{"id":2609,"date":"2004-09-24T12:29:55","date_gmt":"2004-09-24T17:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2609.html"},"modified":"2004-09-24T12:29:55","modified_gmt":"2004-09-24T17:29:55","slug":"the-dreaded-l-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-dreaded-l-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The dreaded “l” word"},"content":{"rendered":"

No, not “liberal”; in this case, it’s “lie.” And in this campaign, it’s something John Kerry just won’t say<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Kerry says President Bush “failed to tell the truth” about Iraq and “misled the American people,” but that’s as far as he seems willing to take it. He stops just short of the “l-word” liar.<\/p>\n

Democrat Harry Truman may have been the last presidential candidate to call his opponent a liar, says Wayne Fields, an expert on political rhetoric. It just isn’t something serious presidential contenders do these days.<\/p>\n

Instead, this year’s Democratic presidential nominee dips into a stack of euphemisms to suggest the president isn’t telling voters the whole truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right. Kerry will say that Bush “misled” the public, but he won’t come right out and say Bush lied, even in instances in which the president has clearly told obvious, objective, bald-faced lies.<\/p>\n

I have to admit, I’m a little torn about this. If no presidential candidate since Truman has called his rival a liar, then it seems awfully risky for Kerry to start now, even if it’s true. The media narrative wouldn’t be about the substance, it’d suddenly be about whether Kerry broke some unwritten rule by using the “l” word.<\/p>\n

By not speaking the word “liar,” Kerry skirts a debate over his choice of word. The focus stays on his portrayal of Bush as a leader painting rosy pictures over what Kerry says is a failed record, and Kerry avoids the awkward situation of being accused of lying about whether the president is lying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nIdeally, if Kerry did accuse Bush of telling a lie, reporters would consider the substance of the charge and see if Kerry’s right. Of course, that’s not the way this game is played, so maybe it’s wise to steer clear of the issue.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Bush and his campaign are clearly unconcerned with raising the level of political discourse. The president hasn’t called Kerry a liar, but he has said<\/a> Kerry “embolden[s]” terrorists. Why is Bush’s rhetoric considered acceptable for “serious” candidates, but accusing someone of lying not? The standards seem skewed, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n

Whether Kerry uses the word or not, it’s worth emphasizing that Bush does lie, as E.J. Dionne noted<\/a> today, all the time.<\/p>\n

A very intelligent political reporter I know said the other night that Republicans simply run better campaigns than Democrats. If I were given a free pass to stretch the truth to the breaking point, I could run a pretty good campaign, too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, not “liberal”; in this case, it’s “lie.” And in this campaign, it’s something John Kerry just won’t say. John Kerry says President Bush “failed to tell the truth” about Iraq and “misled the American people,” but that’s as far as he seems willing to take it. He stops just short of the “l-word” liar. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}