Facts are stubborn things. But you could try flattering them.

Poster print, 1900, via Wikimedia Commons.

Verbatim press secretary Sean Spicer, as reported in the LA Times:

“It's not about one tweet. It's not about one picture. It's about a constant theme,” Spicer said in a lengthy monologue. “It's about sitting here every time and being told, ‘No. Well, we don't think he can do that. He'll never accomplish that. He can't win that. It won't be the biggest. It's not gonna be that good. The crowds aren't that big. He's not that successful.’" 

Spicer spent more time on the subject than on any other issue during a briefing of more than an hour in which he was asked about such weighty topics as the U.S. Embassy in Israel, immigration and tax reform....

“It's an amazing view,” Spicer said. “And then to hear, ‘Well, look at this shot,’ and ... ‘It wasn't that big.’ It's a little demoralizing because when you're sitting there and you're looking out and you're in awe of just how awesome that view is and how many people are there and you go back and you turn on the television and you see shots of comparing this and that.”

I mean right, can you imagine how Obama would have whined if they'd treated him like that, belittling his every accomplishment by comparing him to somebody who did it three times better and by coldly and cruelly examining the evidence?


Oh, really?

The Obamas maintained their poise in the face of relentless bile. Over the past eight years, it was impossible to speak or write a single word about the family, the Oval Office, the White House or even their dogs without a blast of racially charged, historically repugnant hate coming their way....

And facing all that, they never lashed out. They never tweeted their anger, derided their enemies or hit back with something harder and nastier.

But then, Trump really has it so much worse than Obama, since even the facts are arrayed against him, a problem Obama never had. And it was so moving to see how gracious and conciliatory Spicer intends to be with the facts, rude and biased as they are. It'll be live and let live, Spicer and facts, doing their best to get along without acrimony:

yes, I believe that we have to be honest with the American people. I think sometimes we can disagree with the facts.

And if the facts you've got just can't do the job, you can always go with the #AlternateFacts.