On Sunday, the Massachusetts Republican Party held a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast. During the event, Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald offered a presidential joke to hundreds of guests.
According to Boston.com, McDonald joked about President Barack Hussen Obama being visited in a dream by three past U.S. presidents, a plot similar to what transpired in the 1988 film "Scrooged" starring a young Bill Murray.
In the dream, the ex-presidents offered advice on how to improve the country. In McDonald's joke, Lincoln’s advice was to "go to the theater." Obviously, the statement implied that the U.S. economy and country would fare better if Obama were dead.
Given, that the sheriff's statement was delivered to members of the GOP, it received "scattered laughter."
McDonald was first elected Plymouth County sheriff in 2004 and operates his own website. Liberals responded to Sunday's comments with alarm, posting in several blogs and forums that the sheriff should not have made a joke about an Obama assassination.
Yet, how quickly people and the mainstream media forget that during the 2008 presidential campaign, then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin received a barrage of death threats. For instance, here's one email sent to John McCain's vice presidential running mate:
She doesn't belong to the NRA to support the right of each citizen to have weapons in an aim of self-defence, but just to support the right of every southern white citizen to shoot all non-white people legally! Sarah Palin MUST BE KILLED!
And that email was sent with no intention of being humorous.
It may be poor taste to crack a joke about a politician's possible death. However, reactions could be more even on both sides of the aisle, and not just when Democrats are the butt of a political joke.
*Note: Subscribe to Republican Examiner
Comments