It seems as if one of the retorts against the speech that Republican Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin gave at the Republican Convention is that the speech was not written by her, but by a speech writer. This apparently is coming as much from the Obama camp as it may be coming from some over zealous journalist.
But as the old saying goes, “Isn’t this just like the pot calling the kettle black”. I imagine that most if not all of the major politicians and some of the minor ones use a speech writer. And I’m sure this isn’t something that just happened during this election. When was the last time you didn’t hear that there was a speech writer in the employ of a candidate?
Of course, it’s the person who speaks the words that are important and as long it is believed by the one who says it, who wrote it isn’t that important.
Interesting thing is that while most knows that this saying deals with hypocrisy. It’s used to say that the one stating a fact can also be thought as being guilty of the same. No one really seems to know where the phrase comes from.
The reason behind the saying is when a cast iron pot and a kettle are used in cooking in an open fire, both would turn black from the soot of the fire.
But who was the first to use this expression. That will probably never be known. In 1693, William Penn wrote; “For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality… is for the Pot to call the Kettle black.” in Some fruits of solitude. A similar phrase also appears in a 1620 translation of Don Quixote, by Cervantes.
It is one of those sayings that is just as meaningful in 2008 as it was in the 17th century so it’s not surprising to hear it said.
