Friday, December 29, 2006

Great rhetorical device

From an exchange between CNN's Whitehouse correspondent and a Frances Townsend, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism:
HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we're going to get [Osama bin Laden]. Still don't have him. I know you are saying there's successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That's a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.
Wow. Cool! I need to start using language that way. My Nobel Prize in Physics is a success that hasn't occurred yet.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My Nobel Prize in Physics is a success that hasn't occurred yet.

Looked at another way, your firing and ostracism for plagarizing your data is a failure that hasn't occurred yet.

Ain't the indeterminacy of the future great?

Anonymous said...

...and the eviction of that twiddle-brain from the White House is a relief that hasn't occurred yet...

Douglas Natelson said...

Someone needs to explain to government spokespeople that "Orwellian" is not a compliment.

Anonymous said...

Nobody needs to explain anything to this government. What this country needs is a regime change. It is a monarchy now. Bush does whatever he wants...
Saddam was hanged after an unfair trial(not that I liked him a lot) just to push Bush's approval higher.. It was utterly disgusting. Maybe Bush should replace him after he steps down, huh??