R. Emmett Tyrrell: The Uses of Ambiguity

WASHINGTON — In the course of my life-long study of political science and related perfidies, I have noted that many political leaders of high achievement have an extraordinary aptitude for ambiguity, not to say dishonesty. The best example of this is President Franklin Roosevelt. He was not only a master of ambiguity, but he was also a sempiternal liar. Yet let us not forget he helped save the Western World. Not all liars are all bad.
Of course, FDR presided over a wild conglomerate of argumentative political operatives, so his aptitude for ambiguity was perfectly understandable starting with his wife, Eleanor, an unstoppable do-gooder. After Eleanor there were the liberals, whose high-minded projects often coll …