How do you know when a politician is lying?

His lips are moving.

This is why people aspiring to be politicians go to law school. Not only does it teach them to lie real good, it also allows the rest of us to use the same joke for lawyers and politicians.

This came to mind the other day when President Obama, the law professor, cleared up the question the entire world has been wondering for quite some time and finally defined the Obama doctrine for foreign policy.

That is word for word what the commander in chief and leader of the free world said about how he intends to deal with the barbaric savages who for decades have been planning to annihilate America and its allies and return the civilized world to the Dark Ages, where they can rule with unchecked impunity. In the meantime, they have been joyfully beheading Christians and executing women and children.

As usual, news media have entirely missed the significance of this statement. They pounced on the president’s acknowledgment that he doesn’t have a strategy for combating Islamic fascism creeping around the globe.

This was “news” to these dopes? Of course Mr. Obama doesn’t have a strategy. He never has. Heck, the whole reason he won his party’s nomination in 2008 over Hillary Rodham Clinton was that he promised Democratic voters that he would eradicate any American strategy for combating terrorism abroad before it reached our shores.

No, that was not the news out of that press conference. The real stunner was when Mr. Obama said, “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse.”

This declaration is interesting because it is a big, fat, huge, 100 percent lie. Not only is it a lie, but it also sums up the entire Obama presidency.

It is, alas, the Obama Doctrine: In all hemispheres and equatorial regions, America shall, henceforth, place the cart before the horse.

It is all this guy has ever done. Every achievement that has been heaped upon him has been awarded on pure speculation.

The guy won the presidency on nothing more than vague promises about “hope” and “change.” He has never held a real job in the private sector and couldn’t point to any real accomplishments as a politician. He once cited as job experience having run his political campaign.

Then, in the very first year of his presidency, the guy won the Nobel Peace Prize. How is all that “peace” working out for the world right now? No, that’s not blood flowing in the streets of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Ukraine and too many other places to name. It’s Obama’s “peace” juice.

Remember when he told the president of Russia that he would have more “flexibility” after he won re-election in 2012 to scrap plans for a missile defense system aimed at protecting U.S. allies in Eastern Europe? Yeah, how is that “flexibility” working out for you now, Ukraine? More like prison shower “flexibility.”

This whole notion of demilitarizing America on the daffy speculation that forces for good will spring forth and peace will reign supreme is the ultimate in putting the cart before the horse. And then shooting the horse. And then cutting off its head and dumping it into the collective bed of the American people while we sleep.

Well, at least we all now know what the Obama Doctrine is.

Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com and on Twitter: @charleshurt.