Obama’s Gallantry, Romney’s Timidity
March 5, 2012 - by
Near the end of the 1960 campaign, at the urging of civil rights aide Harris Wofford, John Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to offer his sympathy after Martin Luther King was jailed.
Robert Kennedy exploded at Wofford: “You just lost us the election.” As it turned out, the call won JFK thousands of African-America voters away from their previous loyalty to Republicans. (Obviously, this was long ago and a different GOP.)
A simple phone call by President Obama could send the same signal to women this year. Obama picked up the phone last week and called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh attacked her as a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
Compare Obama’s exercise in simple human decency with Mitt Romney’s display of abject cowardice, when pressed on the matter by reporters:
“It’s not the language I would have used.”
Not the “language” he would have used? Presumably, he would have used a more polite word for “slut” or “prostitute.” Maybe, say, “trollop,” “hussy” or “tart.” Something more decorous, in keeping with the usual language of a Mormon lay leader.
Unlike some Democrats (and Republicans), I don’t underestimate Romney as a candidate in the fall. But he either has no spine whatsoever – or he is totally cowed by the spittle-spewing misogynists in his party. Either way, it doesn’t add up to the character you want in a President.
Obama’s Gallantry, Romney’s Timidity
March 5, 2012/
Near the end of the 1960 campaign, at the urging of civil rights aide Harris Wofford, John Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to offer his sympathy after Martin Luther King was jailed.
Robert Kennedy exploded at Wofford: “You just lost us the election.” As it turned out, the call won JFK thousands of African-America voters away from their previous loyalty to Republicans. (Obviously, this was long ago and a different GOP.)
A simple phone call by President Obama could send the same signal to women this year. Obama picked up the phone last week and called Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh attacked her as a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
Compare Obama’s exercise in simple human decency with Mitt Romney’s display of abject cowardice, when pressed on the matter by reporters:
“It’s not the language I would have used.”
Not the “language” he would have used? Presumably, he would have used a more polite word for “slut” or “prostitute.” Maybe, say, “trollop,” “hussy” or “tart.” Something more decorous, in keeping with the usual language of a Mormon lay leader.
Unlike some Democrats (and Republicans), I don’t underestimate Romney as a candidate in the fall. But he either has no spine whatsoever – or he is totally cowed by the spittle-spewing misogynists in his party. Either way, it doesn’t add up to the character you want in a President.