a great deal of political rhetoric relies on language calculated to be both pleasing and empty. Cautious voters are wise to remember that candidates rely on them to fill in the blanks, sometimes interpreting their ill-defined language as specific promises they never made. If the candidates don’t define their terms, citizens shouldn't try to do it for them. Their ideas about “strength” or “patriotism” may not match the candidate’s. Remember to read the fine print, and avoid making judgments based only on fine-sounding words that could mean anything.
In addition to these concerns, the article warns the viewer to be wary of the repetition of certain strong terms.
The following ad titled "Dome" by the McCain campaign on 9/18/08:
In it I think we see two of factcheck.org's points highlighted:
1) The use of highlighted strong language (ex crisis, massive, billions, painful, skyrocketing etc.)
2) No real quotes or support are given for these claims. Although in many of their other ads the McCain campaign skillfully edits images and manipulates quotations (see most recently "Jim Johnson" and "Advice") to support their claims, none of this is done in this ad. I think the reasons for this are debatable, but the point is that the ad is trying to "teach" the viewer about Obama's policies without proving that that they are his actual beliefs in the hope that enough viewers will be persuaded by the simple language and accept it as true. Furthermore, we learn nothing from this ad about Mr. McCain's ideas of how to fix the economic crisis, is this because the ad is very short or because it would hurt the ad's message to start detailing actual fact about McCain's beliefs?
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