Al Gore's self-aggrandizing claim that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" has haunted him since he first uttered it during a 1999 CNN interview. It makes sense. In a society where people expect to be rewarded for their hard work and good ideas, the public generally abhors those who take credit where it's not due.
For those reasons and others, politicians--especially those seeking reelection--should avoid engaging in unwarranted swagger. President Obama did not.
During his State of the Union address, he applauded his administration for the recent boom in U.S. oil and gas production. Yet as the Institute for Energy Research demonstrates, this growth happened in spite of his policies, not because of them:
The increase in production is occurring on private and state lands, the use of which is much harder for the President to restrict (at least in the short term). Meanwhile, production on federal lands is decreasing significantly ... [His] administration did not hold a single offshore lease sale in fiscal year 2011.
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