Pun Salad

Via Big Lizards we get the story that Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was caught using an Unacceptable Phrase in a recent speech, in reference to his takeover of the Big Dig Project:

The best thing politically would be to stay as far away from that tar baby as I can," he told a crowd of about 100 supporters in Ames, Iowa.

In case you don't quite see it, the phrase was "tar baby". The story helpfully points out:

Black leaders were outraged at his use of the term, which dates to the 19th century Uncle Remus stories, referring to a doll made of tar that traps Br'er Rabbit. It has come to be known as a way of describing a sticky mess, and has been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

• It's clear from the context that Romney was using the term in the "sticky mess" sense.

• While it's no doubt true that the phrase "has been used as a derogatory term for a black person," Romney was (also clearly) not doing that.

• In fact, those last two points should be—and undoubtedly are—clear to everyone and anyone with a lick of intelligence who thinks about it for more than half a second.

• Hence the claim that "Black leaders were outraged" is almost certainly a complete falsehood. More accurately: Black leaders decided to pretend they were outraged at Romney's words.

• Why? Probably to cause exactly the result that occurred: Romney apologized profusely. Many (not all) racial/ethnic "leaders" seem to enjoy displaying faux outrage over "slurs" that everyone knows are imaginary. It's a meaningless symbolic ritual that only serves to boost their egos.

It would also be nice if Mitt Romney had enough of a spine to make these points himself. He'd almost certainly gain more votes than he'd lose.