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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Palinism Parodied Avant La Lettre

By The Daily Dish
Sep 25 2008, 2:51 AM ET

This eternal Peter Sellers parody of a politician unable to say anything but forced to say something has somehow more salience right now:

My friends, in the light of present-day developments, let me say, right away, that I do not regard existing conditions lightly. On the contrary, I have always regarded them as subjects of the gravest responsibility and shall ever continue to do so.

Indeed, I will even go further and state quite categorically that I am more than sensible of the definitions of the precise issues which are at this very moment concerning us all.

We must build, but we must build surely.

Let me say just this: If any part of what I am saying is challenged, then I am more than ready to meet such a challenge. For I have no doubt whatsoever that whatever I may have said in the past, or what I am saying now, is the exact, literal and absolute truth as to the state of the case.



I put it to you that this is not the time for vague promises of better things to come. For, if I were to convey to you a spirit of false optimism, then I should be neither fair to you nor true to myself.

But does this mean, I hear you cry, that we can no longer look forward to the future that is to come? Certainly not!

Voice from the audience: What about the workers?

“What about the workers?” indeed sir! Grasp, I beseech you, with both hands the opportunities that are offered. Let us assume a bold front and go forward together.

Let us carry the fight against ignorance to the four corners of the Earth, because it is a fight which concerns us all.

And now, finally my friends, in conclusion, let me say just this.

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