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The best (or worst?) of political doublespeak

Flying Saucer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:37:25 -0800

I'm looking for examples of statements -- probably but not necessarily political -- that can be taken two very different ways. Here are two examples. If I could find any more, I wouldn't be posting this question:

Regarding the Vietnam war, Reagan said: "Young Americans must never again be sent to fight and die unless we are prepared to let them win."

If you were against the war, this sounds like an acknowledgment that the war was a mistake, and that young Americans died for nothing. If you were for the war, Reagan is saying that we could have won, but the government and/or the people lacked the will to see it through. Thus, the line pleases everyone and offends no one. Quite an achievement.

Recently, when car company executives were appearing before Congress, one of them said something like, "We let the unions force us into making promises we couldn't keep." I'm afraid I can't find the exact quote.

If you're pro-union, the exec is admitting that the company can't honor its union contract. If you're anti-union, the exec is saying that the unions "forced" his company into making bad decisions.

I'm not saying these statements are good or bad, but they're certainly very clever. Can anyone think of any other examples? I'm not just looking for contradictory quotes a la Yogi Berra or something like Oscar Wilde's quip that "Americans and British are divided by a common language." Those are close, but somehow not right.

Did the Onion invent the Reagan Pyramid?

geos — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:40:28 -0800

Is this story from the Onion the original source for the idea of building a pyramid to honour Ronald Reagan and interring Bush I with him in it? I feel like the idea goes back to the eighties... punk song? zine?

"Buried with Reagan will be his finest treasures," Meese said, "including 2,500 MX intercontinental ballistic missiles, 15 Stealth bombers, a golden chalice of jelly beans and his most prized servant, George Bush."

Bush told reporters, "It is my honor and duty to have my sinus passages ceremonially packed with sand before my still-living, pain-racked body is forever locked with my leader's within the Great Reagan's final resting place. Let us all praise Osiris."

Ronald Reagan 'playah' quote?

tristanshout — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:48:37 -0800

Can anyone help with a specific Ronald Reagan quote about his own sex life? I am planning a prank (don't ask) and need access/attribution to a quote by Reagan regarding his Hollywood days. He said he was embarrassed to wake up some mornings and not know the name of the woman sleeping next to him. I remember reading this - can't remember where. Any help you can give would be much appreciated.

Duh. Huh.

sourwookie — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:43:14 -0800

I'm looking to identify an Eighties rap song for a friend. The only problem is that we don't know any of the words and I'm only (maybe) familiar with it through an FM morning show type Parody (Vaguely recalled from my eighties childhood). Warning: May involve Reagan. So all he remembers is some tag line that shows up every chorus along the lines of "Du huh, huh, huh. Duh huh huh huhhuhhuh"

So this triggers in me some vague recollection of a Rap done by some Ronald Reagan impersonator that may be a parody of the song he's thinking of.

Well, there you go.

PS: While researching this I found material for an FPP. Please don't take it. ;)

Saw Syriana last night, it got my head spinning...

fingers_of_fire — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 13:21:33 -0800

Operation Eagle Claw, the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages from the Iranian embassy in April of 1980, was clearly a deeply-flawed plan. Was it also hindered by foul play? All accounts agree that the plan was way too complicated and depended on bad intelligence and poor preparation. Still: on various sites (including the above-linked wiki article), suspicions abound that the Iranians were tipped-off about the mission beforehand, thus compromising the element of surprise. There are those who attribute the tip-off to the Soviets. But what really sends chills to my bones is the assertion, on the wiki page, that it was REPUBLICANS who spilled the beans to the Iranians in the hopes that the ongoing hostage crisis would sink Carter's re-election hopes. Unfortunately, the assertion isn't supported at all: "It seems likely that this information must have come from Republican operatives wishing to see the Amercian hostages remain in captivity until at least after the 1980 presidential election."

I was but a lad at the time, so my memories of it all are very sketchy. Ditto the Iran-Contra affair. And it wouldn't be the first time that my naivete got the better of me. That said, the thought that the Republicans conspired to sink an ongoing American military operation seems particularly dark, even to my Bush-hating, conspiracy-prone ears. The rescue attempt took place in April, so the hostages were held for another six months. I always assumed that there was a deal between the Reagan campaign and the Iranians, but that it happened much closer to the election and didn't involve jeopardizing American troops, even if the mission itself was ill-fated for other perfectly valid reasons. My question: has anyone else heard this charge? Does any one give this story any weight?

Who was Reagan's theologian of apocalypse?

washburn — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:54:34 -0800

A tough one: I remember reading that during the Reagan years, as part of the campaign to convince the Russians that the US really would launch a second strike if faced with a preemptive Russian attack, Reagan turned to a religious figure or theologian who explained that a retaliatory attack, even if it resulted in the extinction of the human species, would be morally approvable and even required by God, and that it would serve the glory of God, despite the unfortunate consequences it might have for human beings. I don't think I just imagined all this, so I wonder: who was the religious person that articulated this position? What source can tell me about this stuff? Many thanks for any clues.

Could any economists point out a good site with a nice point/counterpoint debate on trickle-down economics?

Slimemonster — Sat, 06 Nov 2004 16:40:00 -0800

Like a good progressive, I always assumed Reaganomics/Trickle-Down economics was just a load of nonsense. However, like a good intellectual, I realized I had nothing to really back my opinion up with and should research further. Any economists like to chime in or link me to a good site with a nice point/counterpoint debate on trickle-down economics?

Did Reagan really bust up a Toyota?

soyjoy — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 22:00:47 -0800

OK, look. In the course of discussing the recent canonization of Reagan, a friend of mine swore there was an honest-to-god photo op of the guy, as president, smashing the windshield of a Toyota to show his derision for the Japanese car manufacturers in the face of the fall of the dollar. Does anyone know what he's thinking of? After intense questioning, he allows that Reagan may not have been physically doing the smashing himself, but at least was presiding over it.