We've gone from Bill Clinton's "I tried it, but I didn't inhale" to Barack Obama's "Yeah, I indulged -- so what?" So this seems like a step back in some way:
It’s a question politicians are asked all the time: have you smoked weed? Sen. Marco Rubio won’t say.
When asked on Monday whether he’s toked up by Fusion’s Mariana Atencio, the Florida Republican and possible 2016 presidential contender refused to answer, suggesting he didn’t want to imply he’s OK with kids using marijuana.
“I’ll tell you why I never answer that question,” he said at a Miami event, sponsored by National Journal’s Next America project. “If I tell you that I haven’t, you won’t believe me. And if I tell you that I did, then kids will look up to me and say, ‘well, I can smoke marijuana because look how he made it.’”
What? We wouldn't believe something a politician says? Sorry, but when you say you won't answer, I hear, "Yes I did it." He obviously considers not having tried it the less shameful decision, so if he didn't indulge, why not just say so?
Not buying the "I want to set a good example" crap. Somehow, I don't think there are legions of kids out there just itching to do something bad and waiting first to see if Marco Rubio did it first. Kids are gonna try what they're gonna try, the way we all did, and it's up to the adults in their lives to try to guide them on the proper path, not some politician in Washington.
And this is pertinent information. If he's really going to run for president, sooner or later he will have to answer the question. I think most voters don't care about youthful indiscretions -- it's whether they were learned from or not that matters. But we do nned to know about the indiscretions. Shouldn't we know all there is to know about someone who wants to be the the most powerful person in the country and the leader of the free world? And when he talks about his life -- good stuff, indiscretions and all -- the less weaselly political doubletalk the better.
Comments
Good comments Leo, I agree completly.
"Shouldn't we know all there is to know about someone who wants to be the the most powerful person in the country and the leader of the free world?"
Sometimes, I think we narrow the field so much most of the "normal" people won't put themselves through that grist mill. When we say we want to know everything about the people running, is it to discount them ? If it is, we have our sights set to high and if it's not, then why know ?
Alas, the "normal" people will never get close, so we're stuck with the professional politicians who've been preparing themselves for the job all their lives. That gives them all a kind of pathological narcissism that requires us to learn all we can about them.