MATT WELCH: The president’s habit of telling untruths.

The president, who promised in both word and style to usher in a “new era” of Washington “responsibility,” routinely says things that aren’t true and supports initiatives that break campaign promises. When called on it, he mostly keeps digging. And when obliged to explain why American voters are turning so sharply away from his party and his policies, Obama pins the blame not on his own deviations from verity but on his failure to “explain” things “more clearly to the American people.”

It’s funny — all he had to do to be a success was to live up to the kind of Presidency he promised. But he didn’t, and it appears that he couldn’t. Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene writes:

The best example of this is health insurance mandates. The President defeated Hillary Clinton for the nomination of his party by telling Americans that it was wrong to require people to purchase insurance. Now, as President, he is trying to force people to purchase health insurance. And threatening IRS audits and fines. And he claims to not understand the opposition to this proposal.

People didn’t get the “expiration date” business . . . .