Herman Cain did NOT agree to take a lie detector test (ay yi yi) [View All]

[jsmirman]

Why is your typical media outlet so impossibly stupid?

Standard Headline: "Herman Cain: I'd take lie detector test to rebut Sharon Bialek claims"

The Actual Quotation: ""Yes. I absolutely would," Cain said when asked about taking a test. "But I'm not going to do that unless I have a good reason to do that. Of course I would be willing to do a lie detector test."

Judge the Headline: Technically Correct, Glaringly Incomplete, Horribly Misleading.

Yes, he "would take a lie detector test" - IMPOSING A CONDITIONAL ON THAT WILLINGNESS - "I would take a lie detector test (IF CERTAIN CONDITIONS THAT ARE COMPLETELY UNDEFINED AND THAT I HAVE NO INTEREST IN SPELLING OUT ARE MET)."

It's what we've learned, in so little time with the man, to be classic Cain. He goes in three directions in just 32 words!

I would - but I'm not going to - of course I would.

The party that lives to mock Clinton's Clintonisms seriously can get behind this???

Because the takeaway? He just said that he's not going to take a lie detector test. That's ALL that was said.




Comments on the accuracy of a polygraph not necessary here, please - as a law student I know the basics, those basics being that they yield too many false positives and that there is much less of a problem with false negatives.

I just also, as an almost-finished law student, find it maddening that people like Cain pour dreck like this into a spoon and the media gladly laps it up. It's unbelievable.