News-Record.com

The North Carolina Piedmont Triad's top go-to source for News
A service of the News & Record, Greensboro, North Carolina

Home

Off the Record

« Baseball rules this weekend | Main | Fantasia's fiction »

Bennett's blunder

Has Bill Bennett lost his mind?

His stupid and offensive statement, especially coming from someone who's tried to market himself as a purveyor of values, is incomprehensible.

The man once had some credibility. Then came news about his compulsive gambling. Now this.

He's a disaster.

Get lost, Bill.

Comments (7)

To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.

JayCee said:

I know that bashing Bennett is the activity de jour, but the relevant part of his statement is:
"...would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do,"
Yet no one wants to give him the benefit of quoting him in his entirety.
Seems like taking quotes out of context and making them into something they aren't is a valid journalistic goal these days.

Doug said:

The link I provided takes you to a transcript with the full context.

I understand the context, but it still didn't make sense for Bennett to say what he did.

JayCee said:

What Bennett said was that such an outlandish solution was absolutely unthinkable...which is pretty clear to me. He didn't advocate or even suggest that it be done, he said that something like that would be absolutely ridiculous. He was making an outlandish statement to illustrate the depth of the problem. What did you see there that I didn't? Sort of like saying that we could solve the illegal immigrant problem by nuking Mexico...too outlandish to even consider, but a statement that shows the seriousness of the problem.

Doug said:

It's the way he chose to express his outlandish idea that was so ill-advised. He could have said you can abort all male babies to reduce the crime rate. Or abort all babies, for that matter. Or incarcerate everyone between the ages of 14 and 30, whether they've committed a crime (yet) or not. Or created a racial issue, and it was foolish. I doubt he'd do it again.

mrproduce [TypeKey Profile Page] said:

I heard an interesting comment by a black journalist the other nite on this subject and he also agreed that the comments were off the mark but he offered a different view from any I have heard here and on other blogs. He made the comment that the intentional comment on abortion of black babies could have been made in a political manner in order to get black voters to think about abortion. Since the Democrats are usually strong backers of abortion rights and bills that pass and the Republicans are against them, he felt it would make sense if the comments were not truely intended to stop and look at the party that they normally supported and question abortion as supported by the Democrats. Hey, it makes sense to me but then I am neither a political journalist nor black. Something new to think about huh.

Three phrases should be among the most common in our daily usage. They are: Thank you, I am grateful and I appreciate.

Due to recent automated spamming attacks on our blogs, we are temporarily requiring commenters to authenticate themselves via TypeKey® before posting comments to any News & Record blog in order to prevent denials of service. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Post a comment

Users who post comments to this blog tacitly agree to observe the News & Record Online Service Terms of Use and Content Submission Agreement. Comments which do not adhere to the terms of this agreement may be removed and the submitter may be banned from further participation. Please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page to report abuse of this feature.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Search

Search

Channels
Font Size
Tools
Question, Comment or Suggestion? Please contact us.

News & Record and NRinteractive

200 E. Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27401 (336) 373-7000 (800) 553-6880
1813 N. Main Street, High Point, NC 27262 (336) 883-4422
203 E. Harris Place, Eden, NC 27288 (336) 627-1781
4213 S. Church Street, Burlington, NC 27215 (336) 449-7064

Copyright (C) 2008 News & Record and Landmark Communications, Inc.