It is not an exaggeration to say Barack Obama would not be president were it not for his inspiring rhetoric. As a state senator running for Illinois’ national senate seat, he made his mark on the political scene through a well-crafted and timely speech on national unity during the 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address. Since then Obama has relied on his words rather than any achievements to catapult him to the Democratic nomination and then the White House.

Prior to the January 5, 2008 Iowa caucus, Obama had not passed a singly piece of legislation in his name in his nearly three years as Illinois’ junior senator. But his exceptional and rare command of language in his message for “change” won the votes over despite his also exceptionally thin resume.

Obama’s rhetoric has often been full of “hope,” but since becoming president he has adopted a decisively more dark and pessimistic tone toward the country.

In his effort to get his nearly $800 billion stimulus package passed, Obama even told an a town hall gathering that “If we don’t act immediately our nation will sink into a crisis that, at some point, we may be unable to reverse.”

Such rhetoric of an irreversible threat was seen by many as mimicking the alarmist rhetoric of George Bush when the former president wanted a war in Iraq. President Obama wants his stimulus and as with Bush in 2002, Obama does not shy away from scaring the American people in unfounded fashion in order to get what he wants.

A journalist even confronted Obama about his “dire language,” and, as The Economist noted, instead of admitting “that he exaggerated a bit,” Obama, rather, “launched a waffly attack—three times longer than the Gettysburg address—on all those who doubted his warnings.” This tactic is similar to Bush’s in scolding those who criticized the plan for a war in Iraq. That the threat was imminent and instead of exaggerating, the president is actually to get the American people to understand the nature of the threat that as critics fail to apprehend.

And now Obama has been caught in another use of exaggeration. Previously, the president stated that “[t]he crushing cost of health care causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.” This is not true. The statistic is from a genuine source, but factors in bankruptcies due to all medical costs not just lack of insurance. For instance, a bankruptcy could result from an insured worker who spends too much time recovering and then has to declare bankruptcy. Health care costs are crushing, for those with and without insurance, but the lack of insurance does not lead to as many bankruptcies as Obama claimed. They may seem like nitpicking and the president may have committed an honest gaffe due to imprudence on behalf of his staff, but it was Obama himself that set such high standards of conduct. As he claimed on victory night November 4, “I will always been honest with you.”

He can hardly cry foul now.