ONE OF MANY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES
When yesterday's news about Governor Palin's daughter broke, Barack Obama was quick to react. On the way to a speaking engagement, he pulled the press aside and issued this statement:
Now whatever you think of the message, it would seem (from first glance) that this is an unrehearsed, honest, and well-spoken message about Obama and his views towards stories like these.
However in subsequent interviews with McCain's campaign officials, members of the Alaska delegation at the convention, and general right-wing "talking heads", the same points kept being brought up on the subject. And I don't mean general points - I'm talking word-for-word responses. Like an army of androids, programmed to deliver a specific message and unwilling to waiver. This type of "on message" responses have always bothered me, and left me with little doubt that this is a coordinated effort to stifle individual (and sometimes too candid) responses.
Well today, Marc Ambinder reports that such a "script" indeed exists. And here it is:
By the way, this "children off limits" attitude of the RNC makes me think of McCain's own tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton in 1998. At a Republican fundraiser, McCain "delighted" the audience with this knee-slapper:
Now whatever you think of the message, it would seem (from first glance) that this is an unrehearsed, honest, and well-spoken message about Obama and his views towards stories like these.
However in subsequent interviews with McCain's campaign officials, members of the Alaska delegation at the convention, and general right-wing "talking heads", the same points kept being brought up on the subject. And I don't mean general points - I'm talking word-for-word responses. Like an army of androids, programmed to deliver a specific message and unwilling to waiver. This type of "on message" responses have always bothered me, and left me with little doubt that this is a coordinated effort to stifle individual (and sometimes too candid) responses.
Well today, Marc Ambinder reports that such a "script" indeed exists. And here it is:
> INTERNAL DOCUMENT - NOT TO BE EMAILED BEYOND CURRENTIs it any wonder these right-wingers hate Clinton and Obama for being masters of "the spoken word"?
> DISTRIBUTION LIST
>
> Please see the following points on Gov. Palin's family.
>
> * Governor Palin and her husband Todd have a loving family
> and their children mean everything to them. When their
> oldest daughter Bristol came to them with news that she was
> expecting a child they embraced her and gave her nothing but
> unconditional love and support.
>
> * This is a very personal matter for the family. We should
> all respect the love they have for the child and the desire
> all parents would have for their children's privacy.
>
> * The media should respect Bristol's privacy.
> That's always been the tradition and practice when it
> comes to the children of candidates.
>
> * (If pressed) The children of candidates do not choose to
> run for office and be thrust into the spotlight.
By the way, this "children off limits" attitude of the RNC makes me think of McCain's own tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton in 1998. At a Republican fundraiser, McCain "delighted" the audience with this knee-slapper:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?Was Chelsea deserving of being "thrust into the spotlight" for this tasteless attempt at humor?
Because her father is Janet Reno."
posted by Russell Arch at
9/02/2008
3 Comments:
Russell, Russell, Russell...1998?
An formal apology offered for a tasteless joke at a time when an intern in "service" to WJC was being sexually exploited?? by the none other than the "I did not have sexual relations with that young woman" under oath, President?..Should one compare to the other? No.
Families, as BHO stated should be off limits. If family members insert themselves into the political arena...then, maybe.
Let's just not go there? :) AL
Oh, I forgot that in 1998 it was "cool" to call children of politicians ugly. Please, the man was 62 at the time and should have known better.
As for Bill Clinton's mistakes making it somehow "okay" to attack an 18 year-old, you've lost me there.
McCain's got a big mouth, and his ethics on this issue are vague. When one of his supporters (this year) said at a rally, "How to we beat the bitch?" regarding Hillary Clinton, I would have expected an immediate rebuke. In my eyes, that's what a leader would have done. Instead, he just giggled and answered the question.
How do you think he'd take it if someone referred to Sarah Palin in the same way?
Okay-- this is at least the second time I've heard a certain someone say that Bill Clinton (unlike John McCain) never offered a formal apology for his misdeeds. Sure Bill Clinton had an affair with a much younger adult and McCain only... well... alright, I guess he did the same.
But it's the "formal" apology that makes every all right (even if you're disparaging the looks of someone else's underage child). And so, without further ado, here is Bill Clinton at the annual White House Prayer breakfast on Friday, Sept. 11, 1998.
"It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow I feel is genuine: first and most important, my family; also my friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people. I have asked all for their forgiveness.
But I believe that to be forgiven, more than sorrow is required - at least two more things. First, genuine repentance - a determination to change and to repair breaches of my own making. I have repented. Second, what my bible calls a ''broken spirit''; an understanding that I must have God's help to be the person that I want to be; a willingness to give the very forgiveness I seek; a renunciation of the pride and the anger which cloud judgment, lead people to excuse and compare and to blame and complain."
PS. I'm not sure about that "sexually exploited" term. Not only was Monica Lewinsky 22 years old when she had an affair with Clinton, but several of her Lewis and Clark roommates said she told them she was going to DC to "bag a President." Ryan
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