President Obama has taken to prefacing certain statements by saying "Let me say this as clearly as I can," or "Let me be clear about this."He did it again while addressing the Turkish parliament.
Why would any communicator say that? Why?
If you are speaking clearly and simply in the first place, then you don't have to say "I want to be as clear about this as I can."
In fact, when you say "Let me make this very clear," or something along those line, you are actually implying that other things you may have said (without the preface) were not clear. As if to say: "Now, I'm finally going to stop being duplicitous and I'm going to finally make myself clear, so listen up."
What does it man when you say you're now going to make yourself clear? Does it mean the rest of what you said was obtuse, fuzzy, unclear?
It sort of reminds me of the original weasel himself - Nixon (aka Slippery Dick).
Nixon used to say "Let me make one thing perfectly clear." He said it a lot.
And we all know where that got Nixon.
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