Why good pundits don't necessarily make good politicians.
"The same logic of lesser evil applies only too obviously to Israel, whre granting the self-determination claims of Palestinians -- obviously the right political strategy to reduce terror attacks on Israel -- simultaneously requires the Israeli state to forcefully withdraw settlers who believe they have an equal right to the land."
-- Michael Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil, p.87
Ottawa -- Liberal leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff frankly admits he goofed when he said he was "not losing sleep" over civilian deaths in Lebanon.
"I think there's no question this was a mistake," Mr. Ignatieff said in an interview yesterday.
The rookie Toronto MP and internationally acclaimed human-rights expert has been mired in controversy since last week, when he made his first pronouncements on the crisis.
-- The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, August 14, 2006
It just goes to show, everybody needs an editor.
(On a more serious note, it would be nice if politicians didn't have to self-censor, but the world being as it is, and Canada especially being as it is, they do. (And no, Ignatieff doesn't appear to have been taken out of context here.) Even if you don't find Ignatieff's remark offensive or objectionable for non-political reasons -- and POGGE has a reasonable argument why you maybe should -- Ignatieff just has to learn not to make the sort of foolish, blowhard comments that Harper and the NDP can crunch on. At this point, I really think it's going to take a few more years of practice and patience before he does.
-- Michael Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil, p.87
Ottawa -- Liberal leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff frankly admits he goofed when he said he was "not losing sleep" over civilian deaths in Lebanon.
"I think there's no question this was a mistake," Mr. Ignatieff said in an interview yesterday.
The rookie Toronto MP and internationally acclaimed human-rights expert has been mired in controversy since last week, when he made his first pronouncements on the crisis.
-- The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, August 14, 2006
It just goes to show, everybody needs an editor.
(On a more serious note, it would be nice if politicians didn't have to self-censor, but the world being as it is, and Canada especially being as it is, they do. (And no, Ignatieff doesn't appear to have been taken out of context here.) Even if you don't find Ignatieff's remark offensive or objectionable for non-political reasons -- and POGGE has a reasonable argument why you maybe should -- Ignatieff just has to learn not to make the sort of foolish, blowhard comments that Harper and the NDP can crunch on. At this point, I really think it's going to take a few more years of practice and patience before he does.
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