Backpedaling, Spinning, Re-interpreting and Lying--Part One

Backpedaling, Spinning, Re-interpreting, and Lying--Part One

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive:” Sir Walter Scott

Politicos are very adept at changing course, denying, and outright lying when it comes to the fine art of retraction. The technique may be described as clarification but always involves backpedaling, spinning, and/or reinterpreting what had been said or done earlier.

NASA. Space or Politics: NASA chief Charles Bolden caused a brouhaha last month when he re-defined the mission of our space agency by telling the Arab language newspaper, al Jazzera, that his “perhaps foremost” priority was outreach to the Muslim community thereby standing on its head NASA’s long-established mission of space exploration.

(See “I Betcha Thought NASA Was Still NASA,” http://tiny.cc/v2u3f)

That mission seemed eminently reasonable considering that NASA is an acronym for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

White House head flack Robert Gibbs gently reminded Bolden that he was wrong, that he had misspoken and “That [reaching out to Muslims] was not his task and that’s not the task of NASA.”

However, Charles Bolden is not a dumb bunny and didn’t unilaterally take it upon himself to change the mission of his agency: He was directed to do so by none other than his boss, President Barack Hussein Obama, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1783)