First, the art of the American Revolution was as much about “spin” as documentation, often rendering peppery personalities, including Washington’s, in a misleadingly sedate manner.

In 2011, the Obama administration, after sending sharply and misleadingly conflicted messages, told states and localities that sharing fingerprints with Ice was essentially mandatory.

Congress had grown to distrust the Pentagon after McNamara painted a misleadingly optimistic picture of U.S. military success in Vietnam.