Mike Huckabee's Political Double-Talk

[Ivan Seeking]

Post your favorite cheesy political dodge or misrepresentation. Please provide supporting information when needed to validate the post.

I was sort of liking Huckabee but he loses me completely with this sort of nonsense:

[From the YouTube debate]

COOPER: I do have to though press the question, which -- the question was, from the viewer was? What would Jesus do? Would Jesus support the death penalty?

HUCKABEE: Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson. That's what Jesus would do.

http://deathpenaltyusa.blogspot.com/2007/11/mike-huckabees-death-penalty-dodge.html

When effectively being asked if he is a hypocrite - a completely valid question IMO - jokes don't work for me.

 

[Gokul43201]

Huckabee will likely win Iowa...despite all of this: http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205

 

[kach22i]

Huckabee will likely win Iowa...despite all of this: http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205

Great link Gokul.

For this election......hard to say as only history gives us the perspective and the chance to put things into the height of legend.

 

[chemisttree]

It would have to be:

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the--if he--if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not--that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement...Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true."

It is in Starr's report somewhere but I found it http://www.slate.com/id/1000162/" (because it was easier).

 

[ShawnD]

COOPER: ...What would Jesus do? Would Jesus support the death penalty?

HUCKABEE: Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson. That's what Jesus would do.

It seems like he was avoiding a strawman more than anything else. Asking what Jesus would do is not a simple question, and the intended result is to confuse the politician or make him state that he doesn't know the answer. In Matthew 8:28-34, Jesus removes demons from two people and puts them into pigs, and the pigs run into a lake and die. That kind of behavior is so eratic that it's unrealistic for anybody to think they know what Jesus would do.

In any event, the actual meaning of doublespeak is when the meaning of something is disguised by the wording. For example, things like "estate tax" are worded as such because the word estate often makes people think of rich people. It conveniently hides the fact that it applies to everyone. Or using the term "detainee" instead of "prisoner of war", and "special" instead of "mentally retarded". Mute people were once called "dumb". One I hear a lot on the news is "misappropriation of funds" rather than "this politician stole a bunch of tax money".

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It seems like he was avoiding a strawman more than anything else. Asking what Jesus would do is not a simple question,

If you say so.

The reason that the question was asked is that there is a very definite answer expected by many people; esp coming from a minister. The problem is that he knows he can't appease these people and the conservative [pro-death penalty] Republican base. The fact that he equivocates about the sanctity of life and the Christian view of this is all that it took for me.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

In any event, the actual meaning of doublespeak is when the meaning of something is disguised by the wording. For example, things like "estate tax" are worded as such because the word estate often makes people think of rich people. It conveniently hides the fact that it applies to everyone. Or using the term "detainee" instead of "prisoner of war", and "special" instead of "mentally retarded". Mute people were once called "dumb". One I hear a lot on the news is "misappropriation of funds" rather than "this politician stole a bunch of tax money".

Definition
double-talk
language that has no real meaning or has more than one meaning and is intended to hide the truth:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=23407&dict=CALD