He did botch it, but by the time Hannity had given him the forum, the premise had already been laid that dating teenage women was tantamount to admitting to molesting that girl. All the accusations were lumped together as a package, and if Moore admitted to any of it, people would see it as implicating him in the molestation accusation.
Hannity didn't help by focusing on trying to get Moore to deny he dated teenagers instead of denying that he molested that specific girl. The problem was, Moore did date teenagers, and by focusing on that Hannity was helping to paint Moore into a corner.
Moore botched it, but Hannity botched it too in the way he presented an acknowledgement of dating teenagers as convicting Moore of all the accusations.
When Trump was faced with personal attacks from the same lying cabal, he roared back with real fire, and set them on their heels.
Roy couldn't manage to cough out a puff of smoke, and that is why so many voters bought into the lies.
Moore should have said "Yes I dated Teenagers, but I never dated a 14 year old, and I never had any sort of intimate contact with that one girl."
Moore should have came out with strong denouncement of the one accusation, and an admission that he dated some women as teenagers.
But the bigger thing here is that people in our party should have at the very least kept their F***ing mouths shut until they had more information than mere accusations from women with troubled pasts. Too quickly did all of our team mates come out to withdraw their support and denounce Moore on the basis of nothing but Media collaborated accusations.
Jeff Flake even sent money to the Jones Campaign. The backstabbing from our own party was just unreal.
Agree 100% with your post. Good job.
Great analysis. You obviously paid a great deal of attention to the subtleties and minutiae of this debacle - much more than most - including myself.
That was a Grade A Freeper comment, there. Much appreciated.
My read here is that Moore was a tad stiff. That vitiated the flexibility needed to deal with the wild winds of a scandal like this.
At first wondering about Roy, I changed to virtual certitude that he had been rick rolled when his worst accusers smelled as fishy as cat food.
If Roy can’t pull it out in a miraculous recount, I’d remind Christians to actually BE Christian. Not Christianesque formulaic. Then when they speak, the Holy Spirit will give them voice.
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One of the best posts ever on the subject.
I didn’t understand exactly what Hannity was going for when he was trying to pin Moore down into the not dating teen girls thing. (Probably, with a 16 year old daughter, he was just disgusted that any middle aged adult would seek out teens for sex.) But however inartful my beloved Sean may have been with his line of questioning, as you say, the good judge should have been prepared, and should have dealt in some cards of truth. MOORE CHOSE NOT TO. So I can’t give Hannity any blame here.
There is only one reason not to admit to dating teens above the age of consent and not strongly denouncing the accusation of statutory rape. Smoke, fire, and all that. At least that is what his equivocating responses lead to.