Through my eyes: The 'telling moment' in the presidential debate

Since you and I only "talk" once a week, it is hard to keep up-to-date on salient current events. That being said, my reference above is to the second presidential debate. As to the third one, that will have happened before you read this.You will remember in the second debate when the question arose about the murders at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that took the lives of our ambassador and three of his staff - when the White house spin on it was that it was perpetrated by a protest mob enraged by a homemade video insulting to the profit Muhammad. The administration stuck to that story for about a week, as you know, before acknowledging that it was indeed a well-planned terrorist attack. Now the telling moment occurred when the President said it was a terrorist attack the very next day in the Rose Garden. He, indeed, did not. The president's words were "no acts of terror," stating in the general rather than the particular.

With that statement, Gov. Romney asked pointedly, "You are saying, Mr. President, that you said in the Rose Garden that it was a planned terrorist attack?" The president had no answer, so Romney asked the question again, "You are saying you said that it was a terrorist attack the next day in the rose garden?" To this question, President Obama answered, "Let's move on, Governor!" Now, does that not tell you that he knew he was telling a lie when he made the first statement? I certainly think it does.

Now with that in mind, let me tell you a story that was told to me by Mr. Ozzie Nelson. Mr. Nelson said that when he and Harriet moved from New York, to L.A. as they were preparing to launch their Ozzie and Harriet show on radio and then later on television, that it was a known fact in Hollywood that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope had made a huge fortune investing in the drilling of oil wells in California. After a short time there, Mr. Nelson said that his lawyer came to him with a proposal by the man who was heading up a company that was soon to begin a drilling operation and who was looking for quality investors. The man had leases for land, even geological sketches with assessments of the amount of oil deposits that were under the earth at these locations. Now, this discussion lasted over a couple of weeks until Mr. Nelsons' lawyer and he were assured that this was indeed a "great deal." Ozzie was going to invest $300,000 with this man, which at the time was quite a lot of money. Also, I should point out that several movie stars of the day had already signed up with this "oil" man and had already given him their money. So, the deal was set and Ozzie and his attorney met with the man for lunch, and this was just a formality because after lunch it was a "done deal" that they would then go to the lawyer's office, and Mr. Nelson would write the check for the $300,000. During the casual lunch, this man happened to say that he once played with the New York Yankees baseball team. So Ozzie asked when he played, and what this man did not know was that when Ozzie was living in New York, he had made great friends with a lot of the ball players, and he even on occasion took batting practice with the team because they and the owner were so fond of Ozzie. Mr. Nelson said that he did not say a word to this supposed oil man. As they left the restaurant to go to the office with Ozzie and his lawyer in one car and the other man in his car, Ozzie said to his attorney, "The deal is off!"

Alarmed, his lawyer said, "What are you talking about? This is a great deal!" Ozzie replied,

"No, it's not; he lied to me that he played with the Yankees, and I know he did not!" Incensed, the lawyer said, "So what? What difference does that make? This is about oil!"

Ozzie said, "No, he lied to me about the Yankees, and if he lied to me about that, he would lie to me about the deal!" Two weeks later, the oil man was indicted for fraud; the leases and the geological reports were all phonies; and all of the "movie star" investors lost hundreds of thousands in this scam!

So, let us beware if, in the heat of this presidential campaign, one is caught out-and-out lying - "If he lied about that, he will lie to us about anything!" It is our country, folks. Mr. Romney seems to outline plans for our future that will rescue us from the decline over the past four years. The president offers no plans, as far as I can see, and I have looked and listened. His campaign phrase is, "let us continue to go forward," I would love to, wouldn't you? You know I'm gonna say it, so I will - See you at the polls!