Open Mouth, Insert Foot - Updated with new video link
Just one more hole for the GOP to dig itself out of was initiated by Mike Huckabee today at the NRA convention.
The suggestion that someone in the crowd of lawful gun owners would take aim at the Senator is absurd on its face, but Huckabee made it worse by explaining Barack Obama’s imagined reaction.
If the former governor had designs on a VP spot, well let’s just say he might have shot himself in the foot today..at least I hope so.
Update:For whatever reason the original video I posted was deleted at Breitbart. If you wish to view the remarks, you may do so here.
Update 2: Breitbart offered another version of the original video which I have inserted..so no, I have not lost it altogether..yet!
Update 3: Here is the apology offered by Mike Huckabee. Most of the time I would say being contrite about an indiscretion was enough but these politicians seem not to be able to go off script without making fools of themselves.
It just happens far too frequently and this type of apology is just as scripted as the speeches they deliver:
Written by Sue“I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama,” the statement said. “I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention.”
~J~ Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 5:42 pmVisit ~J~
Our party seems to have a severe case of the DAs. If you don’t know what it means I’ll help you out. The first letter stands for Dumb and the last is another name for a donkey. Maybe we should change our mascot.
You don’t joke about anyone being shot. Especially if you are a child of the sixties and witnessed so many assassinations.
David M Says:
May 17th, 2008 at 9:30 amVisit David M
I sure agree with J. I remember being in high school Latin class when JFK was shot. I remember my mother picking me up from school with tears streaming down her face. I remember the MLK and Robert Kennedy assassinations too well, also. I had another poignant remembrance of those times recently. On May 4th, 1970, I was at Kent State for an academic contest. I attended a “sister school” nearby. I arrived and noticed the Vietnam protests, which were routine for the times. I do not understand to this day why Ohio Governor Rhodes ordered the National Guards to open fire on the protesters. I was more frightened that day than on any day in Vietnam. I heard the gunfire and saw the shootings from the 2nd floor classroom. We ran out the other side of the building and got out of Kent before the highway was closed. My university was the only state school in Ohio that remained open that Spring. We finished our classes with armed troops on our campus with guns trained on us. To those of us in that generation, assassinations are not something to joke about and Huckabee’s comment and pseudo-apology are unbelieveable. Where’s our nation’s memory? Notice, also, that the shootings at Jackson State have already dropped from out collective consciousness. We may not have agreed with the Vietnam War protesters, but they did not deserve to die for protesting.
Sue Says:
May 17th, 2008 at 10:49 amVisit Sue
To have watched the news accounts of the killings at Kent State was traumatic enough, I cannot imagine having been there David. That would be an unwanted memory which would last a lifetime I would think. Absolutely no one deserves to die for their beliefs.
As for Mr. Huckabee, if he finds the threat of being harmed in some way humorous then his sense of humor is in some way warped.
~J~ Says:
May 18th, 2008 at 2:59 amVisit ~J~
David, so many things are so quickly forgotten. One that comes to mind is the result of what happened on 9/11/01. We are all walking around as though it were 9/10/01 and in ignorant bliss. How soon we forget, but for our age group the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and others have been what has made us what we are. It was seared into our minds at such a young and tender age we will never forget it and the horrifying sadness and rage that engulfed this nation.
The Kent State massacre was the final straw in that string, and it never should have happened. Neither should you have been under a sniper’s gun while you were going to school.