Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Named for the debate tactic created by creationist shill Duane Gish, a Gish Gallop involves spewing so much bull**** in such a short span on that your opponent can’t address let alone counter all of it. To make matters worse a Gish Gallop will often have one or more 'talking points' that has a tiny core of truth to it, making the person rebutting it spend even more time debunking it in order to explain that, yes, it's not totally false but the Galloper is distorting/misusing/misstating the actual situation. A true Gish Gallop generally has two traits.
1) The factual and logical content of the Gish Gallop is pure bull**** and anybody knowledgeable and informed on the subject would recognize it as such almost instantly. That is, the Gish Gallop is designed to appeal to and deceive precisely those sorts of people who are most in need of honest factual education.
2) The points are all ones that the Galloper either knows, or damn well should know, are totally bull****. With the slimier users of the Gish Gallop, like Gish himself, its a near certainty that the points are chosen not just because the Galloper knows that they're bull****, but because the Galloper is deliberately trying to shovel as much bull**** into as small a space as possible in order to overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume and bamboozle any audience members with a facade of scholarly acumen and factual knowledge.
It is quite apparent to those of us who have closely followed this election, that this latest sketch drawn out by Romney completely contradicts major policy ideas stumped on the campaign trail by him over the last few months. Since Obama could no longer debate the substance (or lack thereof) of Romney''s policy ideas, it threw Obama off his game. We have seen Romney do this before in the primaries. Obama needs to be prepared for it in future debates. Call it Etch-A-Sketch, call it the Gish Gallop, call it lies...it's all about the same. But it is a known debate tactic. And, like Romney, it is dishonest.
Interesting - I noticed he was speaking at a really fast pace too. It often didn't feel like a debate - it felt like he was just rattling off pat statements too quickly and then slowing down briefly for the occasional sound bite.
Yep, like a prize fighter who just keeps throwing blows. Sometimes it works. Other times it is foolish. But it is hard for a polite person to get a word in edgewise with a dominant, fast talking person who tries this technique. Obama will need to thwart that. Or maybe the moderators can control it. It seems a bit sleazy to barrage a person with short, disconnected sound bytes, and when they are tying to figure out which to respond to, hit them again.
More importantly, someone who uses that is trying to avoid the truth, not promote it. But that is the GOP MO in most situations, so not a surprising technique.
You clearly don't understand the premise of this thread.
Sure I do, and you know it. This was not a high-school debate where you can bury your opponent in silliness. You folks are trying to claim the poor president was so confused he couldn't keep up with Romney... are you sure that's an argument you want to make?
Sure I do, and you know it. This was not a high-school debate where you can bury your opponent in silliness. You folks are trying to claim the poor president was so confused he couldn't keep up with Romney... are you sure that's an argument you want to make?
It's not a case of "keeping up", or of being "confused".
It's a case of the moderator voicing the question and then having one of the candidates engage in a rapid fire spraying out a deluge of false or misleading statements - with maybe one tiny grain of truth in there - and then the other candidate having to first "wipe off" a thick layer of BS in order to address the original question - to be able to frame it as it were - without it's thick coating of BS.
When the Gish Candidate is on the other foot ie: answering a response from the other candidate it's just a case of employing the same process again.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
