Will Danielle Smith's campaign self destruct？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
209.3473
Summary
Danielle Smith's comments about cancer and its impact on her campaign have caused a stir in the media and in the political world. Smith has since walked it back and tried to clarify it, but the damage has already been wrought.
Transcript
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politics. You know, it's always been a game of gotcha when campaigns are going. Candidates and
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teams, they watch the every word of their opponents in hopes of catching an error or a
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statement that can be construed as extreme. Danielle Smith handed her political opponents
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a bombshell last week when she mused about cancer care while interviewing a naturopath during a
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podcast. So I'm going to quote exactly what Danielle Smith said. She said, once you've arrived
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and got stage four cancer and there's radiation and surgery and chemotherapy, those are
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incredibly expensive interventions, not just for the system, but also expensive in the toll it takes
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on the body. And I think about everything that built up before you got to stage four and that
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diagnosis that's completely within your control and there's something that you can do about it
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that is different. Okay, now out of all of those words, the offensive words were in that quote
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completely within your control, as you can see highlighted in there. And it isn't surprising
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that it's upset a lot of people. I mean, pretty much everybody has had experiences with cancer,
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whether directly or with families and friends. It's a terrible wasting disease and it's an unfair one.
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Cancer takes children and seniors alike and we've made great strides in treating it, but it's still by
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far one of our biggest killers out there. Now Smith walked it back and tried to clarify the statement,
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but the damage has already been wrought. Her opponents and many in the press have of course been
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eagerly jumping on this and implying she was blaming cancer victims for their own conditions.
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Now there's a lot of health and lifestyle choices we can make to reduce the chances of getting cancer.
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I mean, smoking of course is a big one or reducing drinking, not getting too much direct sun exposure
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or avoiding airborne pollutants and other things. Those choices though, they only reduce the chances of
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getting cancer. They'll never eliminate them. I mean, non-smokers can get lung cancer too.
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Young women can get breast cancer and children can get brain cancer. And there's not a thing that could
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have been done to avoid it. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming Smith meant to imply that
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efforts can be made to mitigate risk and aren't, as she said, completely within one's control.
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That's all it takes though. One sentence uttered, whether intentionally or taken out of context can
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destroy an entire discussion, or in this case, maybe a campaign. Danielle Smith's strength has been
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her inquiring interviews where she verbally walks down the path of speculation, whether politically or
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even in areas like healthcare. She mentally meanders verbally and it makes for an interesting
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listen. That was part of what made her such a popular talk radio host and allowed her to regain
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public support and respect after the Wild Rose Florida party floor crossing debacle from years ago.
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Unfortunately though, Smith's verbose style also creates a minefield for herself. The more words you
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utter, the better the chances you're going to inadvertently come out with something that's going to stir
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controversy you didn't want to. And it's not such a big problem when you're in media, though she did
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run afoul of her bosses a number of times while in talk radio. It's a huge problem though when running
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a major political campaign and you're surrounded by opponents who are going to exploit every possible
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error. Smith has explained herself repeatedly and now there's little all she can do but hunker down and
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see if this one blows over. Time will tell just how damaging the statement may be for her political
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future. The other thing she's likely going to do, and this is unfortunate, is reduce the amount of time
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that's freely speaking. She'll move into the more controlled mode and stick to talking points,
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and that's unfortunate because it's going to make her sound like every other candidate in the field.
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I know for me it's painful when I interview candidates on the show and I can't get anything
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beyond their carefully scripted statements. I mean I might as well just read their press releases
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verbatim and save myself the trouble of booking them. It's a safety tactic on their part though and
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I can see why they embrace it. I just don't have to like it. I do hope we don't see Smith shying away
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from being outspoken and examining new policy ideas in light of this mess. Her strength is in
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thinking outside of the box and being receptive to new ideas. That can also be a weakness though if
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it's not done with care. The campaign's still relatively in the early stages and Smith came
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out of the gates hard which made her the presumptive front runner. I'm not sure if she's maintaining that
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status right now. Now I despise how so many politicians go into the nobody moves nobody gets
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hurt mode of campaigns where they shy away from anything that can be considered controversial.
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In light of recent events though we can see why they do it.