“I can only lose due to shenanigans” and “maybe I’ll just stay in office” are miles apart in terms of how troubling they are.
One is a prediction about other people, and the other is a prediction about the speaker’s future actions.
//of course, given the speaker of the second statement, I assign epsilon weight to it as evidence either way.
I don’t see how those are really all that far apart—both say if the results don’t support me they are questionable. After all, if an election is contested and that cannot be resolved what does happen with a sitting President? Does the US just do without one for a while?
But perhaps more relevant, it was merely pointing out the extent of the situation in the current election—neither side is willing to say the results can sure to be taken as is but that they will be looking closely and very likely questioning them.
Statements by a private, albeit famous and moderately popular, citizen are inherently different than statements from an elected official, especially the head of the executive branch.
Statements about other people are inherently different than statements about the speaker.
Is either side actually saying that they will “look closely at the results” or is that your interpretation of the actual statements?
“I can only lose due to shenanigans” and “maybe I’ll just stay in office” are miles apart in terms of how troubling they are. One is a prediction about other people, and the other is a prediction about the speaker’s future actions.
//of course, given the speaker of the second statement, I assign epsilon weight to it as evidence either way.
I don’t see how those are really all that far apart—both say if the results don’t support me they are questionable. After all, if an election is contested and that cannot be resolved what does happen with a sitting President? Does the US just do without one for a while?
But perhaps more relevant, it was merely pointing out the extent of the situation in the current election—neither side is willing to say the results can sure to be taken as is but that they will be looking closely and very likely questioning them.
Statements by a private, albeit famous and moderately popular, citizen are inherently different than statements from an elected official, especially the head of the executive branch.
Statements about other people are inherently different than statements about the speaker.
Is either side actually saying that they will “look closely at the results” or is that your interpretation of the actual statements?