I’ll admit I wanted Christine O’Donnell to win her race for Senate. I did. I still wish a conservative had won in Delaware but my goodness, Christine O’Donnell just said something so crass, ugly, and just plain ol’ weird that I’m kinda’ seeing what weirded so many people out about her.
According to The Hill:
Christine O’Donnell on Tuesday compared the “tragedy” of extending unemployment benefits to Pearl Harbor and the death of Elizabeth Edwards.
“Today marks a lot of tragedy,” O’Donnell, who lost her recent bid for a Delaware Senate seat despite strong backing from the Tea Party, said Tuesday night during an appearance in Virginia.
“Tragedy comes in threes,” O’Donnell said. “Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards’s passing and Barack Obama’s announcement of extending the tax cuts, which is good, but also extending the unemployment benefits.”
Comparing Pearl Harbor to extending unemployment benefits? Really.
And Elizabeth Edwards had literally just died. Her family is still grieving.
Maybe the time to make her a metaphor for political gain is a little while away. Maybe a long while away.
I can’t help but think that if O’Donnell won, she would’ve quickly become the most sought after senator for quotes on anything in the hopes of embarrassing conservatives. And they would’ve gotten it, if this quote is indicative of anything.
I’ve seen this kind of thing happen in politics where you lose all perspective, where every policy decision seems so do or die important. It’s the kind of view that makes some secretly happy when unemployment numbers go up because it might do damage to the party in power or when some want a war to go badly for their own political gain. I’m not saying O’Donnell is guilty of these things but it’s indicative of the mindset that has lost perspective.
And let’s face it, comparing Pearl Harbor to unemployment benefits is a bit wacko. And using the death of Elizabeth Edwards to make a political point is just ugly and frankly creeps me out a bit.
