Is this the best photo of a sunset you’ve ever seen? Of course not.

What’s the problem with exaggerated claims—in other words, hyperbole? After a while, folks stop believing you. This whatever cannot be the biggest, the best, or the most. Something better will probably come along in the next few minutes, days, weeks, months … No matter how good things are right now, they can get better.

Hyperbole is nothing more than marketing taken to ridiculous extremes.

Don’t tell me this is the best economy we’ve ever had here in the United States. First off, I don’t believe you. I’m old enough to remember better. Second, let’s hold out some hope for the future. I’d like my grandkids to have a great economy too.

Sure, I understand that politics is 99 percent marketing, with less substance than we’d all like. And maybe many folks aren’t astute enough to recognize hyperbole when it’s in front of them. But more folks do.

So, stop it.