A recent story got me thinking about politicians who obviously make a mistake and instead of apologizing for it, they blame the media or Obama. Here’s the event that started me thinking about this.
The Cook Political Report is a respected news organization. Dave Wasserman is it’s house analyst and when he went to interview Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney he received a surprise. She walked out on him because she could not answer simple questions about global warming or where Obama was born.
Because she was not able to cite her sources for denying global warming, she ran away.
Click here to see Representative Whitney run away.
Later in a Facebook post Whitney wrote, “It was obvious, from the onset of the interview, that Wasserman had planned to jump me simply because I am a Conservative Woman and liberal shills like Dave Wasserman want to destroy us,” she wrote. No, he asked you a question about your position on global warming that you could not answer because you have no evidence for your position.
Ann Romney wife of republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney blamed the media for not allowing the public to see the real Mitt. This despite the fact that the media was not responsible for Romney’s 47% comment.
House conservatives blamed the media for not faithfully reporting their story regarding the government shutdown.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) said, “Every time you write a story that Republicans and conservatives were unreasonable in asking for a complete repeal of Obamacare, you have actually been lying to the American people because that’s not what we were asking for.” Except they did try to repeal the Affordable Care Act and only when that didn’t work did they change their tactics to delaying the process.
Now for some really whacked out blaming. As we know republicans blame Obama for everything. Seriously, it’s part of their genetic makeup. No one represents this more than Michelle Bachmann who recently said we were facing the end of times due to Obama giving weapons to terrorists.
This happened, and as of today, the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists, now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end time history.
Wow, that’s quite a revelation that Obama is bringing about the Biblical End of Times. She also predicted the End of Times in 2006. Listen.
So far, she has been wrong both times.
There are times when the media will make excuses for a political figure. Take Fox News for example. When conservative filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza was convicted for illegal campaign contributions, Fox news reader Megyn Kelly (Santa is white, he just is) said “[T]he Obama administration gets to call one of its top critics a convicted felon,” Kelly began the segment. “Is this what they wanted all along?” That’s what we call a two fer. She defends D’Souza while blaming Obama.
The queen of blame however, has to be Sarah Palin. The media was after her. Here’s a snippet from a speech she gave.
The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make.
So she resigned as Governor of Alaska for a higher calling. So far that calling seems to be flying around America making speeches designed to help, well, Sarah Palin.
It wasn’t their fault she didn’t know what the nuclear option was, or the Bush Doctrine, or that the Vice President didn’t run the Senate. The fact that the press questioned her ability to perform the duties of the office she was running for had more to do with her own words, not theirs.
I’m not trying to absolve the media. Certainly they have made their share of mistakes. But politicians seem to forget that a free and open press is what keeps them honest and the people informed. When politicians blame the media or the president they look childish and undercut their own message. A truly strong leader takes responsibility for their mistakes. Unlike the previous president who never made a mistake he could remember, admitting fault shows that a politician is human and not some robot dribbling out talking points.
When Obama was asked when the economy would become his responsibility he answered, “Well, it’s always my responsibility.” When the web site for the Affordable Care Act was broken he said, “…there is no excuse for it and I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP.” When asked who was at fault in Benghazi Obama replied, “I’m the president. And I’m always responsible.” Huh … and the republicans say he is not a leader. That’s because they are unfamiliar with the requirements of being a leader (i.e. taking responsibility).
The next time you hear someone blaming the media or Obama ask yourself what they are blaming them for. If it’s an excuse to change the subject from some embarrassing situation or to walk back a dumb ass comment, consider whether that person deserves a place in our government. Most of the time the answer is no.