It’s easy to forget that Herman Cain is running for president, and his strange apology to Muslim-Americans makes me wonder about his sanity. First he went around running his mouth about how we all ought to have the right to ban mosques, and then he turns around and says this?
“While I stand by my opposition to the interference of shariah law into the American legal system, I remain humble and contrite for any statements I have made that might have caused offense to Muslim Americans and their friends,” he said in the statement. “I am truly sorry for any comments that may have betrayed my commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the freedom of religion guaranteed by it.”
First of all, can we all agree that the words ‘might’ and ‘may’ need to be excised from all apologies? They always sour otherwise decent efforts to take responsibility for being an a-hole.
Secondly, don’t you have to read the Constitution to have some commitment to it? It’s the first amendment, too, so it’s not like it exceeds Mr. Cain’s three-page limit. Did Cain actually not know that it would violate the First Amendment to make a law pertaining only to Islam?
Ah, who the hell cares? He’s just another symptom of the viral stupidity that has infected our country. I still blame John McCain.
It’s funny you mention John McCain:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/john-mccain-vs-the-tea-party/#more-160151
That article couldn’t get anymore Establishment with it’s “Is the Maverick back?” as if he was a Maverick in the first place.
the retort couldn’t be more obvious.
“What kind of crack political thinking gave us Sarah Palin?”
Crack-smoking political thinking.
I’ll propose an answer:
as stupid as a Godfather’s Pizza Box
The pizza looks nasty, gluten-free or not.
I thought stupidity was part of the criteria for the GOP nomination process this time around.
Regardless of whether the nominee is Herman or Michelle, the pain of debating stupid is still a fresh memory from watching Biden with Sarah.
Even if the TeaParty buyer’s remorse that’s being talked up this week keeps building, the debates will be a sad lowpoint.
The Koch bros vs T Boone Pickens has been a nice side story this week though.
Seriously, if you’re making an apology or explanation, isn’t it pretty safe to assume that people actually were offended? As opposed to maybe they were offended?
Are you issuing a statement like this when you’re not really sure if people were offended by what you said?
“Anybody who may have been offended” is a time-honored weasel-word strategy. The intent is to imply, dog-whistle style, to allies and anyone else so inclined, that the real problem is with the people who were offended, not the offending statement or action.
Any time that phrase appears in an political apology, read it as “I’m not the least bit sorry for what I said, but I have to go through the motions to get the PC-Nazis to shut up, and meantime it gives me a chance to make sure my base-pleasing offensive behavior stays in another news cycle.”