What if I said.

[Flint]

If the attackers win, that will have a lasting effect on all of us and our politics as a nation. Can we afford to have the walls between red and blue, urban and rural, well-to-do and economically-hurting built up even higher? Is that the direction we want to go? More division, more enmity, more mistrust?

Give me a break already! This paragraph is just as stupid as the original controversy.
They've taken a mountain made out of a molehill, and made an even bigger mountain out of it.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Flint

They've taken a mountain made out of a molehill, and made an even bigger mountain out of it.

In short, too much is taken too literally. All those position papers, etc are only sufficient to say which way their wind blows. Much of what all three promise to do and what others accuse them of saying, instead, will not happen. Do you really think anyone will rescind NAFTA? Do you really think anyone will immediately pull all troops out of Iraq? Do you really think anyone will cut taxes or institute massive tax increases? Of course not.

We get pissy about a comment made in San Francisco that is also (in simpler terms) somewhat accurate? Yes, when times get bad or people get frustrated, then people seek to blame others or things. So what? People do that. Why is that so important?

Only metric to measure any of these candidates is how they manage the overall campaign. For example, Kerry did a very poor job explaining himself about "Mission Accomplished" or knocking down outright lies from the Swift Boat coalition. It may have cost him enough votes to lose. We measure our leaders by watching what they do in these long and painful treks over the nation and airwaves. At least the minority who think for ourselves - who do not vote as ordered will judge on how they managed the campaign - not get lost in silly details or perceived insults.

It is a silly controversy. Just another day in a campaign that should have been mostly ignored until after the Super Bowl - and that is still too long.