I thought he should have gone to the White House ceremony. I likely share some political views with him, but I don't think it's a particularly effective protest. Just irritating people and bad feeling all around.
Sports radio hasn't been brilliant on the subject, with some thorough misunderstandings and some fairly bigoted generalisations. But at least it's an appropriate topic for them.
Then, I thought Cam Neeley handled it badly after when interviewed live. He clearly only half gets what protest, free speech, and individual versus corporate expression is. Well, he's Canadian - they do free speech just a bit differently up there.
But most inappropriate of all was the Governor of Massachusetts weighing in. Absolutely an intrusion. None of his damn business. His opinion should be irrelevant. Massachusetts is heavily Democratic, the governor is a Democrat, and perhaps he felt he needed to make sure that everyone knew that dissing Obama - which is what everyone's impression is in Mass, because they are rather clueless - isn't cool with the people here. As a political move for him, it probably works. And because a lot of folks in Mass agree with his politics, they'll agree with him, not getting the underlying principle.
But Deval Patrick should in no way be making any pronouncements on this subject.
Not really trying to defend Deval Patrick, but when an interviewer asks him what the thinks on an "issue" he is bound to answer. "No comment" on something like this would seem way over the top, simply because a no comment response signals that it is a controversy to be avoided.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it would have been awfully libertarian of him to say something like, "It's a free country."