Rumsfeld Ramble Wins ' Foot in Mouth' Award

[hntngirl]

heehee!
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Rumsfeld Ramble Wins ' Foot in Mouth' Award

Mon December 1, 2003 09:09 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld' s curious statement at a press briefing was named on Monday as the year' s most baffling comment by a public figure.

Rumsfeld, usually renowned for his uncompromising tough talking, was awarded the " Foot in Mouth" award for a confusing message which probably left his audience in the dark as to its meaning, Britain' s Plain English Campaign said.

" Reports that say something hasn' t happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there things we know we know," Rumsfeld told the briefing.

" We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don' t know we don' t know."

John Lister, spokesman for the campaign which strives to have public information delivered in clear, straightforward English, said: " We think we know what he means. But we don' t know if we really know."

Rumsfeld, whose boss President Bush is often singled out by language critics for his sometimes unusual use of English, took the booby prize ahead of a bizarre effort from actor-turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.

" I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman," was the odd statement from the new California Governor.

Previous holders of the award include U.S. actress Alicia Silverstone and British chancellor Gordon Brown. Last year' s winner was actor Richard Gere.

[Briman]

" We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don' t know we don' t know."

I' ll have to use that line next time my wifey gives me a hard time when I cannot figure out what I spent $100 cash on in the previous month according to the bank statement.[8D]

[Stickemup]

I understood him perfectly.[:-] That scares me.[]

[rockytop]

I didn' t see a thing wrong with what he said, in fact, I thought it was brilliant.

[OregunHntr]

How can you know something that you dont know?

That guy scares me. [>:]

[James B]

I agree with stickemup. All in all I think rummie is doing a great job. Him and George must communicate pretty well.

[whelen36]

basically the unknowns to me , mean things that they know that they don't want us to know , anybody else on my planet here on this one

[eldeguello]

I don't think this was a case of Rumsfeld mis-speaking. I think it is a case of his audience being uninitiated in the intricasies of cause and effect theory, or being just too dense, to understand what he was saying.

Example of a "known unknown"; we KNOW that we do not know where Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden are.

An unknown unknown is something that exists or is occurring, but we do not even suspect it. Example - the attack on 9/11. We were totally unaware that this attack was being organized until the planes were highjacked.