There's an interesting element of BS I didn't mention in my recent post about Hunter S. Thompson's backlash against political bull. Just like in hoaxes and cons, a good BS artist expects the audience to do much of the work for him: He only needs to be suggestive and they'll fill in the blanks themselves.
Last month I asked Harry Frankfurt, author of On Bullshit, about instances of malarkey in the news, and also brought up the fill-in-the-blanks element of BS. He provided this juicy example:
When Hillary tells you that she has lots of experience, she doesn’t really tell you what the experience is, but you’re supposed to imagine what it must have been. She must have been sitting in the Situation Room when the Joint Chiefs of Staff were making their judgments about how to proceed in Iraq and elsewhere. She never says that but that’s what you’re supposed to fantasize... Hillary’s claim to have had a lot of experience in government is [BS]; she doesn’t have any experience. She’s been a senator for [a few] years but she’s not talking about that; she’s talking about sleeping with the president for eight years as if that’s prepared her to run the country.
Not to take sides, Frankfurt noted that "every candidate is producing [BS] at a rapid rate." He said that John McCain was "impressively free" of bullocks in the 2000 presidential campaign, but has since toned down his sincerity, perhaps because he lost. And as for the current president:
It’s very hard to know whether it's [BS] or lying on his part... but I don’t know if he knows the difference, to tell you the truth. He seems to be very impaired when it comes to identifying the truth and sticking to the facts. I think he’s interested in doing whatever he thinks is necessary to getting his way, and that is the mark of a [BS]er.
More about BS!
Dr. Frankfurt has ably hit the nail on the head. Texas has a long history of producing BSers, but it does seem that, at a certain point, it's easy to start believing your own BS. (Consider that the unofficial anthem of the state is "Cotton-Eyed Joe" with its call and response of "Bullshit!" "What you say?" "Bullshit!")
Please give us more BS analysis of the candidates!