[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Re: [POLITICS] "mistakes were made"

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007, Mike Miller wrote:

> I thought "mistakes were made" was an evasive Clintonism, or wasn't that 
> what the Republicans used to claim?  Seriously, didn't "mistakes were 
> made" become popular a few years ago under some administration?  Was it 
> Clinton's or someone else's?  See recent sighting below.


A google search here...

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mistakes+were+made%22

...leads me to Ronald Reagan as an earlier source than Clinton. 
Apparently Reagan used this phrase in regard to Iran-Contra on December 6, 
1986:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mistakes+were+made%22+reagan

Reagan used the phrase before congress on January 27, 1987:

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=34430

Maybe "mistakes were made" has been associated with Clinton because his 
political enemies wanted it that way.  Of course Clinton used the phrase 
too, but he doesn't get credit for the invention because Reagan used it a 
full decade earlier:

   http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/clarity.html

   While we are still seeking all the facts, it's obvious that the
   execution of these policies was flawed and mistakes were made. Let me
   just say it was not my intent to do business with Khomeini, to trade
   weapons for hostages, nor to undercut our policy of anti-terrorism.
      --Ronald Reagan, radio broadcast (December 6, 1986)

   It costs so much money to pay for these campaigns that mistakes were
   made here by people who either did it deliberately or inadvertently.
   Now, others.it's up to others to decide whether those mistakes were
   made deliberately or inadvertently.
      --Bill Clinton, press conference (January 28, 1997)

But the master Henry Kissinger beat them both by more than another decade:

   Deng: Why is there still such a big noise being made about Watergate?

   Kissinger: That is a series of almost incomprehensible events. . . . It
   has its roots in the fact that some mistakes were made, but also, when
   you change many policies, you make many, many enemies.
      --Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaking with Chinese Vice
        Premier Deng Xiaoping (April 14, 1974)

And a century before that, Ulysses S. Grant used the phrase "mistakes have 
been made, as all can see and I admit" in a note to his final report to 
Congress, on December 5, 1876.  So I guess it's an old standard political 
evasion tactic.  We have to give credit to the Republicans though -- they 
invented it and continue to use it today.  Way to go, Republicans!

Mike

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion