Krazy Keith delivers the smackdown on Clinton
Tonight, as promised, Keith Olbermann attacked Senator Hillary Clinton in a ten-minute “Special Comment,” saying that he was not endorsing Barack Obama but that “events insist” that he speak and stand against her “tepid response” to the controversial remarks of Geraldine Ferraro wherein she said that Obama wouldn’t have been as successful if he were not black. Last night Olbermann decried the statements as “clearly racist”; tonight, he followed up with a doozy in which he accused her of “campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican.” In so doing, said Olbermann — in letting the opportunity to forcefully oppose Ferraro’s comments pass her by — Olbermann said that Clinton had “missed a critical opportunity to do what was right.”
Her response? “I’m sorry if anyone was offended.” The politician’s universal, all-purpose, non-apology apology. This particular phrasing seems to have entered our discourse as a normal, acceptable response, but it grates on me. If you are going to apologize, then apologize for what you did or said. Period. How others felt about your actions or remarks is not the issue.
I hesitate to link approvingly to Ann Althouse, who comes up with some real head-scratchers, but she picked up on this part of Clinton’s statement: “I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive. We can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama.”
I hope people are noticing what a ridiculous and even offensive non-apology this is! Why is Jesse Jackson making an appearance in Hillary Clinton’s statement? It’s like this, isn’t it? And it’s diminishing to say we can be “proud of” him. That’s like patting him on the head and saying “good for you.”
Yep. Clinton might as well have said that Obama is a credit to his race.
Sully Smackdown
Rolling Stone falls from coconut tree
Electability
Clinton Lies
Expect a bllodbath