24 February 2004

Stump

Kudos to President Bush for making the full text of all his speeches available online. I tried to find the text of his speech to the Republican Governor's Association, but all the news sites I perused had only articles about the speech and the occasional IN DEPTH: Video snippet.



I'm trying to find as many primary sources as possible to inform my voting decision this fall. It's bad enough to try to get a feel for a candidate when you listen to campaign speeches, let alone reading some reporter's interpretation of the candidate's speechwriter's take on what the candidate should say. Plus, it's hard to untangle all the conflicting claims that each side makes.



William Safire (who is far more Libertarian than I) made an interesting point in his most recent Times editorial. I note it not so much for the message on the issue, but for the insight into how politicians spin information, especially numbers:




Whenever the unemployment rate drops, gloomy-Gus politicians insist "it's because people have given up hope and stopped looking for jobs." But back when unemployment was going up, did you ever hear "it's because people are hopeful and more are out looking for jobs"? Never.


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