July 09--I'm going to make a fruitless plea for common sense.
It's fruitless because it involves politics, but I'll give it a go anyway.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is getting hammered by Democrats today for a comment he made to reporters in New Hampshire. While talking about growing the economy, he said "people need to work longer hours."
That's the line Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee are pouncing on. According to ABC News, the DNC called Bush's comment "easily one of the most out-of-touch comments we've heard so far this cycle."
The problem is that those six words are not placed in any form of context and, after the outrage began, Bush made a perfectly reasonable clarification that he was talking about getting people who want to work more than just part-time back into full-time employment.
Here's his full quote, which came during an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader editorial board Wednesday: "My aspiration for the country, and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye could see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, work force participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows, means that people need to work longer hours, and through their productivity gain more income for their families. That's the only way we're going to get out of this rut that we're in."
Could he have been clearer in his description? Absolutely, but in the context of that quote, his explanation that he was referring to part-time workers who want more hours makes sense.
There are plenty of times when politicians, Republican and Democrat, say things that are flat-out dumb or wrong whether they're in context or out of context. And there will undoubtedly be plenty of those during the 2016 campaign.
But it would be awfully nice if both sides cooled it a bit and didn't try to make EVERY comment become the most damning thing ever said. Mitt Romney's 47 percent line was bad, regardless of context. President Barack Obama's comment about people clinging to their guns or religion was bad, regardless of context.
These comments by Bush? They're not bad unless you pull them completely out of context and ignore his reasonable explanation.
Imagine how dignified a political party would look if an opposing politician made a clumsy statement that got the ideologues on social media buzzing and the party responded by saying: "The candidate explained that comment. It wasn't artfully worded, but the intent of the comment is clear. Let's move on and talk about where we differ on policy."
The campaign has barely begun, and I doubt that by the time it's over there will be any moral high ground left. But I think the Democrats would have been wise to take the high ground here and give Bush a pass on his comment.
The next time Clinton gets pilloried by Republicans over a clumsy statement -- and you know there will be a next time -- it will be hard to say the GOP isn't being fair.
Someone should be the adult in the room. Someone should show some common sense.
A fruitless plea, I realize. But a plea that's at least worth making.
rhuppke@tribpub.com
