Just Say It (Part 1) - No Weasel Words

I had a Professor in Business School who tried to get his students to give opinions and thoughts in clear language, and to speak our minds. He hated hedging and generic terms —he would say “no weasel words” when some tried to give him business clichés as an answer. I used to think of him when stuck on mind numbing conference calls that were grossly common when I was working for large companies. These calls were a cornucopia of political positioning, name dropping, calendar filling and butt kissing—that’s not how I roll. Truth is I spent most of them on espn.com and exchanging witty IMs with like-minded call participants.

The modern world has created a whole vocabulary of politically correct, soft and non-offensive terms which is symptomatic of our times. Fear of lawsuits and current educational trends have made all of us careful of what we say so we don’t offend or make anyone slightly uncomfortable. Politicians are the worst at this type of safe talk. I used to love watching Meet the Press and presidential debates, but don’t watch much anymore. No one ever says anything interesting. All they do is repeat the same focus group-tested, carefully constructed statements that are designed not to get them in trouble or offend any special interest group.

In the entertainment world, when people come along like Rosie O’Donnell, Don Imus, Kathy Griffin and Donald Trump, people gravitate to them because they shoot from the hip and say what is on their mind. However, as soon as they cross some arbitrary line they get smote down with a great fury and vengeance. Because not many people want to take that risk, we get a steady dose of Ryan Seacrest, Carson Daly, and Regis and Kelly. Dull, boring and vanilla.

I am rooting for Rudy Giuliani to win at least the Republican nomination. Anything can come out of his mouth at any time and speaking his mind is in his DNA. I relate to Rudy because we both grew up on Long Island, where people are not shy about telling you what they think—whether you want to know or not. Contrast him to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney who come across as programmed machines from that old Yul Brenner Westworld movie. The question is: how will America feel about this choice of verbal and personal styles? Let’s take a look at recent experiences of the voters. (Rudy and me at a corporate event)

For eight years they had Bill Clinton who debated the definition of the word “is” as he was being impeached for lying about a girl. He was followed by George W. Bush who fudged his way into a war by linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11 with no proof. I may be wrong, but I think the country may be ready for a straight talking Long Islander in the White House.

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