The Big Lie Technique: The Case of the Missing Trifecta
washingtonpost.com
"... President Bush often tells the story these days about the time, during the campaign, when he vowed he would keep the federal budget balanced unless the nation found itself in a war, a national emergency or a recession. "Never did I dream we'd have a trifecta," Bush then says, to audience laughter. Sometimes, he adds that he made this statement to a reporter while campaigning in Chicago.
Problem is, nobody can find evidence that he actually said this during the campaign. (In fact, Bush often said his tax cut could be done without causing a deficit even in a downturn.) The New Republic magazine first pointed out the problem, and NBC's Tim Russert earlier this month told Bush budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. that NBC could find no evidence Bush said such a thing. Daniels replied that he's "not the White House librarian."
A group called Spinsanity did some library research of its own and found that the president, who first mentioned the mysterious Chicago campaign interview last Oct. 3, has used the "trifecta" joke at least 13 times since Feb. 27 -- even after Russert put Daniels on the spot -- and the war, emergency and recession lines another two dozen times. But Spinsanity found no recorded mentions from the campaign.
Asked about this, the White House press office referred your correspondent to a Sept. 6, 2001, Bush appearance at the White House with President Vicente Fox of Mexico. "I have repeatedly said the only time to use Social Security money is in times of war, times of recession or times of severe emergency," Bush said. That was before war and emergency, but already in an economic downturn -- and it was well after the campaign.
The White House also suggested supporting evidence might be found in GOP presidential primary debates on Jan. 7 and Jan. 10, 2000. But a search of the transcripts of those debates finds no exculpatory information. " |
