Lying is a trivial side issue; failing to competently run a country is not.
I disagree. (With the first half of the statement.) When a lie is the way in which a president is
able to run a nation incompetently, then the lie becomes very important.
For instance, had Bush been totally straight with the American people about the reasons for the war in Iraq, then he would have a pretty good case now for saying, "Look, the war may have been a mistake, but the fact of it is that I had an overwhelming mandate from the people on this one. The public supported the war."
But the reasons for war were based on lies. Therefore, the public was duped into supporting a bullshit war. To keep Bush from trying to spin things into a public-mandate pile of crap, it's more than worthwhile to call him out and smack him down for his lies.
"If I had to write ten jokes about potholders, I don't think I could do it. But I could write ten jokes about Catholicism in the next twenty minutes. I guess I'm drawn to religion because I can be provocative without harming something people
really care about, like their cars."
-George Meyer,
Simpsons writer