How Does Asō Tarō Do It?

I mean it, how does he do it?

How does he, in a greeting to a party election office in Bunkyō Ward, say "the candidate you are helping is assured of losing by a narrow margin" (sekihai o ki shite) when he wanted to say "the candidate you are helping is assured of victory" (hisshō o ki shite)?

Does he feel a desperate need to provide fodder for an otherwise bored-to-tears press corps?

At this point, bad luck is just following the prime minister around, biting him in the keister with impunity.

The man needs a rest. We all do.