Stop Being So Offended, Democrats

Come on, Democrats. Let's cut it out with the self-righteous political correctness, please. I'm tired of reading about every little slip-up or awkward phraseology by anyone on the other side being blown out of proportion and having to hear Keith Olbermann hector us as if he were our era's Edward R. Murrow. I'm speaking of course about Hillary Clinton's RFK comments and Liz Trotta's off-color joke about Obama on FOX News. Both comments were insanely dumb and apologies were issued. Let's leave it at that (I realize it was a slow news weekend).

I would prefer to live in an America where not everyone is so damn straight-jacketed and afraid to say anything off-the-cuff that all we get are canned, predictable, meaningless and devoid-of-content statements, like the crap that the Bush administration has served up for the past seven years. To wit: Washington has a way of purging those who speak their mind (see O'Neill, Paul). That cuts both ways. When Democrats express shock over an impromptu joke made by Mike Huckabee at an NRA convention, it means Huckabee has to put up that mental filter that will expunge all future traces of spontaneity and honesty. Same goes for Geraldine Ferraro. Are we better off for that?

This is not an endorsement of the jokes or comments made by these people. But I'm not going to storm the barricades over them. Nor do I think Ferraro is a racist or Huckabee is pro-assassination or that McCain wants to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. I think their statements were blown out of proportion. Plus, this kind of shock and awe from the media only dumbs down the political debate (if that is possible at this point in the campaign) when there are so many more pressing issues. What angers me, as a white male in his 30s living in New York City in 2008, is that fact I have no health insurance; that I live in a country whose public transportation system is a joke; that oil execs, all of them white males, made record profits last year; that our department of Homeland Security actually thinks Iraqi-style IED explosives may wrack the streets of Boston (!!) -- the list goes on.

I don't care about the trivialities of whose pastor said what or what FOX pundit said what -- in the larger scheme of things, this kind of stuff doesn't mean squat. Plus, we don't need to distort the opposition or take umbrage at their every comment to win this election. If we just debate them upright on the issues, we will win. Let's not allow the political debate be hijacked by the politically correct wing of the Democratic Party.

Comments

[marijam]

One more thing, Obama expects us to take him seriously as a potential world leader, when he can't "handle the Clintons?" Do I have this right? Obama can handle Mahmoud, Hugo, etc, but he can't handle a member of his own party as a potential v.p.?

Those of you who think "he can get the women back" by choosing Kathleen Sebellius have no idea how the conservatives feel about her, do you? You should take the time to find out.

[rgersmrk]

I think he's handled the Clinton's to the point where he is going to beat the "inevitable" candidate. He's not the one complaining to the MSM about being "handled unfairly". That would be Bill Clinton. Of course he said a couple months ago politics was like a contact sport and if you couldn't take the hits then you needed to get out of the game.

Mixed messages, mismanaging money and threatening to obliterate other countries is not presidential. It's the Clinton campaign.

[virtualval2001]

who said he cannot handle them? Where was that said?

[goldstategirl]

The idea that any candidate was able to come along and challenge the Clinton machine in the first place is a staggering accomplishment, so potential world leader? Most definitely. The best and the team he's been smart enough to assemble and hold together is very solid.

[Mojane]

He's "handled the Clintons" perfectly, pretty much ignoring their low ball, below the rug crap. It's his supporters who have a hard time "handling the Clintons", like me. Just can't stand them anymore.

[realpolitic]

Your post is nonsense. This election is about war and peace and not who the potential vice-president is. Please argue issues with saliency.

[marijam]

Michelle Obama was the first person to bring up the worry about assasination during this election season.

I'm sick of this infighting, the disgraceful way the Clintons are being treated by the Obama supporters, and I've had enough. I don't get angry, I get even.

Hillary, if she is not given the nomination, will still be embraced by the Democratic party when they want her to bring her supporters in under the tent. It will be just like when McCain had to embrace Bush in order to survive politically, and they will need her to release her delegates or Obama will not get the nomination and there will be a convention fight. Personally, I think there should be anyway, but I guess its up to Hillary.

The get even part is this, if the ticket is not Clinton/Obama, then vote for McCain. Don't scoff. It would stick it in the eye of the Democratic party and it would stick it in the eye of the conservatives. They will deserve it for trying to orchestrate a coronation.

[tbone99]

Hell no , at leas votet for Nader! he actually has a platform offering the things we really need .

[missusam]

How are you sick of infighting when you re issuing demands and ultimatums. What makes Hillary deserving of being given the nomination, thought you had to earn that. That is the problem with some of the Hillary supporters, thinking it is Hers. So if you want to vote for McCain, go ahead, if the rest of Hillary's supporters to the same, so be it. Then stick the fork in America because it is done. You getting even hurts your children, grandchildren. What a wonder legacy for the Clintons leave on their way out. The death of the Democratic party.

[Gatling]

Millions of people voted for and support Sen Obama.

It is hardly a "coronation".

[ElIngeniero]

Voting for McCain would be putting the stick in your own eye, my friend.

[harriscrl3]

This is what I mean how can Hilary get the nomination when she is BEHIND in pledge delegates. They chose the nominee by pledge delegates she is behind in pledge delegates she cant surpass him in pledge delegates. Do you think its fair to Obama to take the nomination away from him and give it to her when she is BEHIND in pledge delegates.

Hilary has a lot of fences to mend. That her slash and burn method have offended people particulraly people in NY that she is suppose to represent. How do you think that people in one of the most diverse states in the nation feel when she is going around acting like the queen of Applachia. Well she doesnt represent applachia in the senate. She needs to remember the state she represents. Whether this party is united or not is on her. Nobody took anything away from her they went with the rules thats the only thing you can do when you have two sets of voters. Some are not going to be happy but if you stick to the way you've been doing it you have a better chance of uniting the party

Carol

[sangsue]

I see. Obama's job is to take whatever the Clinton's dish out at him. If he objects, he's a racist and against the Clintons.

So let me get this straight. If Obama isn't a doormat, he's polarizing. He's divisive.

Obama is the problem because if he'd just stayed in his place and realized that it's Hillary's turn damnit, none of this would be an issue.

Thanks for enlightening me. If Clinton utters a Freudian slip of sticking around in case Obama gets offed, it's not Hillary's fault. It's Obama's because if he wasn't still in the race, Hillary wouldn't be wishing him dead. That's not a threat, it's just the way you see the world.

If a girl gets raped, it's not the guy's fault for doing it, it's the girl's fault for being out in public.
If a man gets mugged it's not the mugger's fault, it's the victim's for having money.

Glad we have that straight.

[Thunderbeach]

Bill Clinton is still the only democratic president elected twice since FDR, so the O in Obama represents the circular firing squad made up of his fanatical followers.

Democracy assures us that we will never get leadership better than we deserve, and Obama supporters are guaranteeing McCain's victory in '08. Way to go.

[99hockeyman]

I love how the Clinton Supporters bring up that Bill is the only Dem Presdent elected twice since FDR. Literally, that is true, but JFK never had a chance to run for re-election and if he had, he would have been a shoo-in to win.

[TRex86]

Bill Clinton was one of the better presidents of the 20th century. That said, his legacy is corroding before our eyes, in his finger-wagging tirades and general incoherence. (I think he lost a lot of brain cells during his open heart surgery).
His two term presidency was a masterful example of triangulation, and he lacked coat-tails for his fellow Democrats, who got sliced and diced in the Newtonian Contract on America. His first term owed much to Ross Perot. His second gets full credit but mainly distinguished itself in balancing the budget (which Bush hijacked immediately on taking office). He also put in place deregulatory "reforms" that we're paying for a decade later.
Saddest perhaps is his legacy could have been an unbroken string of balanced budgets and Democratic presidents (eg, two terms for Al Gore) but for his sexual addiction. His personal failings handed the chance to win in 2000 to the nitwit son of the Bush clan, a candidate so undistinguished that he lost the popular vote and had to steal Florida. Moreover, Clinton could not deliver Arkansas or Tennessee, either of which would have made Florida moot.
I think we've had enough of the Clintons.

[Thabit]

i'm sorry sangsue i misread your post please ignore my last post to you

[TRex86]

Sinsei, wonderful mastery of tongue-in-cheek technique.

[timm]

Heres why hill's comment matters, purposefully or not she perfectly illustrated why shes still in this race. There is no mathmatical explanation for her chances to win. She needs somthing big to happen, and her campaign has to be aware of this. Anyone who realizes that shes campaigning for an astroid to hit should be upset, and if it took this comment for someone to realize it, then by all means, be upset.

[AndrewInToronto]

Let's leave it at that. No, let's not.

A nominee is being chosen not upon the basis of what will be done as if that is an iron-clad guarantee but rather upon one's political record. The most current expression of that record is that which a candidate says.

Self-righteous political correctness has NOTHING to do with it either. The reason the "assassination" remark was so offensive for me was not solely because it was a callous, ill-chosen expression of spontaneous sincerity. Rather, it was but the latest statement in a string of offensive ones, including the First-Lady record lies of which we all know plus her unwillingness on those telephone records or income-tax statements (neither fully disclosed); the smearing; the incessant Obama-cant­-take-the-­heat-but-s­top-treati­ng-me-badl­y ones; those in which she would make "some" others responsible for people's disgust, outrage, anger...wi­th her lies and tactics as well as in the odious revisionist op-ed piece for the NY Daily News....

No, for years I could never understand why the expression "political correctness" tweaked me as much as it does to this day. I have realized: it is because those who use it are really saying that they want to be able to be as sincerely offensive as they want and not get called upon it.

[Bladernr1001]

Republicans did not establish political correctnes­s.....the liberals did.

Seems to me you are being bitten by your own dog.

[TheKnownTruth]

Blown out of proportion ? Well let's see ...... I think each team should practice this behavior. Let me know when you get agreement across the board. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you....

Have a nice day

[JimR]

Nine times out of 10, I'd agree with you. But suggesting, whether you meant to or not, that your opponent might be SHOT DEAD next month is sinking to a new low. She most certainly should have been called on that.

[littlenoodles]

...unless you suggested nothing of the sort.

so what you mean is 'But saying something that could possibly be interpreted as suggesting­...'. Okay. But that just plays into his point. She said it, she didn't mean to suggest he might be assassinated, and she apologized for how it sounded. So why is this blog still harping on it and why are so many posters here suggesting that, indeed, she is waiting on an assassin?

As the phrase goes, "it isn't helpful". To Obama either. Much is said about how all the divisiveness will hurt the party in November. Well, if you let it divide you, it will.

[tbone99]

YOU are saying that and YOU are putting that thought out there , not H.C. Be responsible.

[TRex86]

What part of "RFK was assassinated in June" doesn't put that thought out there?
She said it. She owns it. If the words were ill-chosen, acknowledge it and apologize (without the "if") not just to the Kennedys but to everyone offended by the lapse in good taste.
Face it. Hillary just can't do that. Not in her character.

[StillAmused]

"suggesting, whether you meant to or not, that your opponent might be SHOT DEAD next month"?

Born without the insight gene, were ya'? They offer courses in critical thinking.

[TRex86]

Can you spell naive? Maybe the Dem's could be nicer to each other, but does anyone think that Karl Rove has retired? The Swiftboaters are into Zen Buddhism now?
Obama has done his best to set a highminded tone. His slips have been rather mild: Cf. "bitter" vs "assassina­ted." Or "Hillary, you're likeable enough" vs "all he has is a speech."
Obama's campaign against McSame will attempt to stay away from the old politics of destruction. He will get hit with every dirty, slimy 527 tactic in the repugnants book. Can you say, "Harold (Ford), I saw you at the Playboy mansion. Give me a call."

[acemave]

Considering the history of assassinations in this country, there is no excuse to site RFK's assassination 4 times. This was not a mistake she made. She is desperate and dangerous. This is a big deal. Dismissing political correctness is lame. This lameness floats about when someone has a weak link in their argument, because they are ignorant. It's not about political correctness to condemn someone for siting a possible assassination as an excuse to continue an otherwise hopeless campaign.

[adept2u]

Um no. We will insist that our politician be diplomatic and not 3 times invoke the assasination of another politician as the anything can happen moment.

Unless you've been black a day in your life and found it a lucky thing, then you have no standing obviously to judge gerry comments because you obviously lack empathy, so I can easily see why if it doesn't affect your lilly white self it doesnt matter.

Well it does, and if you don't like the train no one told you to get on board. Every time someone makes a funny about blowing away another of our leaders we'll kick up a storm, and everytime Archie Bunker tries to come back even in female form we'll call him for the bigot he is.

So there.

[ewj1]

While we "liberals" are to sensitive about some things, the same can be said for the right. The Iaq war is being fought out of fear. We all need to take a chill pill.

[jj]

Lionel, I truly believe you have to nip this stuff in the bud or it becomes a full blown 'swift boat.'

As individuals, by all means, we speak differently and behave in a less offended manner - as a society, however, there are standards that should be adhered to.

Is it too much to ask that there not be jokes about the killing of a presidential candidate?

Don't you see what road starts to be paved when these comments are tolerated?

[altohone]

I get it!
We should ignore reality, tie both hands behind our backs, and lead by example... because we can guilt the opposition and the media into following our lead.

The Kerry Doctrine I believe it's called.


I can't speak for the loons in the corporate media, but I wasn't exaggerating offense.
I was truly offended, and deeply concerned about potential ramifications.
Greeting outrageous behaviour with silence would encourage more of it too.

[JMBrodie]

Please forgive my bad spelling..­.

My bad.