Lorie Byrd has a great answer that echoes what a lot of my readers have been saying in response to a question I asked in this post: Does Dean think that if he repeats the words “tell the truth” enough times, his fictions will turn into facts?

Several readers wrote things along the lines of, “Well, yeah. The entire Democratic Party thinks that. Because in recent historical fact, it’s true.” Byrd takes that thought further with an explanation of why the Dems thought they would get away with it:

1. They were emboldened when they were successful in getting the President to say the “16 words” should not have been included in the SOTU speech. This was the beginning of the “Bush lied” mantra. Many even claimed that Bush admitted he lied about the 16 words when he said they should not have been included. More on that sequence of events here and here.
2. They knew they had control of the MSM and that most reporters are too lazy to check previous statements of Democrats and their memories are too short to remember those statements, unless, of course, they would be harmful to Republicans. (Update: Some readers have argued that reporters are not so much lazy as agenda-driven. I think it is both, and would agree that agenda often is the overriding factor.)
3. They were following the example of Bill Clinton that if you repeat something often enough it becomes perceived as truth and in politics perception is everything.

Read the rest.