The Recent Times
columnist: Gary R. Carter

Topic: Politics
The Rise Of Misspeak

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A lot of people of big name politicians these days are making statements and then retracting them. Misspeak or planned propaganda?

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by Gary R. Carter
(Libertarian)
Sunday, April 6, 2008

Is it me, or has there been an increase in cases of big-name politicos "misspeaking" of lately? Historically speaking, we are under the reigns of a president now who has made a living on delivering false information, vague summaries and outright lies. Has this trend influenced those who aspire to be in the president’s place to abandon all resemblance of truth and all accountability to that truth?

 In a recent and unprecedented bungle of words, Hillary Clinton "misremembered" an event in Bosnia in 1996. As she remembers it, she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire and was in danger of her life. For anybody that has seen the video, it is quite obvious that Hillary, and her daughter Chelsea, were in no apparent danger at this particular time. For her to remember this event so obscenely different from how it occurred, signals either early warning signs of senility, or more likely, signs of compulsive lying.

 Hillary is not alone in this recent epidemic of misremembering or misspeaking. McCain has been having a difficult time keeping his facts straight too. He recently stated that Al-Queda was receiving training from the government of Iran. While, he was corrected by Joe Lieberman and subsequently rephrased his assertion to the effect that Iran was now only training Islamic radicals, and not Al-Queda specifically, this was also not the only time he made this embarrassing gaffe. For a candidate running solely on his war-making credentials and his expertise of Middle-Eastern affairs, I find it a bit disconcerting that he can’t keep his radical fundamentalist terrorists straight.

 To be fair, Obama has not gone without a few embarrassing mistakes here and there. Though, saying that ethnic cleansing is a good thing seems to be much more substantial than the McCain and Clinton errs, it is also more apparent to me that Obama’s are actual cases of misspeak, as opposed to calculated and designed plans or a general disregard for facts and truth. Obama’s true colors have yet to be shown, and it will be interesting to see if he can supply all of this hope he is offering. Surprisingly, no documentation could be located on any instances of Ron Paul misspeaking, misremembering or misquoting. Send any cases my way if you find them.  

 With the rise of misspeak and misremembering, the public will become increasingly confused and truth will continue towards its inevitable demise. In many cases, the damage from misspeaking has already taken its toll when the retraction comes along. People to this day believe that Iraq had a hand in 9/11, that Saddam was hiding WMDs, and that Jamie Lee Curtis used to be a man. Chances are that one of these assertions might have been vaguely true at one time or another. In the meantime, it remains to be seen if these slips of the tongues are actually isolated mistakes, or if they are, in fact, calculated assaults on the minds of the masses.    

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2008 Gary R. Carter, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, April 6, 2008
Last modified: Sunday, April 6, 2008

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