McCain Is A Liar Er Misspeaker!

I know, I know. You're sick of my political ranting already. But after seeing this YouTube video of a short clip of John McCain mentioning JFK and Goldwater on his way to criticizing Obama for not meeting with him anyplace anytime as previously agreed, I couldn't help myself. Partway through the video, McCain refers back to the Kennedy assassination as "The intervention er the tragedy in Dallas". Now.

As the word 'intervention' is escaping his lips, his hand is coming up to his mouth, his eyes widen, and then his hand takes a miss on his mouth and rubs his nose as he says "er tragedy". This gesture, the hand to mouth/nose and wide eyes, is a classic tell among those who read body language as a sign of someone who is lying. More specifically, to break it down, what happens with this gesture is that something has escaped your lips which you didn't mean to say, were trying to keep hidden. The hand coming up to the mouth is the involuntary and unconscious act of trying to keep your mouth closed; trying to force the words back in your mouth, and the wide eyes are the realization that you messed up. The quick switch from a mouth cover to a nose rub is the more conscious grown-up gesture of realizing that if you clap your hand over your mouth, it's a dead giveaway that you're lying, and so it turns into the nose rub in order to try and obscure the fact that you were just trying to clamp your mouth shut.

It's classic. Classic. There's no getting around it. That gesture means what it means. Many times when people are lying, we've trained ourselves not to give ourselves away by not being all shifty-eyed, not stuttering, not being all nervy with your hands, trying not to sweat. So that tell doesn't often happen. But when you've said something without thinking about it, without having thought in the seconds beforehand that you needed to not say what you're really thinking, that involuntary tell can happen before you've realized you've done it. When John McCain thinks of the Kennedy assassination, he considers it to be an intervention. Period. I have no doubt in my mind.

Now, is it possible he was just scratching his nose? Yes, of course. People get itchy noses all the time while they're speaking. But taken in combination with such an egregious misstatement... well, someone who studies body language would say that the odds are thin. Very thin. But I'll go further away from certainty and mention how McCain is prone to such unfortunate misstatements though. And his eyes are often all wide, blinky and twitchy anyway. Everybody slips up, right? But McCain's slips are painful. He's caught flack for saying he desires to be a dictator, calling citizens "prisoners," and saying how he wants the US to be energy independent so we won't have to go to war for oil anymore. [John, supporters of the war aren't calling it that.] So you know, he's already prone to saying the wrong thing. We shouldn't judge him too harshly since he does it often. The more a person makes the same mistake, the less it means anything, right? Right guys?

Does he personally know something about the Kennedy assassination? Who knows, but probably not. Paranoid as I am about McCain now, even I'm not prepared to go that far. McCain wasn't really anybody back then; he was busy being a young naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers at the time. Regardless, someone who likely thinks of one of the most tragic moments in American history, our loss of innocence, as an intervention, is to be handled with care. The fact of the matter is, I think a lot of people fear that the reason Kennedy was killed was because he was being made an example of by some powerful people who did not like his liberal policies, and a Republican Presidential hopeful putting a word to that fear over 45 years later is chilling.

EDIT: Just had to add in the "My fellow Prisoners" YouTube that Gary linked me to (the silence at the end of the video when he pauses for applause, seemingly unaware of his gaffe, is deafening) and then I saw the Colin Powell interview where he endorses Obama and I had to post that too. Clear, rational thinking turns me on, what can I say?

Comments

[Gary]

I thought it was awesome when he said "my fellow prisoners" - -I wonder what he meant by that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mBi7d6e5KI

McCain is really weird. But guys get weird when they're really old like that sometimes.

[Gary]

btw - this is your moonbatty-ist post yet!

European socialist!

[messiestobjects]

The my fellow prisoners thing is awesome, so I added it in. Although the problem with that misstatement really is that it likely doesn't mean much coming from an ex-POW. He probably views the Earth as one big prison, which is why he wants to be in charge so badly. Better to be the Warden than the prison bitch.

[messiestobjects]

And it's not moonbatty! I wish it were. Read this book and then tell me it's moonbatty.

[Miss Luongo]

On the conspiracy theorists boards some people are saying he said "intervention of the tragedy." While it makes more sense, you can't deny the body language is severe at the word intervention. But maybe the mention of intervention upsets him. He's remembering when his family had one for him - "Dad, you're getting old and crazy. You're not thinking clearly. The dog can't be your running mate. Pick someone a little more qualified, please."

[messiestobjects]

I really don't think he's saying "of". I've watched that YouTube a dozen times to be sure, and there is no 'f' sound. Of course he could be doing that abbreviated 'f' that sounds like 'uh', as in "The intervention 'o the tragedy", but that damn hand in front of his mouth obscures it. Too hard to say. At any rate, intervention would still be the wrong word to use, it's still a misstatement, and he still has the classic 'lie' gesture going on.

Maybe it's nothing, maybe.

But Sarah Palin is not nearly as qualified as the McCain family dog.

[Miss Luongo]

Have you seen the buzz about Palin's IQ? There are charts that put her at 83...but I think they're fakes. But if they aren't, then sure, a clever dog might be smarter. Incidentally, low IQ and high religiosity go hand in hand.

[messiestobjects]

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, I don't actually think she's stupid, exactly, but there is definitely something wrong with her. Like an anti-idiot-savant; Generally she's reasonably intelligent, but she's got that one indefinable quality that she's practically brain dead on.

[Gary]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLVSURlFoQs

another fun gaffe

[messiestobjects]

I read about that one in the NY Times this morning, but it's fun to watch it.

Seriously, can you imagine this guy as president? He could start a Nuclear War totally by accident using the power of his befuddled brain!

[Oliver Stone]

He's obviously, clearly saying "intervention *of* the tragedy...".

And that's me talkin'.

[messiestobjects]

You are SO out of touch with today's youth. You should probably quit the big budget sell-outs and make a few conspiracy pornos. You know, a real sexy Whodunnit? Uh! Ron Jeremy did it!

[Gary]

I watched a clip of W and they had him doing the "can't get fooled again" gaffe during a cabinet meeting. Right then I was sure I wasn't interested in this movie.

[messiestobjects]

I don't remember that one... I want to see 'W', but mostly because I'm curious to see how a biography about a sitting president can possibly show anything like a complete story. Plus, Josh Brolin laughing with is shoulders. Good stuff.

I don't know, I've heard it doesn't really choose sides, which I respect in a way, but it seems that when documenting facts about Bush's life and his decisions as the Prez, the side should sort of choose itself, without any help. It sounds like Oliver tries too hard to be even handed meaning that it won't be good as an accurate portrait nor as a lampoon. But I do want to see it, so I'll let you know afterwards what my opinionated verdict is.

[Gary]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=44799847

there you go

[Miss Luongo]

There's a new show on Fox called Lie to Me with Tim Roth that might want to take a crack at this video. It looks good.

http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/new/lie_to_me.htm

[messiestobjects]

I don't understand why intelligent people do shows for FOX. There's also a show by Joss "Master" Whedon called Dollhouse coming out on FOX. Grr. Where are the conscientious objectors? Ooh, Family Guy is on.