Obama: That's not my arm

The TV series, "Cops," is a reality show in which camera crews follow patrol officer around. A commentator awhile back remarked on the excuses and denials suspects would always give to officers. When questioned by police, potential suspects would offer the most blatant denials of the obvious and protestations of non-involvement, leading the commentator to predict that one day the cops would arrest a drug user with the needle still hanging from his veins, only to hear him claim, "That's not my arm."

And so with President Obama, except it's, "That's not my questionnaire:" Senior White House aide: 1996 Obama gay marriage questionnaire is a fake, even though Obama signed it

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told the Netroots Nation blog conference this morning that the Barack Obama never filled out the 1996 questionnaire, when he was running for the Illinois legislature, in which he averred that he supports gay marriage. The questionnaire - two questionnaires in fact - have been out there for years - 15 years in fact - and it has caused the President, who now claims to oppose marriage equality for gay couples, a good amount of heartburn as reporters, such as the Blade's Chris Johnson, keep asking the White House it.

This is the first time Obama has tried to question the questionnaires' authenticity. Both are fakes?

Yep, you betcha! Pfeiffer said,

"If you actually go back and look, that questionnaire was actually filled out by someone else, not the President."

Well, not to ask a, you know, stupid question here, but the responses were typed, so just how exactly can we "go back and look" to determine that the paper was "actually filled out by someone else"?

It would be one thing to insist that the signature was not his, that someone else signed it. But that might be real a troublesome door to open. Pfeiffer is not claiming the signature is inauthentic. The query is obvious, except to Pfeiffer: it does not matter who typed the answers because Obama signed it.

The implication of this kerfuffle goes beyond the surface issue. The real issue, which is of critical importance because the signer is the American president, is whether Obama is telling the truth about how his signature wound up below the answers on the questionnaire.

Whether Obama does or doesn't now believe what the record shows he affirmed in 1996 is not the core problem here. The core problem is now about the questionnaire itself: Is the president lying about it?

Right now there is no reason to say he's not. This is entirely a self-inflicted wound. With the economy tanking again, this president's credibility is more vital to him than ever. And yet with this relatively small issue, he shows once again that he simply has not learned the basic lesson of politics: