Setting the Record Straight

[Valin]

Townhall:

Jackie Gingrich Cushman
5/8/11

My father, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, has been in politics as long as I can remember.

And as long as I can remember, media coverage about him has contained misstatements of facts. The vast majority are simple mistakes that are easily corrected, understood and rewoven into an ongoing storyline.

But one of them seems to have taken on a life of its own, and simple corrections have not sufficed to set the record straight. Why does this happen? I can't be sure, but I suspect that the narrative created by these untruths proves to be so much more compelling and more dramatic than what actually happened that it proves irresistible.

I'm talking about the story of my father's visit to my mother while she was in the hospital in 1980.

(Snip)


Later that summer, Mom went to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for surgery to remove a tumor. While she was there, Dad took my sister and me to see her.

It is this visit that has turned into the infamous hospital visit about which many untruths have been told. I won't repeat them. You can look them up online if you are interested in untruths. But here's what happened:

My mother and father were already in the process of getting a divorce, which she requested.

Dad took my sister and me to the hospital to see our mother.

She had undergone surgery the day before to remove a tumor.

The tumor was benign.

(Snip)


I am pleased to finally get the real story about this.

[Pepper]

Valin

 

It is pathetic that the she has to try to set the record straight.

 

A lie may have no legs when faced with truth, but with newspapers, lefties, television retelling a lie, the truth has little chance of being heard.

Besides, lefties don't want to believe it.

[Valin]

Valin

 

It is pathetic that the she has to try to set the record straight.

 

A lie may have no legs when faced with truth, but with newspapers, lefties, television retelling a lie, the truth has little chance of being heard.

Besides, lefties don't want to believe it.

 

 

None the less the real story is out there. I just wish she had put it out sooner.

[Pepper]

Valin

 

True, and Newt should have done the same.

[Casino67]

One can be assured that this story will never be printed in the MSM. Trying to correct the lie will never see the light of day. It is simply political and will always be used to politically demean.

[nickydog]

Valin

 

True, and Newt should have done the same.

Nobody would have believed Newt.

[Sanguine]

George Bush did the same thing. Never countered the increasingly scandalous lies, and now at least some of them are set in historical stone.

[pollyannaish]

I live in a very small town, where things become extremely misconstrued and difficult to untangle. Like many other families in our neighborhood, these things get circulated like crazy and become part of your reputation...fair or unfair.

 

This is exactly the same thing only in a big neighborhood (the entire nation). You can try to chase each misnomer to correct it, but you end up looking batty and crazy. You drive YOURSELF crazy trying to clarify things. This has now been clarified once for people to believe or not believe. What Newt's family says will probably matter little in the scope of things though.

 

I've come to admire people who don't chase down every rumor, mistruth, and unfair shading. Like President Bush. Instead, he focused on getting the job done the best he could despite the headwinds. He knew full well things would be set in stone that are inaccurate. I often laugh at the though of what our forefathers would think of the mythology that has sprouted up around them. Some true, some fabricated, some minimized and a lot of it made of whole cloth.

 

In my case, I've decided to follow the President Bush example in response to things about me or my family. As my father noted, what other people think of you is really none of your business. One has to focus on doing the best one can, and then allowing the results to be what they are. What I CAN do, is to give others a very wide berth when it comes to thinking I know what they are like or what they did or what happened in certain situations. If I wasn't there, I don't know. If I was there, I saw it through my own filter.

 

Newt's muddy background will most certainly be a hinderance in the coming election. Fair or unfair, it is what it is. We may miss out on a great chief executive. But repeated denials and explanations won't change that.

[Evad]

"This has now been clarified once for people to believe or not believe. What Newt's family says will probably matter little in the scope of things though."

 

Won't change anything I think about Newt. To me he's like Pat Buchanan in that sometimes he says things and I say "right on" and then other times I want to strangle him.

 

Don't know if that's a problem with him or me.

[pollyannaish]

"This has now been clarified once for people to believe or not believe. What Newt's family says will probably matter little in the scope of things though."

 

Won't change anything I think about Newt. To me he's like Pat Buchanan in that sometimes he says things and I say "right on" and then other times I want to strangle him.

 

Don't know if that's a problem with him or me.

 

 

Well I hope it's him because I feel exactly the same way about those two. I think Newt pretty much swamped his own boat with his perspectives on Healthcare this weekend.

[AceRimmer]

Polly!

 

Check out Valin's thread: Newt shoot himself in the foot