"Let me be clear": Obama's condescending phrase (subtext: Americans are too dumb to understand)

NY POST ^ | 7/17/10 | MAUREEN CALLAHAN

[Liz]

Obama uses “Let me be clear” deliberately and extemporaneously.... annoyingly, so does his administration. Senior adviser David Axelrod employs the variation “let’s be clear” -- constantly. So does Biden, press secy Gibbs, COS Rahm Emanuel. HUD secretary Shaun Donovan used it at least eight times in 20 minutes on NPR. The subtext is, “You, the masses, are quite likely misunderstanding everything I’ve heretofore been plainly discussing in our native tongue. Allow me to further simplify it for you.”

[The_Reader_David]

Actually, I’ve always taken Obama’s “Let me be clear”, “Let me be perfectly clear” and other variants as the equivalents of the old “It is well-know that. . .” in the Soviet media: it is a signal that what follows is a bald-faced lie.

[Question_Assumptions]

I take it as a warning that what I'm about to hear is a lie.

[HonestConservative]

Me, too.