24 March 2008

16/50 - They just misspoke

John McCain “misspoke” when he said (four separate times) that al Qaida in Iraq was trained in Iran.

George W. Bush “misspoke” when he said that Iran wants nukes “to destroy people.”

Hillary Clinton “misspoke” when she said she’d landed at Tuzla, Bosnia under sniper fire.

In "misspeaking," McCain meant “insurgents” rather than al Qaida, which is Sunni and the deadly enemy of Shia Iran; that Bush only meant that Iran is bad, in general; and that Hillary was, oh, I don’t know, dreaming?

“Misspoke” has been adopted by prevaricating politicians and the complicit media as the new word for “lied.”

2 comments:

Michael Bains said...

Misspeaking seems to be the #1 sign of being a "Conservative" these days. Probably always has been, come to think of it.

Anonymous said...

Wren,

Good for you for calling them out. I also find evasive language particularly offensive. No wonder the American public, in general, has no idea what is going on in the Middle East.

What these "leaders" should be saying is "I was wrong," or "I spoke without fully understanding the situation, and I need to set the record straight."

"Mispoke" is like using the word "mistake" to refer to a bad choice--it removes responsibility from the actor.