Barack Obama is certainly an accomplished liar.  This essay will spotlight a few from among a lengthy list of his outrageous lies; consider whether it is possible that, in his mind, he is not lying; and then explain why the incessant prevarications might actually reflect something hopeful about the American people.

Obama's lies are legion. They include:

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan -- period. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor -- period."  Arguably the president's biggest whopper, and the one that is causing him the most trouble recently.

The attack on the consulate and the CIA annex in Benghazi grew out of a spontaneous demonstration in protest against a disgusting, anti-Muslim video created in the U.S.  Obama's most dastardly lie, arrogantly and insensitively tarnishing the bravery of the four Americans who lost their lives in an instantaneously recognizable terrorist attack.

The idea of purposefully derailing the award of tax-exempt status to Tea Party-affiliated and other conservative groups originated with a few rogue agents in the Cincinnati office of the IRS -- oh, and by the way, liberal groups were also targeted.  This absurd and deceitful assertion was intended to hide the fact that the orders to conduct the operation emanated from some point high up in the Obama administration.

I believe in the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.  At least I did until I needed to more assiduously court the pro-gay vote.

Fast and Furious -- what's that?  Never heard of it.  Ask Eric Holder; he can refresh your memory.

My trillion-dollar stimulus bill will fund shovel-ready projects that will immediately create worthwhile jobs and jump start the economy.  Not exactly -- most of the money went to labor union allies, state and municipal governments so that they could avoid bankruptcy, and crony capitalists.  Moreover, much of it was spent several years down the road, and the only thing it jump-started was Obama's re-election campaign.

Dodd-Frank will identify banks and financial institutions that are "too big to fail," and guarantee that excessive wealth is not concentrated in too few corporate entities.  In fact, the big banks have coalesced into a smaller number that control as much as if not more than their predecessors did before the '07-'08 crunch.  Moreover, the additional onerous regulations in the law are crippling American business.

The Earth is severely threatened by the certain prospect of global warming, and the only way to deal with it is to shut down our fossil fuel industries and divert copious resources to the pursuit of green energy like wind, solar, hydro-electric, and biofuels. Nope!

[Note: a direct quote is supplied only for the first lie.  For the rest, I paraphrased.  In every such instance, as is his style, Obama bloviates at length when he formulates an assessment or policy, and there is no specific, terse quote as pertinent as in the first case.  But I warrant that the gist of the paraphrase accurately captures the purposefully deceitful nature of the prevarication.]

There are other examples, but the above recapitulation certainly serves to identify the president as a serial liar.  The amazing thing is that he does it so effortlessly, convincingly, sincerely, and repeatedly.  He looks the camera straight in the eye and, in that soothing, melodic voice that reassures, he unburdens himself of facts and assessments that are manifestly false and/or misleading.  At least half of the country -- abetted by a compliant media -- takes his word as gospel, and the rest of us -- frustratingly aware of the lies -- know that we will be labeled right-wing lunatics for doubting his word.

It seems that there are only two possible explanations for Obama's track record of overt lies:

1. At the moment that he utters the words, he believes them.  It is possible that Obama's commitment to left-wing ideology is so intense that he sees all of life as reinforcing the need to implement the statist welfare policies that he believes will transform American society to suit his vision.  This would also explain why so many people accept his tainted tweets as truth -- they share his vision, and little things like hard facts or palpable truths cannot interfere with progress toward that society.  The higher goal is so compelling that facts and truth become malleable.
2. Obama is totally lacking any moral compass, and the act of lying causes him no discomfort whatsoever.  The goal remains the statist welfare state of his revolutionary dreams, and although he recognizes that he is dissembling in pursuit of the goal, it bothers him not at all that he is bending the truth.  It is a price he pays without batting an eyelash in furtherance of his quest.

So whichever the reason, what is the cause for optimism?  Well, why does Obama feel the need to lie?  Why not admit the truth about ObamaCare -- that it is a huge step toward fully socialized medicine?  Why not admit the truth about Benghazi -- that it was a coordinated terrorist attack?  Why not admit the truth about the stimulus -- that it was a classic Keynesian attempt to pump up the economy via drastically increased government spending?

The answers are clear.  Obama fears that, respectively: Americans prefer a private-sector health care market to a single-payer government-controlled system; Americans will see that his drastic shrinkage of U.S. military and intelligence capabilities has dramatically increased the danger of world chaos, and the attendant threats to the U.S. homeland; and Americans are worried about the draconian growth of the federal government and its unsustainable debt.

In short, he fails to tell the truth because he fears that the majority of Americans are not in favor of his radical transformation of society.  Is he right?  Sometimes I doubt it.  America re-elected him, after all.  But apparently he is not convinced -- since he keeps on lying.  I hope he is right.

And so I take some solace from his calculation that America has not (yet) tipped from the constitutional republic it still is (partly) to the Euro-style social welfare state that he is trying to create.  He seems to feel that he needs to trick us, rather than lead us to where he wants to take us.  If he is wrong, and the society does indeed long for the socialist nirvana that is his goal, then he is lying for nothing.  If he is right, then it's time to stop countenancing the lies and for the American people to hold him accountable.

Ron Lipsman, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, writes about politics, culture, education, science, and sports at http://ronlipsman.com.