Czech President Václav Klaus really, really liked a pen put in front of him during his official visit to Chile. Check out his smooooth moves in palming the pen. No one will notice ... : Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Czech President Václav Klaus really, really liked a pen put in front of him during his official visit to Chile. Check out his smooooth moves in palming the pen. No one will notice ... : Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Let's say I have a strong conviction on crime, let's say I understand consequentialist or restorative justice to be fairer in place of retributivist justice. You don't know that, maybe 1% of 1% of voters know it, and if I say "I want to concentrate on restorative justice that focuses on rehabilitation." you hear "I am symathetic to murder and want to cater to murderers." So, I learn to be overly ambiguous "I want justice reform that will secure the lives of citizens in this country!" it means nothing, but I say it with passion.
The most oft used ambiguity is this "I will fight for what this country stands for, what this flag represents and what the honorable folk in this great land deserve!" All of this is ambiguous and invites the listener to insert whatever they think and feel into the concepts. The politician is not saying what he thinks these things represent, he is saying "what they represent" so that you can fill-in whatever you think.
Supposing I was an honest person, with strong convictions, but with some flexibility, and I ran for President. And I began saying many of the things I say on here; what if I said, the Muslims are onto something, the unadulterated expression of the female form has degraded our society and cast it into the nether-concerns of the basist human motives. We need social reform! We need regulations on advertising imagery! We need regulations on entertainment! and most importantly we need to address our own consumption!"
I wouldn't get past the gate. Nobody does who shoots straight, you gotta be a little crooked, and the more gnarled you are, the better your chances. It is the same problem with job interviews:
Interviewer: Tell us a time when you had to overcome adversity.
Honest Interviewee: Well, to be honest, I haven't had many challenges in that regard. Everything at my previous job was laid-out by upper-management and it all ran smoothly. I rarely had to make any difficult decisions and when I did, I asked my supervisor.
Dishonest Interviewee; Well, you know, I was working on this big project that had a strict deadline, and it was really important to the client that it get done on time, their financial department depended on me. But at the same time I had to work with others who weren't contributing much to the project and my wife was hounding me to spend more time at home with her and the kids. I had to do something so I set up a small incentive program, authorized by the company, that would incentivize my co-workers, the work got done on-time and my wife and kids were happy they got to see their dad.
(this latter answer covers 4+ of the standard questions asked by interviewers)