[Jeff Fuller]

Does this hypocrisy bother anyone else?

I mean, Sen Biden said some pretty racist stuff while being unknowingly recorded about Indians running gas stations and largely got "a pass" from the MSM . . . now Romney means no offense and gets lambasted for it. Utterly amazing!

[SF Republican]

HILLARY said some pretty racist stuff while being recorded about Indians running gas stations

[Uncledave]

Meanwhile over at HuffPuff, liberals post photos like this

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/on-the-ground-with-lamont_b_26316.html

[Savage Rider]

The phrase "tar baby" is just another name for quagmire. It's reference comes from children's stories.

[stylin19a]

I personally have used the term tar baby, at least in conversation, if not in writing (though I’ve done that, too) plenty of times in my 19-plus year career.
And I confess not only did I not know of its racial implications, I also didn’t know of its origination as a literary trap for Br’er Rabbit

so he admits he writes about stuff he knows nothing about.

[Right_in_Virginia]

IMHO, if we're planning on surviving and being victorious against our real enemies, this country will need to stop looking for and magnifying slights.... develop a thick skin and focus on the task ahead of us all.

[Leg Olam]

The white folks over at the Globe are pretty sensitive about certain words.

[rightinthemiddle]

Romney should not have apologized.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

I tell ya Jeff, it's really easy to take shots at people from Boston (and MA in general). From afar, I understand the way this place is viewed. But the truth is, this place is like an American version of Lebanon or Fallujah. The majority of the people (moderates and conservative) are held captive by a radical liberal minority. People here are more like Col David Hunt of Fox (from Scituate, MA) than they are like John Kerry or Ted Kennedy.

It took about 100 years for it to happen but the control is now complete because they control the elections through corruprtion and massive patronage.

[Paloma_55]

"tar baby" is a character in a fictional book that is a metaphor for intentionally putting oneself into a situation they cannot get out of.

It has NOTHING to do with race.

[VRWCtaz]

The hypocrisy combined with the abuse of our language hits two of my pet peeves! Communication is not dependent on a single term. I hold the listener responsible for the communication failure when they ignore context to focus on a single term, which ironically, then demonstrates their own ignorance.

[Unam Sanctam]

A rather niggardly apology...

[TChris]

To Ann Coulter, if you're lurking. The title of your next book should be:

Hypocrisy

It could easily be the biggest work you've ever written. Heck, it would almost write itself.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

From dictionary.com:

1 entry found for tar baby.
tar baby
n.
A situation or problem from which it is virtually impossible to disentangle oneself.

[After “Bre'r Rabbit and the Tar Baby,” an Uncle Remus story by Joel Chandler Harris.]

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Notice that there is no mention of it being a derogatory phrase or a racial slur. It seems that Romney used the phrase correctly. (I haven't checked any other dictionaries.)