The Pilot today weighed in on the George Allen “gaffe” last Friday. And the front page of PilotOnline now has a poll, asking the question: “Was U.S. Sen. George Allen out of line in his comments to a videographer for opponent James Webb?” As of right now, 735 people have participated in the poll, with over 60% saying YES.
A few snippets from the editorial:
- “Allen’s initial explanation for calling Sidarth “Macaca” defies logic.”
- “No one but the senator can possibly know what he meant by the word, but it certainly wasn’t nice.”
- “Allen apologized Monday, employing one of those calculated non-apologies designed to free his foot from his mouth without actually saying he was sorry for what he said or how he said it.”
Foot-in-mouth disease is something that candidates really have to try to avoid. How long this incident will remain in the public eye no one knows. What affect it will have on Allen’s presidential ambitions remains to be seen. At this point, it is just another addition to the “Allen is a racist” file.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
There was a decided change in tone yesterday amongst some of the Allen apologist bloggers, from “this story has no legs” to “Dick Wadhams may have to take the fall for this.” Damaging, much?
Yes, people actually do care that a sitting Senator thinks he can get away with using a racist epithet because it’s “obscure” and he’s in lily white southwest Virginia. It was hubris, and a miscalculation. Someone should welcome Senator Allen to America and to the real Virginia, where everyone doesn’t look just like him.
There’s a great article with some great commentary in the letters section over at Salon.com today. The article is entitled “Stepping in ‘macaca’; not hard to find.