I have gone off the deep end because I have said that Sarah Palin needs to stop acting offended when someone like Emanuel says the word "retard" - give me a break.
If this were Mitt Romney's or George W. Bush's Down Syndrome child, outrage would be universal, and understood. There would be no apologists blaming Romney or Bush for bringing it on themselves and their families by being public figures. Nobody would suggest it was, “no big deal.”
It might also be no big Deal because George Bush would not have chosen to make that topic a big deal. George Bush would have been worrying about soldiers in Afgahnistan getting shot up and not so concerned about trivial insults being lobbed at his family.
There would be nary a post or thread patronizing the “joke,” telling their supporters that their candidate was “overreacting” in answering an interview question in such a way. It simply would not happen for almost anyone else but Sarah Palin.
She is over reacting , especially the "retard" comment. If she does not get a grip on this crap she will lose support from people that want a leader and not a cry baby.
No, Judith, such is the frustration Palin haters have with her support that they cannot bring themselves to be of the same just and righteous mindset they would be of if it were Mitt Romney or George W. Bush, or for that matter, just about any other GOP national figure.
I am a Palin hater because I suggest that she should not focus on these pot shots from the left and to suggest she should not go looking to be offended by "retard" comments? I like Sarah Palin a lot. I like it when she talks about energy policy, strong military and individual rights. However, If she wants to take on the cause of mentally retarded children, and stop school yard insults then she should suggest that her husband run for president so she can take up one of these causes as the wife of a president. She will fit right in with Michelle Obama and Barbara Bush and Laura Bush.
Instead, they slowly devolve. First, she just can't win. Soon after, she's actually as dumb as the Liberals say. Next comes she's a “quitter.” Not longer after that, she doesn't even have any real Conservative accomplishments. A short time later, she's not even really Conservative.
I am hopeful about Sarah Palin being president. She needs to focus on presidential things to get there.
And then after a little more time, the flood gates open and they find themselves blaming Sarah Palin for the vitriolic attacks on her and her family. She had it coming!
She chooses to be a public figure, so yes, she has it coming. Every public figure is going to get this kind of crap. We do it all the time on Free republic to Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Obama, etc. If you want to be in the arena then don't cry about all the unpleasant things that come with being in the game.
Besides SHE'S the one “rubbing her family in everyone’s face for political gain.” Then they fully devolve to moments like this: where they find themselves on the side of the people making fun of a Down Syndrome infant, actually more critical of Sarah Palin speaking out against it than of the culprits who should be universally condemned.
If she chooses to spend her time focusing on people who are un civil, then she can start a miss manners column. If she wants to focus on national policy then she needs to loose this being offended stuff.
That is the hatred, deep-seeded hatred Sarah Palin evokes in people. Make no mistake about it. Just take the time to read the comments of anti-Palin apologists on FR like BRL.
I like Sarah Palin. She has to choose whether I (and many others I suspect)would like her as the president of the united states or as the spouse of the president of the United States.
Everything Sarah does is wrong, everything. Even when it's right, it's somehow wrong.
Not everything. She is outspoken about US energy policy in a refreshing way unlike anyone else. That alone makes me love her. I truly believe that she believes in small government and I am not bothered by having a "commoner" be our president.
Even standing up for her Down Syndrome baby Trig when asked to comment about the “joke” is wrong. That's how far they devolve. Trig had it coming, and Sarah's the one REALLY to blame. Besides, she should just shut up; or, as UNBELIEVABLY stated by an anti-Palinite in this very thread, SHE should apologize to the folks at Family Guy for overreacting.
She does have it coming if she wants to be in public life and if she pushes a philosophy that is so disruptive to the powers that be. She needs to come up with another way of dealing with this stuff because playing the offended card is not going to work. It is exactly the card the lefties want her to play. I remember in school that whoever got offended first is the very person that every one picked on. Its the way it works.
There is nothing like PDS, nothing. I have never seen anything like this. I have never seen people on FR actually lose their sense of basic human dignity just out of disdain for a candidate's popularity here. This is truly unprecedented.
You err if you think I agree with the insults or delight in them.
PS - you gotta be kidding me that you are calling Jim Robinson in to punish me or something? Heck, I sat down with Jim Rob., Mark Levine and Lucciane Goldberg during JR's second call for freepers to go to Washington DC sometime around 1999 to help get Clinton impeached.
-—”It might also be no big Deal because George Bush would not have chosen to make that topic a big deal. George Bush would have been worrying about soldiers in Afghanistan getting shot up and not so concerned about trivial insults being lobbed at his family”-—
I personally watched Bush call out the press multiple times about reporting on his daughters, who he told them were entirely off limits. I can't even imagine what he would have said if they were going after his special needs infant son.
-—”She chooses to be a public figure, so yes, she has it coming. Every public figure is going to get this kind of crap. We do it all the time on Free republic to Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Obama, etc.”-—
Ping me to the Free Republic threads with attacks on the Obama kids.
-—”...PS - you gotta be kidding me that you are calling Jim Robinson in to punish me or something?...”-—
Not at all, I thought he'd get a kick out of the “Sarah Palin needs to apologize to Family Guy” comments earlier in the thread. I was pinging him to the thread, not to you - it wasn't even a reply to you, but to Judith. I pinged you because I mentioned your name.
I'm actually going to give you the last word if you want it, because I see no point in going further. While I agree that the “retard” outrage was overblown, it was nothing new to the arena of disarming the opponent's moral high-ground. I've seen that 1,000,000 times from 1,000,000 politicians, and you should understand by now what was going on there. If Rahm screws up like that again, he's toast. That was smarter than you want to admit, and a very old school tactic.
But there was nothing overblown about condemning a direct, and thinly veiled, attack on her special needs son - especially when asked a direct question about it. That's what this thread was about. It is wrong and it IS a big, deal, and it needs to be met with appropriate outrage from bother mother and concerned citizens.