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The 9/7 Dick Cheney Story
Sep. 12th, 2004 11:11 amI'm listening to NPR, and they have this morning soundbite section to their Weekend Edition on Sunday, called Voices in the News, where you can hear soundclips from things that were said during the week. And as I'm listening, Cheney's voice comes on, and I hear this:
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on November 2nd we make the right choice, 'cause if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again..."
Well, to say the least, I was a bit appalled at the implication. I remarked on this to Elf, who promptly said that he had heard that that wasn't what Cheney had said, that it hadn't been recorded right. What followed was several hours of our finding out what the truth was. Elf found out that he was both right and wrong.
The above quote is taken out of context. When looking for whether this was the complete quote or not, I found that this quote, or a slightly longer version of it, was the only thing I could find *anywhere*, except on the White House web site here, which I found out also had been changed from the transcript that had been posted there originally (go down to where you see "Not Even a Good Liar"; it might be in the archives as well)! What I wanted was the actual audio/video from the damn speech.
Believe it or not, I finally found a full quote from an Australian website doing an overview of the week's news from the world! Isn't that pathetic? Not one other American journal, magazine, or news site that I could find had the complete audio clip...just a segment of it.
The problem is that the complete quote, which I will give below, still says basically the same thing! This is the complete quote, from the September 7th Iowa speech:
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on November 2nd we make the right choice, 'cause if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that'll be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mindset, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we're not really at war."
So basically what Cheney said is this:
It's absolutely essential that we vote for the right candidate (read: Bush/Cheney) on November second, because if we don't then the danger is:
1. we'll get hit again (presume "hit again" means hit with a terrorist attack),
2. that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating to the US,
AND
3. that we'll fall into a mindset that these terrorist attacks are criminal acts and we're not at war with terrorists.
This is basic grammar, folks. So, I guess this is why all of the other American sites felt no need to go beyond the clip they gave. The rest of the quote didn't change the interpretation.
So, some tips for you, Mr. Vice-President. When communicating, it isn't enough to just talk. You have to be heard. If your audience hears something other than what you said, you failed in your communication.
Thus endeth the lesson.
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on November 2nd we make the right choice, 'cause if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again..."
Well, to say the least, I was a bit appalled at the implication. I remarked on this to Elf, who promptly said that he had heard that that wasn't what Cheney had said, that it hadn't been recorded right. What followed was several hours of our finding out what the truth was. Elf found out that he was both right and wrong.
The above quote is taken out of context. When looking for whether this was the complete quote or not, I found that this quote, or a slightly longer version of it, was the only thing I could find *anywhere*, except on the White House web site here, which I found out also had been changed from the transcript that had been posted there originally (go down to where you see "Not Even a Good Liar"; it might be in the archives as well)! What I wanted was the actual audio/video from the damn speech.
Believe it or not, I finally found a full quote from an Australian website doing an overview of the week's news from the world! Isn't that pathetic? Not one other American journal, magazine, or news site that I could find had the complete audio clip...just a segment of it.
The problem is that the complete quote, which I will give below, still says basically the same thing! This is the complete quote, from the September 7th Iowa speech:
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on November 2nd we make the right choice, 'cause if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that'll be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mindset, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we're not really at war."
So basically what Cheney said is this:
It's absolutely essential that we vote for the right candidate (read: Bush/Cheney) on November second, because if we don't then the danger is:
1. we'll get hit again (presume "hit again" means hit with a terrorist attack),
2. that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating to the US,
AND
3. that we'll fall into a mindset that these terrorist attacks are criminal acts and we're not at war with terrorists.
This is basic grammar, folks. So, I guess this is why all of the other American sites felt no need to go beyond the clip they gave. The rest of the quote didn't change the interpretation.
So, some tips for you, Mr. Vice-President. When communicating, it isn't enough to just talk. You have to be heard. If your audience hears something other than what you said, you failed in your communication.
Thus endeth the lesson.
