Campaigns, Campaigning Quotes
This famous quotation was only partly original. The most famous part, "Facts are stubborn things" was earlier used by the French Writer, Alain René Le Sage in Gil Blas
In the 19th century, most people, like Spooner, saw the combination of money and politics as per se corrupting—much like the view of John McCain in the 21st century. Howver, by then all of politics had been dependent on money. However, distrust of government and politicians prevailed, with money paying a large part of the distrust. Spooner was against the government levying taxes and thought that governments should be financed by the voluntary contributions of money or labor of the citizens. His idea was something like a religious and biblical tithing.
This quotation is the root of a great dilemma for all politicians who are attacked on a personal level. Most slanders are soon forgotten. The politician who reacts and publicly counters the slander inevitably does two things. More people become aware of the slanderous charges then there is a public battle over it, and the media tend to report the contest and hence the slanderous charge for a longer period of time than if it were uncontested. However sometimes the undefended charge is perceived as being true especially if it is a major charge. If the politician does not defend, the charge can get accepted and damage the politician’s standing. In the Kerry-Bush Prudential campaign, Kerry had the edge until the so-called Swiftboat Veterans made up a fictitious tale of Kerry, a decorated war hero, being a coward in the Vietnam war. Kerry thought the charge so preposterous that he didn’t bother to defend it. His lack of reaction was taken by much of the public as his admission of the charge. Kerry’s hero image was destroyed by a large enough proportion of the electorate that the electoral votes shifted to Bush, even though Kerry had the most votes by far. For each politician, the decision must be made for each charge and there is no clear way to know in advance which is the better strategy when a false charge is made.
Quoted in somewhat different form by Richard Nixon
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Actually, it is loudness and repetition that are the two most persuasive aspects of oratory.
The war in Europe had ended in victory and the British people were looking for a better standard of living after their wartime privation. Churchill represented the class system, the Empire, and bellicose leadership and didn’t temper his approach to the peace that he had won. He made this blunder and associated the Labor Party and their social welfare state with a coming Gestapo—the name of the Nazi secret police. It was all over the top and the Conservative Party was trounced at the polls. He would be elected Prime Minister a decade later.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
He was the judge who presided over the breakup of AT&T in 1984
Note that he in this quotation extended the Eisenhower “Military-Industrial Complex” threat to include the anti Terrorism government agencies (Homeland Security, FBI, NSA. CIA) and the corporations which support and supply them.
She improved the economy considerably but was stuck in a socialized economic ideology that inhibited major private sector growth, without which it is impossible to eliminate poverty and with which excessive greed can also produce poverty.
as opposed to favoring a monarch or a dictator Jefferson observed that the Federalists, led by John Adams, exaggerated reality and played to the peoples’ fears. This was very true and the accusations about Jefferson and his followers were as severe and untrue as ever in American politics. However, Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans were also not above exaggeration and hyperbole. The electorate generally saw through the Federalist exaggerations and not only threw the Federalists out of office but rejected them so thoroughly that the party was ended in American politics to be later replaced by the Whigs.
This famous phrase, which boomeranged on Goldwater, was actually a close paraphrase of the great Roman orator Cicero. See related quote.
This was the origin of the first part of John Adams famous quoation {310967}
