WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To his critics, President Barack Obama often has seemed to be conveniently distant when trouble has hit his administration.
But on Tuesday, Obama was hit with a public-relations crisis that struck at the core of his domestic and foreign policy - one that raised questions about whether he had misled Americans on his signature healthcare overhaul, and whether he really was unaware of the U.S. government's alleged spying on its allies.
It was a dramatic twist for the Democratic president, who was widely seen as outflanking Republicans during the budget battles that led to a partial government shutdown and a near-default by the U.S. government this month.
Until this week, most of the discussion in Washington on the "Obamacare" health insurance program focused on its clumsy rollout, as symbolized by a balky website that is frustrating uninsured Americans' efforts to enroll in the program.
But several media reports on Tuesday raised questions about whether the administration was completely truthful in selling the program to Americans four years ago, after Obama was first elected president.
The latest flap dates to a pledge that Obama made in 2009 about the healthcare initiative that remains the biggest achievement of his nearly five years in office.
"If you like your healthcare plan, you'll be able to keep your healthcare plan, period," he told the American Medical Association in Chicago on June 15, 2009, a mantra he has repeated regularly - including during his 2012 re-election, when Republicans were saying that the law would force millions of Americans to lose their insurance.
"No one will take it away, no matter what," Obama has said.
But as potentially millions of Americans are learning now, the pledge came with some caveats.
If you think candy's sweet
There's a president guy you oughta meet
Sugar drips from his lips when he sighs
But the reality that lies
Within his baby eyes
How he lies, how he lies, how he lies
