Discredit Quotes
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.
He was one of the few people with knowledge about Iraq and their so called WMD program who casted doubt on the CIA and George W. Bush’s “intelligence” that Iraq was about to deploy a nuclear weapon. They anonymously tried to discredit Blix. It was Blix however who turned out to be rights.
Statement made by Cheney to Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, regarding the inspections in 2002/2003 of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
This unfortunately happens in Congress all the time. A good example is {640730}.
