Quote:
|
Originally Posted by shakran
by that logic a politician should never say "duck" because it sounds pretty darned close to "fuck" and for fuck's sake we can't be saying bad word soundalikes can we?
|
Don't slippery slope me. "Niggardly" isn't exactly in common usage, and it's perfectly understandable that somebody without a lot of education or a big vocabulary might draw unpleasant conclusions about that word.
I'm not saying "Yay for misunderstanders!" I'm saying, as a politician, it's your job to shape and mold the public's perception of you. And using a word that is possible--even likely--to be negatively misunderstood by some people is just thoughtless.
You'll never go broke underestimating the public. His mistake here was, he overestimated the public.