Words Are Not Cheap

I was watching Conan O'Brien while he interviewed some fashion critic speaking about the clothes worn by leaders in government. While this guy was talking about Hillary Clinton's fashion sense, I think it's fairly representative of how many people feel about her, saying "I think she forgot which gender she is."

That's a pretty despicable comment, even when talking about the clothes that the presidential candidate wears. It is remarks like those that earn Clinton sympathy and make her easy to root for. However, she wipes away any good will with a few absurd and hurtful statements over the last month.

Before South Carolina, Hillary Clinton downplayed the role of Dr. Martin Luther King in getting the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. She claims that she admired King's actions, but it took a president, Lyndon Johnson, to get the Act passed.

As someone with a graduate degree in history, that's a new one to me. Besides the fact that it totally ignores anything John Kennedy accomplished, I don't remember learning about all of the marches that Lyndon Johnson led, the beatings he took, the nights in jail he spent, or the times his house was bombed.

Even worse, the metaphor was meant to compare Obama to King- ostensibly a complimentary comparison for Obama- by demeaning both as black activists who were simply great speakers, but ultimately didn't accomplished much. At the same time, Clinton linked herself with Lyndon Johnson, the heroic president who passed the Civil Rights Act.

Recently, Clinton claimed that "words are cheap." This was an unbelievably stupid and offensive thing to say. Words are the foundation of the world. They are the reason why humans are human. They are also a great indication of what is to come. Was Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf" cheap? Or his campaign words leading up to his takeover of Germany? Tell that to my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust. If the world had listened, they may have been spared all of the scars and their families might have lived. Words are not cheap.

Was Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech cheap? What about his "Letter From Birmingham Jail"? Well, we already know Hillary Clinton's interpretation of the Civil Rights Movement. Words are not cheap.

Not only was her belief that "words are cheap" an offensive sentiment, it was also a losing argument. It was a less-effective version of the change vs. experience debate. Barack Obama didn't even have to dignify it with a response. But he did. He borrowed a line from his friend Governor Duval Patrick, but didn't credit him. A terrible mistake for a candidate claiming that words are important, even essential. Both men admit that they share phrases with one another and they share a lot of the same campaign staff. All Obama had to do with a short preface giving Governor Patrick his due, but he didn't. It might not seem like a big deal, but if I didn't cite my source in school, I would've been thrown out. Words are not cheap.