Friday, August 12, 2005
NARAL inoculated John Roberts
NARAL withdrew the despicable ad regarding Supreme Court nominee John Roberts it had created, put on it's website and peddled to CNN and elsewhere for airing. That's the good news. The bad news is that it'll just try again with something else.
But it might not be so easy subsequently. Just as an ineffective virus, introduced into the blood, creates in the body the tools to fight a real virus that comes later (the process we call inoculation), then NARAL's failing this badly in it's first political salvo makes it more difficult to score a hit later--there is always in the back of the mind, even of those who want to believe, the memory of the lie and failure the first time.
Notice the apology too: "We regret that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts' record," NARAL President Nancy Keenan said. Why doesn't she just say, "We're sorry. We're sorry you're too stupid to understand our brilliant ad."
But it might not be so easy subsequently. Just as an ineffective virus, introduced into the blood, creates in the body the tools to fight a real virus that comes later (the process we call inoculation), then NARAL's failing this badly in it's first political salvo makes it more difficult to score a hit later--there is always in the back of the mind, even of those who want to believe, the memory of the lie and failure the first time.
Notice the apology too: "We regret that many people have misconstrued our recent advertisement about Mr. Roberts' record," NARAL President Nancy Keenan said. Why doesn't she just say, "We're sorry. We're sorry you're too stupid to understand our brilliant ad."