Friday, November 02, 2012

In other news, water found to be wet.

Everybody's familiar with one Mourdock quote, but there's another, older one that's been hammered into everybody's subconscious by means of incessant repetition in commercials. If you're a Hoosier who's been unfortunate to be within audio range of a televisor or radio device in the last couple months, not doubt you've heard the following repeated ad nauseum:
"To me, the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else...."
This damning soudbite has been excised from the entire quote (for time purposes, I'm sure) which went like this:
"To me, the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else from the microphone or in front of a camera, to win them over to my point of view. If I am fortunate enough to become a United States senator, we're going to be involved with the national argument…"
Which reads entirely differently, no?

(Ugh, it pains me more every day that Mourdock went full Akins, rendering the above quote irrelevant now that we're all rape, all the time. Look, guys, if you're ever running for office and the word "rape" comes up in an on-the-record setting, just say you are foursquare against it and then shut your cakehole. There is nothing you can say beyond that that isn't going to piss somebody off, no matter how earnest you think you sound. Just don't even step into the minefield.)

11 comments:

Old NFO said...

Funny how HIS comments get blown up, but Biden's gaffes never do... Just sayin...

Dave said...

@Old NFO

No surprises there. Of course ABCNNBCBS PAC covers for their chosen canidates.

Joseph said...

I think Mourdock should have owned that sound bite and countered with an ad that simply provided the entire quote and didn't say another word. It would certainly make it difficult for the Donnely ad to get traction.

RE: the rape thing. I know of at least two women who are pissed off about how the democrats are, in their words, misrepresenting Mourdock's statement on the matter. These are not bible-thumping women either, one has not been to church that I know of and I've known her my entire life. The women I know that have a problem with it weren't voting for him anyway.

So the campaign killing rape comment may not kill the campaign after all. Certainly didn't help it and I agree that any GOP candidate should just STFU about the subject. State your belief about abortion without using the R word.

Kristophr said...

Old NFO: The current crop of American newsies are all enemy propagandists.

We need to stop nominating blowhards that cannot resist a microphone.

Joseph: You cannot separate yourself from your party during an election. As far as the enemy is concerned, anything you say will be used to paint the entire party.

Either stick to the party platform, or run under some other party.

Anonymous said...

Soudbite?

Steve Skubinna said...

Reminds me of Goldwater's response to a question on Vietnam, that got reported as an expressed intention to use nukes. To this day that's probably the one thing people think they know about him.

He actually made reference to a proposal to use tactical nukes to defoliate areas of Vietnam, and stated that he could not support it. So he actually said the opposite of what "everybody knows."

Politicians on the right keep making the mistake that the media is neutral or even their friend (and I'm looking at YOU, Senator McCain). They have to get into the mindset that they're hostile, and that they will lie, twist, spin, and selectively report in order to slip the knife in.

Tam said...

"Soudbite?"

Tyyppo.

Anonymous said...

I thought maybe you were getting a cold.

Kristophr said...

Nah, that's just the cotton stuffed in her nose.

JohninMd(help!) said...

The problem I have with all this is all the votes cast out there for a Senate candidate other than a republican amount to a vote for Harry Ried to stay in control of the senate. Since the Senate says yea or nay on SCOTUS nominees, this worries me. 5 to 4 votes can go either way on gun issues. Also, it might be useful to, you know, pass a budget now and then.

Tam said...

JohninMd(help!),

Hey, don't tell me this, tell the guy who made the fat-headed comment that gave his opponent a double-digit lead in the polls overnight, turning a squeaker into a blowout.

I may go 'head and vote for Mourdock anyway, but it doesn't really matter who I vote for. Donnelly isn't going to win this election so much as Mourdock will actively lose it. "Getting beaten" is a passive term that doesn't accurately describe Mourdock's active participation in his defeat.