Karl Rove on violence, Huckabee on brain tumors, and Chris Matthews on birthers: The dumbest political quotes of the week
Each week, the Daily Caller picks the dumbest political statements and ranks them (just for Yahoo! readers) on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the worst). Who do you think said the dumbest thing? Vote in our poll below!
Not very many people like Missouri Rep. Todd Akin right now (because of his very ill-advised comments last week about rape) -- especially not the GOP establishment.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a very good idea to allude to the Senate candidate’s untimely death.
In an interview with Business Week published Friday, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove talked about his distaste for Akin.
“We should sink Todd Akin,” Rove said. “If he’s found mysteriously murdered, don’t look for my whereabouts!”
Everyone knows you should never implicate yourself in a future hypothetical murder plot – especially not to a reporter.
Cringe Factor: 1/5
***
One of Mitt Romney’s biggest problems is that people just don’t really like him. He has one of those faces that you just want to punch.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made an interesting metaphor for the GOP presidential candidate’s likability problem, and why in the end it doesn’t really matter:
“The sicker the patient, the less important is bedside manner,” Huckabee told The Daily Beast in an interview published Wednesday. “If you’ve just been diagnosed with a brain tumor, you honestly don’t care if your neurosurgeon is a jerk. You don’t care if he has a great personality. You want to know if you’re going to cut my head open, can you get the job done?”
Translation: America is a cancerous brain and Romney is the surgeon that nobody likes, but who cares if nobody likes him because he’s going to fix that brain tumor.
It might not be the greatest idea to compare the nation to a horrible disease and your party’s presidential candidate to a disliked surgeon. Next time, it might be better to go with a more pleasant image like a dying plant and Romney as a misunderstood florist. Anything other than brain cancer.
Cringe Factor: 2/5
***
By most accounts, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a rousing and inspiring speech Wednesday during the Republican National Convention. Her speech was praised by both sides of the political aisle as one of the best speeches of the entire convention.
But MSNBC host Chris Matthews reduced her remarks down to a thinly-veiled birtherism attack on President Barack Obama.
In an incredibly awkward live-TV moment, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell was on the convention floor interviewing Rice when Matthews buzzed in his coworker’s earpiece.
He said to Mitchell: “Could you ask the secretary -- her speech was so overpowering and positive – but was it kind of a rejoinder to all the birtherism and the narrowness that she’s heard in her party?”
Mitchell begrudgingly repeated the nonsensical question and Rice, eloquent as ever, diverted the question back to the true meaning of her speech.
Cringe Factor: 5/5
