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Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:19 pm
by BigJKU316
This might be the worst example I have ever seen of someone sticking to a set of talking points from their consultants.
http://thecrossedpond.com/2011/07/08/ho ... olitician/
I am amazed the reporter did not start openly mocking him as he kept this up.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 12:11 am
by Giuseppe
Yeah, it's amazing how calm and unfazed the journalist was, almost as if he was prepared for or expecting this. If I was talking to someone who would reply with the same couple of ideas to every question, I'd somehow find some subtle way of letting him know I'm questioning his intellect. Something like "Sir, I believe you're entering a vegetative state as we speak" might work.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 12:41 am
by Mikey
Holy hopping snot, it's like Milliband thought it was a televised speech instead of an interview.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 3:32 am
by Nickswitz
I swear that he's just a broken record, like, he sounds exactly the same every time he says it, like, he didn't answer a single one of the interviewers questions, at all.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:55 am
by Tsukiyumi
Sounds similar to my opener at Domino's. Same scripted response every single time.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 5:58 am
by Deepcrush
Its a pretty standard dodge, not just for politics but for people in general. Attempt to redirect attention from one topic to another. Whats funny to me is that people are still shocked by this.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:42 am
by Reliant121
Unfortunate, that the labour party chose him as their head and, in elections, their potential prime minister. I don't like David Cameron in the slightest but he is a reasonable orator.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 2:58 pm
by BigJKU316
Deepcrush wrote:Its a pretty standard dodge, not just for politics but for people in general. Attempt to redirect attention from one topic to another. Whats funny to me is that people are still shocked by this.
I am not really shocked by it, though he was excessively lazy in that he did not even bother to change the words he was using. He had like 3 lines memorized and he just spit them out in different orders each time.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:05 pm
by Graham Kennedy
The comment under the video sums it up for me. Who have we to blame for this other than ourselves? Politicians stick relentlessly to their talking points and refuse to answer questions, because any time they get caught in any kind of unguarded moment and make an off the cuff comment that doesn't fit with their message, the media jump all over it and the public lap it up as a sign of weakness.
Politicians do what it takes to get elected. If this is what it takes to get elected, we have nobody to accuse but one another.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:51 pm
by Deepcrush
Maybe they shOuld be more willing to answer a challenge to their views. A little honesty in the world would be a nice change of pace. The blame isn't on the people watching and questioning their leadership. That's just fucking stupid. The problem is that while the press will post it, people will complain about... And even on DITL people will pretend to be God's solution on earth... They'll never accualty do anything useful to fix the problems they get upset about.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:23 am
by Mikey
GK's right. Fritz Mondale decided to be honest about what needed to be done with taxation... and he barely carried his home state.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:12 am
by Deepcrush
Didn't he decide that he wanted to raise taxes without changing the expenses that were causing the problems in the first place?
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:27 am
by Mikey
Deepcrush wrote:Didn't he decide that he wanted to raise taxes without changing the expenses that were causing the problems in the first place?
IIRC, he never said that he wasn't going to do anything about expenditures... but he did say that a tax increase would be necessary to increase the U.S.' solvency, and he got crucified for telling that inconvenient truth.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 4:08 am
by Deepcrush
That's not an "inconvenient truth", that was a failed policy to justify cost.
Re: Politicians and their talking points...
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:47 pm
by Mikey
Deepcrush wrote:That's not an "inconvenient truth", that was a failed policy to justify cost.
I'm just talking about the need to raise taxes in 1984 - his platform wasn't to raise taxes for continued expenditure, it was to raise taxes to begin elimination of the national debt. Reagonomics won that election, but there was likewise little realization of debt elimination.