There is one dirty little fact of life that no politician (well, vanishingly few, OK?) wants you to think on:
Consider the fundamental fact that a statement cannot be literally ‘taken back’. Once said, it’s there. More so, of course, if it has been recorded, less if it is just quoted by some journalist. The idea that a statement can be ‘retracted’ is largely rubbish. Statements can be admitted to be wrong, regretted, abandoned or contradicted, but it cannot be retracted. It just exists on record, and, if not contradicted, will continue to have some kind of validity, and can be returned to at a latter opportunity if so desired.
To truly and effectively annul a political statement, the person who made the statement needs to admit that it was wrong, have sincere regret for his mistake, abstain from making similar remarks in the future, and actively work for the opposite point of view.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s Obama’s Philadelphia Racist Speech or Juan MexiCain’s “It’s not an amnesty bill!” lie speech on the floor of the Senate, once it’s said, it’s in the record, and unless the politician is willing to “…admit that it was wrong, have sincere regret for his mistake, abstain from making similar remarks in the future, and actively work for the opposite point of view,” it will forever after qualify any remarks on the topic by said politician.
Obama’s “denunciation” of the man he defended in his last seech on the topic? Well, obviously, either his Philadelphia speech or his most recent denunciation (or both) are filled with outright lies. Juan MexiCain’s recent weak sister pronouncements that we ought to defend our borders before offering amnesty (though he doesn’t use the word, just the same weasel words he did before)? Absent admitting he was outright lying before about offering amnesty BEFORE taking any steps to secure our borders, any pledges or comments now can be taken with a grain of salt. If that much.
Politicians really, really do not want you recalling their past words and deeds and holding them accountable, which is all the more reason why we ought to.
Oh, the quoted material above? It’s from a piece at Jihad Watch that is well worth reading, dealing with a situation in Turkey.