It’s just a fact of political life: any candidate for president, however disciplined, will at some point say something really stupid at what seems like an impossibly bad time. It’s the nature of the beast: the spotlight that shines on anyone making a serious run for that office is incredibly bright, and candidates are human. They get tired and frustrated. They make mistakes.
In the last few days, that’s exactly what has happened. Hillary Clinton said dumb stuff to an activist on a rope line, and it became a big embarrassing story. Eric Fehrnstrom, in some masterful concern-trolling, likened it to Bob Dole’s “stop lying about my record” moment, and he’s not far off. But then she baited Bernie Sanders into a line of personal attack, and he fell for it, repeatedly calling her not “qualified” to be president. That, too, has blown up into a big embarrassing story.
They’ve both said other dumb stuff recently. Sanders’ interview with the NY Daily News editorial board was pretty much a disaster, making him look impatient and unprepared (plus, he may actually have believed that you still use a token to get into the New York City subway). And Sanders’ campaign manager’s recent comments about Clinton were even stupider than what Sanders himself said. Clinton, meanwhile, inexplicably continues not to release her Goldman Sachs speeches, hailed Nancy Reagan as a leader in the fight against AIDS, and who can forget her wondering where Sanders was in the fight for health care in the 1990s, when he was in fact literally standing right behind her?
I think we do our candidates a disservice by trying to explain away these mistakes. I think we should acknowledge that our candidates are human, and that they are going to say stupid things from time to time. I also think we should hold the candidates we support accountable for their errors, as well as for their policy positions with which we disagree (yes, Bernie’s record on guns is lousy; yes, Hillary is too hawkish). More honesty from everyone in the political process can only help.
This is one reason I hate debates. Everybody waits for a mistake, because that makes the news. It’s like we’re judging figure skating or something.
And there is no sense in answering them.
and while the latter category is inevitable in this viral video age, it’s important that both candidates avoid the former category. Clinton needs Sanders supporters for the fall, and cannot avoid to alienate them. Sanders, assuming he wants to have an influence in politics over the next few years, needs to work against a Republican gaining the White House and completely shutting out progressive ideas.
Unfortunately, I worry that both candidates will engage in the planned type of “saying dumb things” in the lead-up to the New York primary in a couple weeks. Already we have this back and forth about qualifications for office just in the first full day after Wisconsin. It’s really dumb, and whomever it is on the campaign staffs that are encouraging this type of language ought to reconsider before too much is said that can never be taken back.
Sanders’ ludicrous assertion that HRC is unqualified to be President is a planned comment. His campaign staged Sanders’ comment as part of his speech in Philadelphia last night. And, Sanders’ surrogates are on all the cable news networks today defending and, in some cases, re-assering his “unqualified” statement.
So, this is a deliberate campaign stategy of Sanders and needs to be treated as such.
Personally, I find it offensive. Sadly, “unqualified” is exactly what too many women and minorities encounter when being discriminated against.
I hope that he does better in his interviews. He’s had so little media attention, I wonder if he is out of practice. On the other hand, Jonathan Capehart raises an eyebrow concerning Sanders’ policy knowledge on Israel and Drones. It’s hard to imagine Hillary being this inarticulate or apparently unknowledgeable.
All candidates screw up. Anyone who spends 18 hours a day talking under pressure is bound to say something inappropriate.
I commented on this interview under my “Never Been a Savior” post, and Doubleman responded with a intelligent comment with sources, which I read. Three respectable, knowledgeable people explained that they though Sanders knows what he’s talking about when it comes to breaking up big banks, but that he just didn’t state it well at all. I can’t say I know enough to contradict them.
Bernie’s made dumb votes on guns, Hillarh voted for a dumb war and takes shady money. Bernie doesn’t have any foreign policy knowledge or interest, Hillary’s vast foreign policy experience and knowledge has yielded really mediocre results at best. Discuss!
David thread is a needed course correction in how to keep these discussions reality based. Let’s also avoid using right wing sources against our preferred candidates opponents. I’ve seen too many links to sites as credible as a Vince Foster video from Bernie folks. Too much out and out red baiting from Hillary folks. We can do better, and we have to to beat forces that are really
playing on some of the worst forms of fear and ignorance in any political
campaign in my living memory, probably in most of yours too.
Other columnists have analyzed the Daily News interview, and not come to the same conclusions as rivals and tabloid headlines would suggest. http://goo.gl/i0gJk3
The other thing going around is how long you have been a Democrat, and if you have raised money for the party somehow makes you more fit for office. A Party is not a human being, but a human construct; it is the individual’s record, and their support from voters is what really matters. Even among Dems we have an assortment, blue dog, yellow dog, Reagan Democrats, liberal, moderate, and conservative. So when you say a person is a Democrat, the judgment is not on label, but what they believe, and what they have achieved.
Voters want people to have humanity and spontaneity, and to connect with candidates — and want them to vote an exhausting gauntlet of events that would wear out most any person, with every second filmed. I have no idea how Hillary and Bernie have hung in there at their age, and don’t concern myself overmuch with a bad day or a bad statement. Our political system really is sick — we need to shorten the campaign and put money in its proper place.
. . they’d never make it here at BMG.
The fact-checkers at the Times have a long list of bloopers and stretches and fibs from all the candidates candidates, many of which are statements about the other. Doesn’t excuse it of course, but here is a test for you.
Read the list and if it gets your blood boiling against that mendacious, ill-informed, and conniving piece of dirt who is running against your candidate, then: You are part of the problem.
If it just makes you laugh or roll or eyes or feel sad, then just hold on, this too shall pass.
who has never not said a dumb thing on the campaign trail.
…the triumph of anger over dignity…
LOL: great line!