Usually, when a politician makes a gaffe, they try to explain it away, or say "what I meant was..."
Lawrence Eagleburger has a novel approach. He just said to Stuart Varney on Cavuto's show that "I was stupid," to explain his gaffe. He made up for it, by 1) pointing out that the Democrat presidential nominee is much less prepared than she is, and wrong on the foreign policy issues and 2) apologizing for to the McCain campaign and governor Palin.
Arguably, he is not a politician, having never run for office.
Do you have a link to the admission? Who's Cavuto?
Well, I could have said "public official."
Brock, I heard it on teevee. Neil Cavuto has a daily business show on Fox News, and Stuart Varney was sitting in for him. But there will probably be a linkable transcript up today or tomorrow. Or a Youtube...
Video is up of Eagleburger admitting his mistake. Foxnews video section. News/Politics. Video is titled "Palin not ready?"
Well, you guys call it a "gaffe". A more reasonable explanation is that he actually spoke his mind, and then later someone hauled him onto the carpet and made him change his story. Gee, which one seems more reasonable?
Dinsdale, that's certainly possible. It's also possible he said something off the cuff that he honestly didn't agree with once he thought about it more carefully. I've certainly been guilty of that. No way to know.
Re: Cavuto-- I'll refer to this thread when people don't believe me when I insist I don't watch Fox News (or TV news generally) and am perfectly capable of forming non-liberal opinions without being edumacated by the Ring Wing Media.
It's also possible he said something off the cuff that he honestly didn't agree with once he thought about it more carefully. I've certainly been guilty of that. No way to know.
Brock, I'm willing to believe that's a possibility, but I have to wonder about the spokespeople the McCain campaign are bringing in. Really -- I have a corporate job, and I have to make statements in a company environment that aren't anywhere near the scale of national television. I wouldn't make THAT kind of mistake. And I'm not as practised as Eagleburger on his worst day, I'm sure.
Arguably, he is not an elected politician, having never run for office.
He was Secretary of State. That makes him a politician. Elections are not necessary for politicians.
He's certainly been a face on TV for a long long time. I think the killer remark is at the end; FTA: "Larry has never had a chance to meet Sarah," McCain told ABC’s "Good Morning America."
Yes, well I'm sure Mr. Eagleburger will suggest to McCain a superior alternative to Sarah Palin. There are almost three days left, after all.
The definition of "politician" varies*, but Eagelburger's personal inexperience with getting elected may offer an explanation for the tenor of his comments during the closing days of this election.
* Is a campaign manager a politician? How about the Secretary of Defense?
The Honorable Lawrence Eagleburger was our only non-political secretary of state; that is, he's the only secstate who worked his way up through the ranks of the U.S. Foreign Service and was appointed to that office.
He was acting secstate after (IIRC) Warren Christopher left office and I guess they like the job he was doing. On the other hand, what with the Balkans blowing up like they were at the time, maybe nobody else would take the job.
I've linked back to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2008/11/re-well-thats-refreshing.html