That is the consequence of a 24 hour news cycle. Anyway would you be so dismissive of this if some politician said, "I don't like N-words." to an aid in private and then dismissed it being brought up later as just gossip?
but that's not what he said, his comment was basically on the american public. it was more on strategy than anything else, as everyone else points out, he seems really out of touch. but he's not giving a personal opinion on his feelings about blacks. to answer your question directly, obviously there are some things you don't say public or private
Without such things as this book how would you know what things a politician might be said in private? Like you I think politicians should have a private life but if a politician was a closet racist wouldn't you want to know? Unfortunately short of gossip like this we really have no sense of what these politicians are like privately.
if a politician is racist its one thing, if a politicians thinks voters are ready for a black guy to be president because of certain factors they can deal with is another. its not like reid said i wouldn't vote for some dark skinned black guy.
Reid clearly has a disdain for the common man. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/t1LRB-SpHrM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t1LRB-SpHrM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
I find Harry to be one of the most annoying personalities in the Senate, and he has a good many competitors, but this is a tempest in a teapot. The Nation has bigger fish to fry.
Well it is so hypocritical for the party who has as part of its core most racists in America is raising this issue. Not surprising as the party that has consistently tried to eliminate social security, and Medicare at times tries to pretend it is for it. The common refrain that if a Republican had done it he would have gotten flack is so whiny. Anyone notice how whiny and victimized the conservatives have gotten lately? Always being oppressed by liberals and intellectuals and gays and immigrants etc. You would think that white boys have no power left at all.
In related news Blagojevich says he's blacker than Obama. Although he does back off the comment pretty quickly. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34799784/ [rquoter]Blagojevich: I’m ‘blacker than Barack Obama’ ‘I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment,’ ex-Ill. governor says [/rquoter]
That's the funny part about it. They're not out to defend black people from being slurred by Reid, they're out to defend their own ability to say equally stupid things without consequence. Classic.
I understand that and I think Reid's statement is embarrassing its not a game changer. My comments were directed though at your dismissal of this has gossip that should be ignored or pretended that he doesn't recall such things. In this case the gossip might not mean much but in other cases it might. You never know ahead of time how something like that will play out and I think Reid did the right thing admitting it and apologizing for it right away than trying to ignore it or cover it up by saying he doesn't remember.
Yeah, let's talk about this for several weeks. Obama and Reid should just tell the media to ****off and not comment. However, this type of approach has I believe been tried and proven wrong. Remember when the war dodging Bush and Karl Rove attacked the war hero, Kerry as being unpatriotic and he decided to ignore the bs. Crap like this makes me think the country is going to sink faster in the world than it should. Important problems like health care, the economy, wasteful military spending, global warming cannot be addressed because our media has to focus on celebrities and make up politcal issues like this. Garbage in; garbage out from the minds of the American electorate.
see this is the stupidity of gotcha politics and why i've personally tried to not criticize anyone on either side for stupid statements like this. you haven't agreed with patterson on one single thing in this forum and now you want to post that?
Republicans and Democrats are really annoying. All you people who get upset when someone uses a term that you personally deem old fashioned or unexceptable need to chill. I don't like it when perfectly good words are deemed inappropriate or obsolete. Who decides when words suddenly become offensive or inappropriate. Why is negro wrong but caucasion OK. Negro-colored-black-african american-what's it going to be next. Cripple-handicaped-physically disabled-physically challenged-whatever. Different words that mean the same exact thing to different age groups, why care? There is nothing wrong with the word negro. There is a retired black couple that live across the street from me, they call other black people colored. My grand parents called black people colored. It was the norm when they were young to call black people colored. I'm not going to try and tell some eighty or ninety year old they need to use the term "african american", and I don't think less of them for using the term "colored". I use the term "black" and I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. Feel free to call me anything you want, I understand that some people use different terms. Harry Reid used an old term because he is an old guy. He is indeed out of touch with the younger generation, and they are out of touch with his generation-big deal, nothing new with that. Politics and politicians. That's what this is all about. I have now made my yearly post in D&D and will return to the hangout where I belong.
