates (or recently dropped out candidates) fell victim to the goofy ploy.

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I never had any heroes when I was growing up. Most kids idolize a parent or teacher or somebody. I realized today that the closest I’ve ever come to seeing someone as a hero is Steve Jobs. That’s why his sudden resignation from Apple Wednesday left me with a lump in my throat.

Jobs is a polarizing figure. Most people who are familiar with him and his work either love him or hate him. He doesn’t give much room for middle ground, because he has strong opinions, a strong vision for how things ought to be, and an apparent internal need to stamp his vision on the world around him.

“I want to put a ding in the universe,” he said long ago.

Jobs could be a jerk to work for when he was young. He was arrogant, mean-spirited and rude. He mellowed a lot with maturity, but he was still too strong for some people’s tastes. I see him as a terribly flawed but wildly talented visionary genius. If I could find a way to emulate a tenth of what he’s accomplished, I’d be very happy with my earthly success.

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Last fall, Rick Perry published a book called “Fed Up!” in which he called Social Security “a crumbling monument to the failure of the New Deal.” He was telling the truth then, but he’s running from the truth now — because he wants to be elected president.

In the book, Perry asserted that Social Security is unconstitutional, and he said the program was an affront to respect for the Constitution and limited government. He compared it to a “bad disease” that’s continued to spread. Perry said that individuals should be allowed to own and control their own retirement plans, so they could have “a retirement system that is no longer set up like an illegal Ponzi scheme.”

Every word he said there was accurate, but he’s now running from that truth. According to the Wall Street Journal, his campaign claims that the views in last year’s book — published less than a year ago — don’t reflect Perry’s current views:

“His communications director, Ray Sullivan, said Thursday that he had ‘never heard’ the governor suggest the program was unconstitutional. Not only that, Mr. Sullivan said, but ‘Fed Up!’ is not meant to reflect the governor’s current views on how to fix the program.”

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