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Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Offensive Party

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Republican presidential contender John McCain on Friday used the term "tar baby," considered by some a racial epithet, and later said he regretted it.


The senator said he hoped it wouldn’t be viewed as a racial remark. He argued that he was trying to say that it wouldn’t make sense for him to have a role in something left to the courts.

Last summer, a top McCain rival, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, apologized for referring to the troubled Big Dig construction project in Boston as a "tar baby" during a fundraiser in Ames, Iowa.

The term dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit. It has become known as a way of describing a sticky mess and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

3 comments:

Connie in FL said...

Foot-in-mouth disease.... it's an epidemic!

Jon-Marc McDonald said...

There was a time when I actually liked McCain but then he just kept opening his mouth. How the hell can anyone not know tar baby is a racial epithet?

CrackerLilo said...

I think he's at least telling the truth on one level--he *does* regret saying it, or at least being heard...

*hug* to you.