[teal]

Ok. The question.

1)Did Gore make a mistatement?

The rules of the game.

2) Gore shall be considered to not have made a mistatement unless shown to have made a mistatement *beyond a reasonable doubt*. i.e. He is innocent until proven guilty.

The verdict.

3) Geoschmo and the entire republican attack machine have failed to show number 2 because reasonable people can read Gore's entire interview and not think that he made a mistatement (myself included and many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many other people).

Any questions? I presumb that you disagree with part number 3 of the argument that you have shown it beyond a reasonable doubt. I don't see how you can consistently maintain that point of view in that given similar situations with the tables reversed you would surely believe that someone was being smeared rather than that they made a mistatement. I believe this about Bush, I don't see why you have such a problem believing this about Gore.

And what do we mean about mistatement anyways? If you are merely implying that the statement is badly worded in the sense that it can be easily misinterpreted then I certainly agree. Gore is guilty as charged, he failed to act like a perfect mathmatically correct robot in every conceivable situation including an interview where he was answering with spoken language and not even in complete sentences always. If on the other hand you imply that the sentence was intended to convey the idea that Gore did physically make the internet then I certainly disagree. That was not Gore's intention and as reasonable people we should give him the benefit of the doubt and try to see things from his point of view rather than attacking him for something that he is not really responsible for.

Lastly about the word create. Say that your company has a web page that is very basic and just lists your company address and phone number and maybe a picture of your building. Then say you are assigned to upgrade your company web page along with a team of other people and you work hard on this project all day and at the end you put up a new company web page, using much of the code of the original web page I might ad, that is much improved with pictures of your co-workers and stuff. Then when you get home and your wife asks you, "what did you do today." It would be perfectly natural to answer, "I *created* a web page". QED. If you can't see the difference between this Version of the word create and the Version championed by a literal reading of the dictionary (making something that did not exist before because technically there *was* a web page there before) then I can't help you.

[Edited to remove a logical hole that others could distort for their purposes].

[ May 30, 2003, 16:02: Message edited by: teal ]