“Clearly, mistakes were made.”
When New Jersey Governor Chris Christie used the phrase "clearly, mistakes were made" to make his non-apology apology for the closing down of access lanes on the busy George Washington Bridge by top aides as part of a political vendetta, he joined the ranks of some of the United States' most elite politicians.
The famous phrase is used so often by scandal-plagued presidents and administrations that William Safire, who has written and added to his book Safire's Political Dictionary for more than four decades, devoted an entire section to it.
How Safire describes the phrase:
mistakes were made: A passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it.
Here's a brief history of the company Christie now keeps.
"Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit it." —Ulysses S. Grant, addressing the scandals that plagued his two terms as president
National Archives
"We did not achieve what we wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so." —Ronald Reagan, addressing the Iran-Contra affair in his sixth State of the Union address
National Achives
"Clearly, mistakes were made." —then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, also on the Iran-Contra affair
National Archives / Via news.google.com
