An Odd Choice

Carol Platt Liebau | October 25, 2010 10:27 PM

Now, it's silly to go reading too much into every little statement, but it does seem odd to me that a President seeking to be a "racial healer" would use loaded language like the following:

"[W]e can't have special interests sitting shotgun [in his hackneyed car metaphor]. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back."

Obviously, the back of the car is far preferable to the back of the bus. It just seems like a truly unfortunate choice (or gaffe, depending on whether the President intended to introduce a civil rights allusion into his speech).

All I can say is that I'm grateful that a Tea Party-backed candidate didn't make the same (silly) statement, telling the President that he's got to sit in back. The MSM would be in with a verdict of "guilty" of racism in a heartbeat.

In any case, it's long past time for President Obama to put his overused car metaphor into the garage, once and for all.