Gyroscope

A newsletter for those unmoved by spin.
No. 25, January 19, 2004

Subscribe

Change Address

Unsubscribe

Comment

Who misspeaks?

Howard Dean has acquired a reputation for making misstatements that embarrass him and call into question his ability to be president. And he has said some less than clever things: the comment about those with Confederate flags on their trucks comes to mind. But does he make as many silly statements as President Bush? Hardly. But Bush is not regularly depicted by the media as a person who misspeaks. It's admitted, but its thought a charming little quirk, not something that disqualifies him from being president.

Gen. Clark is now in trouble with the media for allegedly testifying to congress before the Iraq war to the effect that he favored the war. This, it is claimed, would make him a hypocrite for opposing it now. But when his testimony is carefully read, he was not all all gung ho for the war. Those pushing for invasion were critical of Clark's views then as not being favorable enough for war. But he has a run of stories going around now depicting him as trying to have it both ways, being someone who says things that can't be supported.

Al Gore is accused of misspeaking by falsely claiming he invented the Internet, was a model for the Love Story characters and so on. In fact, he never said any of those misstatements. But he has a run of stories and comment in the media claiming he is a person always getting into trouble for misleading statements.

Of course, there are statements that are just poor ability to express oneself and then there are statements that inadvertently reveal what the person is really thinking but trying to conceal. Some of the Bush quotes on the right are just harmless. Good for a laugh but not really indicative of anything sinister.

But what about: "We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates." Or this one, overheard at a cabinet meeting: "Haven't we already given money to rich people? Why are we going to do it again?" (As quoted by Molly Ivens, Jan 19th column)

The first could be said to mean that the economic distruption of the terrorist attacks should be countered by giving money to rich people. Some believe that, others think we have already done that. These are about policy, however, inadvertant admissions of what is really on the top of the Bush administration agenda.

Why this focus on slips of the tongue, on misstatements?

It could be due to a lot of things. The press often thinks they should report on how the battle is going, rather than report the substance of the battle. So a slip is failure to stay on message, a failure to have line of spin that you keep consistently repeating. The press may think people are unwilling to consider a longer analytical argument. The focus on verbal gaffs is a way of trying to communicate that the person has problems without making people sit through a long analysis. I think that might have been behind the press jumping on Dan Quayle ('It shows `us vs. them,' and I'm on the `us' side.') for his various inane statements. Most were verbal ticks, crude, but not indicative of much. But behind this was the serious concern that we were about to elect a Vice President who just didn't have much going on upstairs and couldn't handle any serious decision making should it be required of him. In that case, the misstatements were a sign of a more serious problem.

"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you're willing to kill."

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."

"As you notice, when there's a hole in the ground and a person is able to crawl into it in a country the size of California, it means we're on a scavenger hunt for terror, and find these terrorists who hide in holes is to get people coming forth to describe the location of the hole, is to give clues and data. And we're on it."

"You teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

"You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it'll take time to restore chaos and order - order out of chaos. But we will."

"If a person doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have, I suspect hope is in the far distant future, if at all."

"The [military] academies are really important for a lot of reasons. Obviously, what you learn on the football field is even more important since we're still at war."

"I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria."

"It's a different kind of war than we're used to in America. It's a war that requires patience and focus."

"You can't cure unless you measure. And there are too many of our children who cannot read and write and add and subtract, and we better figure out how to not only figure out who can't read and write, but how to cure it now, before it's too late."

"She is a fabulous First Lady. I was a lucky man when she said, yes, I agree to marry you. I love her dearly, and I'm proud of the job she's doing on behalf of all Americans. Just like I love my brother."

"Oftentimes, we live in a processed world you know, people focus on the process and not results."

"Our nation must come together to unite."

"I appreciate [Florida Governor] Jeb [Bush] -- talk about swamping somebody, he knows the definition of 'swamp' when it comes to political campaigns."

"There's an old...saying in Tennessee...I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says Fool me once...(3 second pause)... Shame on...(4 second pause)...Shame on you....(6 second pause)...Fool me...Can't get fooled again."

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."

As reported on Madeleine Begun Kane's web site. Take her George Bush Quiz.

The bashing of a conservative Republican for misstatements, making those misstatements the very definition of who they are, hasn't happened since Quayle.

Bush, who says far more wonderous things than Quayle ever did, has gotten a largely free ride from the mainstream media. In Bush's case, the gaffs are somewhat deceptive: they make him look harmless and slow, when in fact, he, like Ronald Reagan, is the smileing face of the cartel.

Any chance we are figuring this out? "Can't get fooled again."