This morning I was happily driving along listening to NPR and along comes a local story about prop 1 on the August ballot (the parks district one). This was a follow up story to a debate a few days ago. The No side went first and that was fine, then came yes on prop 1... and in he started with "We have have people looking at this..." to which I had an immediate negative response. Oh really "a lot of people" who are, what? Smart than me, and therefore can tell me how to vote. Eventually it became clear that what he really meant to say was that the measure has many endorsements from local groups. But it just came across so wrong that I couldn't get past the initial impression of the statement.
SO, don't use the statement "We have had a lot of people..." because you are essentially telling your audience that they don't really have the right to question you or that the people in question are some how smarter than your audience and thus their lead should be followed. And that might not go over well. It might not go over even when they are smarter because the tone has that authoritarian ring that isn't terribly popular.
And for the record I haven't decided how I am voting on prop 1.
