UPDATE:
It has been brought to my attention that the number of hits on Google for "Barack Obama demands apology from" has DOUBLED since this diary went up. I just checked and see it has actually TRIPLED. The embarrassing thing? This diary is now TWO of the THREE hits out there! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
Anton Bursch's
There's no crying in politics, Mitt, while a bit tongue-in-cheek, got me thinking. How do Barack Obama and Mitt Romney stack up in the apology wars? Teh Google gives an answer that at first, seems hard to believe.
If you Google "Barack Obama demands apology from" you get one result. I don't mean, you get one type of result. You get ONE hit. That's it. Google "Mitt Romney demands apology from" and you get about 66,500 results.
Sure sounds a little out of whack. So I decided to dig a little deeper. After all, when you are getting ready to hire a chief executive who will have his finger on a nuclear trigger, it is important to consider their overall equanimity. You want to know which one of these guys is harder to rattle. Which one of these guys is better at keeping his cool when everything goes haywire. Which one of these guys is less likely to do something rash because someone got under his skin. In short, who is tougher?
This may sound touchy feely or a bit vague, but I think we can gauge this objectively. Both of these guys are in the public arena and are barraged by taunts, attacks, and insults on a daily basis. Let's compare how they react by looking at the number of times they actually demanded an apology or retraction because someone "crossed the line" and insulted them. Google be damned. Nobody is that cool outside of the movies, right?
Let's start with Mitt Romney, shall we?
1) I suppose I should count this as one instance, but when you issue the same demand on CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX, and NBC you are really going back to the well an awful lot of times. Does he really think the Obama campaign need to get the message on multiple stations? Does he really think the lack of an apology is because they didn't hear him asking for it?
By the way, Romney going on NBC to ask for apologies like that takes a certain amount of chutzpah. After all, NBC and Tom Brokaw were very unhappy about the way Mitt and Co. used Tom Brokaw without his permission in their political ads. It's nice to see Mitt has standards, although someone should tell him that double standards aren't twice as good.
2) Romney's recent histrionics may betray a sense of exasperation. After all, prior demands for apologies from The Boston Globe and The Washington Post were similarly rejected.
3) Maybe Romney's frustration stems from the fact that the last time he demanded apologies from The Washington Post and MSNBC, he got the requested apologies and retractions. Of course, then he deserved it. They reported something that really was untrue and didn't bother to get any response from the Romney campaign before running the story. Good thing no one holds FOX to that standard or they would NEVER get anything done.
Now, let's consider Barack Obama's record:
I can't find any examples of him asking, let alone demanding, someone apologize to him. If you have something I should add, let me know and I will post it.
I really looked, too. The closest I got was talking heads trying to characterize some of the back and forth between Hillary and Barack as "Obama demands apology from Clinton." There's no question that was a bruising primary. But no one was asking the other to apologize.
Here's what I did find:
1) Obama did tell the media to back off on attacking his wife. He didn't ask for apologies, though.
2) He did tell the media to leave his kids alone, actually he was angry because he knew that would be the last time he would ever be able to go trick or treating with his kids and he didn't want the press tagging along and ruining it. As it turned out there was no trick or treating that night.
Those are great examples of the kind of PROACTIVE behavior one expects in a strong chief executive. But we are interested in apologies, right? What about people calling for folks to apologize?
3) Recently, the Notre Dame faculty demanded Bishop Jenky should apologize for things he said. Obama's people never weighed in.
4) Bishop TD Jakes demanded Franklin Graham apologize to Obama for questioning his faith. Obama's people never weighed in.
What about people who actually apologized. Any of those?
5) Federal Judge Cebull apologized to Obama for his racist email. Obama's people never weighed in.
6) Rep. Doug Lamborn apologized to Obama for his racially insensitive comments. Obama's people never weighed in.
7) John McCain apologized for Cunningham's comments, this left a bitter taste in the mouth of Hillary supporters, because he never apologized for the time one of his supporters called her a "bitch." Although, in fairness, Cunningham made his comments as part of his publicly-broadcast introduction to McCain at a rally, the Hillary-hater was at a small function and was caught on a cell phone camera. Nonetheless, Obama's people never weighed in.
8) Mark Halperin apologized to Obama even before he got suspended for calling the president a "dick" on the air. Obama's people never weighed in.
9) Harry "I don't work for the president" Reid apologized to Obama for comments attributed to him in a book written by Mark Halperin. Obama never asked for it and said he considered the matter closed.
10) Rep. Joe Wilson apologized to Rahm Emanuel shortly after his intemperate outburst at the State of The Union speech. Obama accepted it and said it was time to move on.
11) Rabbi Rabinovitch, the Israeli Rabbi responsible for overseeing the Western Wall, apologized to Obama after the Israeli paper, Maariv, published the prayer he had left in the wall. The Yeshiva student who had originally pilfered it also went on TV and apologized for this amazing breach of protocol. Obama and his team never asked for this.
12) Chris Matthews apologized to Obama for his off-hand remark about the president visiting "the enemy camp" when he went to speak at West Point. Obama and his team never asked for that.
13) Bill Shaheen apologized to Obama for suggesting he sold drugs in his youth. He then resigned from Hillary's campaign and she, also, apologized to Obama. Obama's team never asked for the apologies or demanded anyone be fired.
14) Florida GOP party chairman, Jim Greer, apologized to Obama for the "racist views" of his fellow party members and his previous condemnation of a speech Obama had given to school children. Obama's team never asked for the apology and had nothing to do with Greer's resignation.
15) Andrew Adler, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, apologized to Obama for the distraction he had created. Although the police union felt Obama, in turn should apologize to the police officer he had insulted, Obama stopped short of issuing an apology.
17) Nathan Allen, a Pensacola resident, apologized to Obama after hoisting a sign critical of the president during his visit to review the damage from the BP spill. Obama responded in writing, ""I have to say I've seen signs a lot worse, and part of my job is to take criticism." Allen later sold the memorabilia for six grand. All around, a win-win :)
18) Verizon President and CEO, Lowell McAdam apologized to Obama and suspended several employees for accessing Obama's phone records without authorization. Obama's campaign never responded nor asked for any actions to be taken.
19) VP Joe Biden apologized to Obama early in the campaign for comments he made that some felt were racially insensitive. Obama later chose him as running mate. Joe's had a few more opportunities to apologize since then, but he still has his job and remains on the 2012 ticket.
Some of these may be news to people. One thing that shouldn't surprise anyone is that demanding Obama apologize for one thing or another has become something of a staple on FOX News, among Tea Party adherents, and virtually a requirement for all GOP candidates. To his credit, Obama has generally ignored the inanity. However, Obama did apologize for the burning of Korans at US airbase in Afghanistan. He took a lot of flak for that from the usual suspects, who all conveniently forgot that Bush had similarly apologized to the Iraqi Prime Minister for Korans burnt in Iraq by US troops.
In fairness, Obama probably should have apologized for screwing up the toast to Queen Elizabeth when he visited her at Buckingham Palace, even though the British never asked or even suggested he should do such a thing. I guess they realized it could have been much worse. After all, it wasn't like President Bush's awkward moment with Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa.
Then of course, there is this tête à tête that will stun many of the FOX faithful or WND worshipers who just know in their hearts Obama has secret loyalties to Kenya.
Kenya's ambassador, Ogego, still has no intention of apologizing for berating Obama over his comments condemning Kenya's corruption. To be fair, Obama never apologized for calling the Kenyan regime corrupt. So I guess we score that a draw.
FOX viewers who find that hard to believe should be forgiven. They probably think the last three years have been a non-stop apology tour. After all, lambasting Obama for apologizing to the world is a cottage industry over at FOX and is routinely echoed by GOP candidates from Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, all the way down to Tea Party members in obscure local races.
The only thing that seems to rival that cottage industry is the one where talking heads on FOX demand Obama should apologize for a whole litany of things. This is also a staple of GOP candidates from Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, all the way down to Tea Party members in obscure local races.
I know, I know, consistency is not their strong suit. Shocking, isn't it?
In the final analysis, one thing is clear. "No Drama Obama" gives these calls for apologies the same level of priority he does for soliciting apologies, which isn't very much. Looking to the future, something tells me Mitt Romney will be working overtime to retroactively get on the same page.