January 10, 2012

View from the Bottom

Three days ago GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney used a poor choice of words when talking about people's right to change service providers when they are unhappy with the service, in this case insurance.

Those words, of course, were, "I like to fire people..." The news has been on this like a rat in a garbage dump ever since, as have Romney's competitors. Rick Perry even created a ringtone of Romney saying over and over, "I like to fire people. I like to fire people. I like to fire people." I have to admit that I found that amusing.

But enough already. I'm tired of all this righteous indignation over remarks that were largely taken out of context, expressed in an unfortunate manner. Romney stepped in it. So what.

In contrast, Newt Gingrich stated last week that "If the NAACP invites me, I'll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." Likewise, Rick Santorum stated, "I do not want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money, I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money." Then he denied that he used the word "black" when it was clearly spoken on the audiotape.

The fact that Romney's remarks got so much attention when blatantly racist remarks by Gingrich and Santorum largely go unchecked sends a distinct message about where the priorities lie...and it ain't pretty.