Many years ago I was brought to Hawaii on a job as a consulting economist. While working there, I ran into an individual that was a consummate con artist and proud of it. In addition to applying his skills to popping as many women into the sack as possible, he was also adept at conning people out of money and material things.
-
I asked him to run me though his bag of tricks and basically it came down to what most politicans do all the time and what co-enablers/dependents Bill and Hillary (Billary) and Bush do routinely. And he even quoted Groucho Marx's aphorism that: "The two keys to success are honesty and sincerity; and if you can fake those, the sky's the limit".
-
What he told me is the key is in eye contact, focus, absolute certainty, some details and assertion as if to disagree is to brand oneself dumber than a rock.
-
He said most people do not lie often or easily. And when they do, they give "tells" (a poker player's term for subtle signs someone is bluffing or lying or perhaps is elated at having good cards); they give telltale signs overtly of what is going on internally. Eyes twitch, skin reddens, hands go into a prayer position, eyes move upward to the right, breathing changes, etc; all signs that an interrogator looks for.
-
Now with pathological liars, sociopaths, psychopaths and con artists, they have no visible "tells". They can look at you straight-faced and not only lie, but with such certainty and force that one is led to believe that this person, who must be like me, a fellow human, simply could not be lying as he gives no signs and is so certain in ways that no one lying could do.
-
Remember Clinton's famous "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms Lewinsky; I did not ask anyone to lie" as he looked forcefully into the camera and waived that crooked finger and then said "now I have to get back to work for the American people." He was so categorical, so assertive, and on public TV, I thought at the time that either he is a stone cold psychopath, or, he has hidden any evidence so well he is so confident it will never be discovered, or he really is innocent.
-
Because most people think others are like them in terms of what motivates them as well as what they are or are not capable of, the con artists and politicians use that for their own advantage. So a chickenhawk, a pampered preppy punk, a momma's boy like Bush, can put on some military gear, a swagger, look straight into the camera and with a few buzz words all of a sudden his positives on national security rise in the polls. Notice that Bush only makes his fumbles, tortured syntax and vocabulary when he is trying to fake compassion or belief in anything other than outright fascism. When he is doing his Bush the hawk, Commander/Decider in Chief here to "protect" you bit, he does not make the same mistakes and tortured syntax. Billary understand the same concept and use it all the time. Watch both Bill and Hillary and their eyes sometimes; they use their eyes: widened, forceful, intense, and various theatrics to push the image of I am in command not only of their situation, but of the facts and the truth and someone as certain as I am simply could not be lying or not in command because the average person would not be able to project as I do were he/she not similarly in command of the truth and facts.
-
So Hillary does her strident, look straight into the camera, I am ready to be Commander in Chief and I studied under the best routine and a lot of really stupid, duped or uneducated in the ways of the con buy it. I mean how is it possible for a damn speech, written by some flunky, not even the candidate's own words, cause an immediate movement in the polls on that person's national security bona fides or economic policies or whatever?
-
Hillary has one thing more going for her. Dick Morris' concept of triangulation and the notorious single-issueism, myopia and naked selfishness of many of the U.S. population. Just as the apex of a triangle is above the right and left ends of the base of a triangle, neither left nor right, neither Republican nor Democrat, so these opportunistic pols know how to play the single-issue game and many self-absorbed Americans enable them.. Give the animals a little red meat (something on their pet issue) and add hatred of the alternative, and most people will hold their noses on the other pet single issues of others that the position of the candidate favors but they do not. That is what is going on with this amendment on Iran.
-
And why is not one journalist asking those who keep talking about their experience in the Senate why they keep touting experience in a Congress that has lower approval ratings than even Bush? What do these bastards even really do? Think about it. The position papers etc are all written by briefers and staff. They really just go around, speak from talking points, wear suits, grandstand and demagogue on the floor of the Senate or House, make speeches written by others, collect lobbyist money and schmooze a lot.
-
