James Fallows: Why You Cannot Say You 'Like' Firing People - & why you can't un-ring that bell

[karynnj]

49. The point was that the Kerry statement - minus its context -

was used to "prove" the smear that Kerry was a flip flopper - something that he never was. It was however an attack that has been made on nearly ANY legislator running against someone with an executive branch position. Dean also used it - without much success - against Kerry --- and more successfully against Gephardt, accusing him of having voted against Medicaid. Meanwhile, Kerry and others said Dean had no foreign policy experience. The fact is that media helped Bush by pretending that they did not understand that there often are multiple versions of bills - and - because they are different - many vote differently on one versus another.

The similarity here is that both have given the opposition a sound bite. However, the similarity ends there.

When explained, Kerry voted for the fiscally prudent version that paid for the war funding by rolling back the then new Bush tax cuts for the very wealthiest people - and against it when it was added to the debt - explaining why. It is unheard of for a country at war to cut taxes - and we are paying the price now.

In Romney's case, the context does it explain it, but the sheer enthusiasm which which a man who led to the laying off of many, when he speaks of firing. Even in context, saying "I like firing people" is really off putting. Unlike Kerry's shorthand, this does reflect on Romney and it makes him really really unlikable.