If someone says two mutually exclusive things, one of them must be untrue.
Back in 2007, McCain made some remarks referring to his daughter’s new Prius:
…when a College of Charleston student asks Mr. McCain, a 71-year-old Republican from Arizona, what he personally is doing to reduce greenhouse gases, he offers that he bought one of those eco-trendy cars for his 22-year-old daughter, Meghan.
“What’s it called, a Purr-ess? Pryuss? Peer-uss?”
“Prius,” someone calls out.
“Yeah, Py-russ,” the candidate clarifies.
“No, Prius.”
“O.K., Prius, Prius,” Mr. McCain says like a chastened schoolboy. “I ought to know the name of it; I paid for it.”
But American automakers are upset that McCain would buy a Japanese hybrid over an American alternative. McCain responded to a direct question on the issue:
“Actually, I think she bought it”
There has been lots of coverage on the reported flip-flop. We don’t have the records of who actually purchased the car, but one of these must be true and one must be a lie. According to the rules, if a lie is corrected, it is not counted against their tally. There is some wiggle room for McCain too: “i think” is a subjective term, and one of the two statements falls outside our window of tracking lies (before the conventions). For all these reasons, this will rest in the “almost lie” category.
Related, on September 7, 2008 McCain said to WXYZ,
I’ve bought american literally all my life and I’m proud.
Newsweek reports that he and Cindy have 13 cars registered in their name, and not all are American:
But the rest of his fleet is not all-American. There’s a 2005 Volkswagen convertible in the garage along with a 2001 Honda sedan…Cindy McCain’s name is on 11 vehicles, though not the one she actually drives. That car, a Lexus, is registered to her family’s beer-distributor business and is outfitted with personalized plates that read MS BUD.
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is pretty upset, along with many others in Detroit.
But is it a lie? The one car he does have registered in his name is a GM made 2004 Cadillac CTS. The others are in Cindy’s name. Therefore this could actually be true, and we’ll note it as an almost-lie.
tip via Jim
Tags: McCain
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
To the UAW’s credit, it’s not that they bought a Prius or own foreign cars that is the issue. The issue is that when he’s talking about being energy efficient in places not Detroit he pulls out the Prius, but when he’s in Detroit he’s all American. You can’t have it both ways. Also Detroit voters aren’t stupid. They don’t care only that people buy foreign cars, they care about free-trade agreements and people being upfront to them.
I own two foreign cars and live in metro Detroit. I get the occasional ribbing, but I do not say that I am all American and they respect that.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
McCain should be banned from using the word “literal” in all its form.
Makes me think of this: http://s367.photobucket.com/albums/oo113/amk123amk/?action=view¤t=elitist2.gif
September 24th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I’d like to know if McCain would like to re-answer the original question, since he is unsure if he actually bought the car himself.
“What are you doing about environmental instability?”
“Uhm, I uh, my daughter that is, I um, bought her a Prius, or she bought one, or something.”
What a shameful excuse for a Presidential nominee. Then again if I was in my 70s and had 7 homes and 13 cars I would have trouble keeping track as well.
September 26th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Actually you can have your cake and eat it to…They are not mutually exclusive…
If you give someone the money to buy a car…but don’t help them make the decision…You still bought the car…
September 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
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