# 2012 nominees for the Ballsiest Excuse of the Year
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [January 5, 2012, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484 "2012-01-05T09:22:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/41 "2012-01-06T05:27:37Z")
> [@Stelios](#):
>
> I’d bet my house that if you played that clip without comment to 100 people, 90-95 of them would go “Yep. He said black.”
Okay. Because I love you guys so much, I did this…sort of.
I held a poorly sampled, weakly scientific survey at work this evening. I brought 5 people, one at a time, into my office to watch and listen to the clip linked in the OP’s post. All 5 are medical professionals, 4 of whom are white, 1 Pakistani; 3 men, 2 women. All are between the ages of, I’d say, 35 and 50. I asked 3 questions. I didn’t ask their political affiliations (I could have, but believe it or not it took over an hour to coordinate this much. One person dropped after the first question and it would have been simply too much of a hassle to get someone else to play, even at 9:30 PM).
I played the clip from the beginning for each person surveyed.
**Question 1: “What does the speaker say starting at 20 seconds?”**
White male 1 - “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” [asked to have it replayed once]
White male 2 - Said he wasn’t sure, politely excused himself and went back to work
Pakistani male - “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” [asked to have it replayed three times]
Female 1 - “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” [No replay requested]
Female 2 - “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” [asked to have it replayed once]
**Question 2: “Who is the speaker?”**
White male 1 - “Rick Santorum”
White male 2 - Excused
Pakistani male - Didn’t know by name
Female 1 - Guessed “Sunclairall” and “Sinclairall”
Female 2 - Didn’t know by name
**Question 3: "What is the speaker’s vocation?**
White male 1 - “Republican presidential candidate”
White male 2 - Excused
Pakistani male - “Politician”
Female 1 - “He’s running for president” – she knew he was a Republican
Female 2 - “Politician”
Draw from this what you will.
Until reading **Marley** ’s post above, I was absolutely positive Santorum said “black people”. I still believe he did, or meant to and tried to pull it back at the end of the word (I concede there was no ‘K’). Sorry **Marley** , I can’t give Santorum a pass on this one. It fits the context.
---
### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/42 "2012-01-06T05:37:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> I think [this is the cleanest version of the speech.](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/what-did-rick-santorum-say-welfare-comments-scrutinized/) Clean picture in sync with clear audio…and it sounds like “black people” to me, too. It’s not the only mistake in that speech, btw-ABC does a pretty good analysis.
I agree that this is the clearest audio of any of the clips that i’ve heard. I disagree, though, that he said “black people.” Furthermore, i think it takes some pretty wishful thinking to hear “black people.” I understand how it might sound like that to someone who isn’t paying close attention, but listening closely makes clear that it’s not what he said.
I’m perfectly willing to believe the worst about Rick Santorum in basically every situation, but i really believe that this was simply one of those tics of speech that often happens to people who are speaking without a script. I occasionally mangle words in my discussion and lectures, and i completely understand how this sort of thing happens. I think we need far more convincing evidence than this in order to make the sort of accusations that people are leveling at Santorum here.
And you’re right that there are problems with this speech. As the article points out, he gets his facts wrong in more than one place. And this is the sort of thing that needs to be exposed. Politicians make shit up all the time, especially when speaking to friendly audiences, knowing that by the time they get caught, the lies have served their purpose. Focusing on this stuff is far more important than manufactured outrage about an alleged racial slur that, in my opinion, was never uttered.
---
### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/43 "2012-01-06T05:41:21Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> That said, you’ve got to go Full Palin to believe his ballsy excuse. There’s a word that starts with “blaaa” and fits the context?
I cannot believe people on this board, smart people, are unable to see through this.
He wasn’t saying “blaaaaa”. He was saying “blyyyyyy” (rhymes with “eye”). Actually, I think what happened was, he inadvertently started to say “lives” (notice how that word has the “eye” sound?) but somehow also flubbed it with a “B” sound at the beginning. The “B” probably came from “better”. As in, making people’s **lives better.** He had it mapped out in his head what he was going to say, but when he actually spoke the words, he mixed up some syllables.
Santorum is a scumbag, really. But _you are making hay out of nothing_ with this incident.
---
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/44 "2012-01-06T05:47:19Z")
> [@Grumman](#):
>
> What are you smoking? He was talking about government being obsessed with getting people onto welfare instead of getting them jobs. He wasn’t blaming the recipients.
“…obsessed with getting people onto welfare…”? Who dropped that nugget of shit into your mind? There’s not enough weed in the world to make me that stupid.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/45 "2012-01-06T06:07:59Z")
The word he said was “black”. English. Do you understand it motherfuckers? Anyone who declares otherwise is too stupid to pay attention to. There are plenty of links to it, witness it for yourselves.
---
### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/46 "2012-01-06T06:15:28Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> “…obsessed with getting people onto welfare…”? Who dropped that nugget of shit into your mind? There’s not enough weed in the world to make me that stupid.
“They’re just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of _you_ dependant on _them_ so they can get your vote.” Ring any bells?
---
### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/47 "2012-01-06T06:16:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Goddamn it, Rick Santorum is a disgusting human being. He is positively vile. Why do people on this board keep picking these fucking moronic, inaccurate excuses to attack him? [This is the second one in less than 24 hours.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=637326) He does not say “black people” there at all. It comes out closer to “bly people,” and he clearly goes back to say exactly what he meant, which was “people’s lives.” This is a fucking embarrassment, and people who make shit up in the interest of attacking him let him off the hook in two different ways: they ignore the real stuff and make it easier to ignore the real stuff by mixing the real stuff with fake stuff. What you get is a frothy mixture of dishonesty and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of idiocy.
>
> “In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing.”
> “Whether it’s polygamy, whether it’s adultery, whether it’s sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.”
> -Rick Santorum, April 2003
>
> Lies and distortions are unnecessary and counterproductive in discussing why this piece of garbage is unfit for any kind of elective office down to and particularly including dog catcher.
Administrator? How about lying sack of crap? Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining! You are a disgusting idiot. Whether or not what he said was racist or not in intent, the word was “black”. Whether or not “black” used in that context made sense or is scandalous is beyond the point. He said “black”. Anybody who looks and listens to that tape and hears otherwise is a liar.
You, Marley23, are a fucking liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I wouldn’t accept you for prison trustee duties.
That he said “black” is not a matter open to opinion, it is fact.
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/48 "2012-01-06T06:33:57Z")
He was clearly saying “to blave” which means “to bluff”.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/49 "2012-01-06T06:35:18Z")
He said\* black \*. It’s part of the Republican dogma, black people are welfare recipients, welfare is for black people. It’s absolutely in context as **Czarcasm** notes, he uses the pronouns _them_ and _their_ explaining it to the audience in his next sentence.
It does sound like he realized what he was saying, and tried to pull it back. This won’t go very far, because Santorum is a homophobe and religious fanatic, not a racist. You have to smear your opponents with the proper terminology. Robert Abrams found this out in 1992 when he called Al D’Amato a fascist during their race for the Senate. It didn’t fly because everyone knew Al was a crook, not a fascist.
How do we know Santorum said _black_? Because he hasn’t said what that other word he started to say was. That’s why we know he said it. That’s why we know his excuse is bullshit.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/50 "2012-01-06T06:51:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> When CBS News, which pointed out that 84 percent of food stamp recipients in Iowa are white, later asked Santorum about the comment, the candidate said he did not remember the context in which he said it, but that he was probably referencing “Waiting for Superman,” a documentary about black children affected by the public school system.
from [this site.](http://www.christianpost.com/news/santorum-accused-of-making-racist-welfare-comment-in-iowa-66378/)
edited to add: Same thing directly from [the CBS site.](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57350990-503544/santorum-targets-blacks-in-entitlement-reform/)
---
### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/51 "2012-01-06T07:01:04Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> Administrator? How about lying sack of crap? Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining! You are a disgusting idiot. Whether or not what he said was racist or not in intent, the word was “black”. Whether or not “black” used in that context made sense or is scandalous is beyond the point. He said “black”. Anybody who looks and listens to that tape and hears otherwise is a liar.
>
> You, Marley23, are a fucking liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
>
> I wouldn’t accept you for prison trustee duties.
>
> That he said “black” is not a matter open to opinion, it is fact.
Is that so?
The word “Black” ends with a hard consonant. “K”.
Where is the hard consonant “K” in the word spoken by Santorum in the video?
The word “Black” has an “A” sound, rhyming with “Attack” or “Jack”.
But the word Santorum spoke in the video rhymes with “eye”.
I’m actually amazed at how pig-headed people are being about this.
---
### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/52 "2012-01-06T08:29:07Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> The word he said was “black”. English. Do you understand it motherfuckers? Anyone who declares otherwise is too stupid to pay attention to. There are plenty of links to it, witness it for yourselves.
Witnessed it. Listened to it literally dozens of times now. And, while i’m happy to believe the worst about Santorum in pretty much any situation you care to name, i still don’t hear the word “black” in there.
I could be convinced that he was _going_ to say “black,” and then caught himself when he realized how bad it would sound. It would be in keeping with his politics, and with the politics of some of the people who vote for someone like Santorum. Demonizing black people, and connecting them with welfare, has been a common strategy among certain sections of the right for decades now.
But no matter how many times i listen to that clip, i don’t here the “ack” sound that should be there for the word “black.” I hear something like “bly” and a quick transition to “people’s.” As i said, i think it’s plausible to argue that he was going to say “black” and then thought better of it, but in terms of what he actually said, i just don’t hear the word “black” in there.
I think Sam Sommers’ [take on it](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-sommers/rick-santorum-black-people_b_1186927.html) is a reasonable one:
> [@](#):
>
> I’ll be honest: I’m no Santorum supporter. In fact, I didn’t even know that two-word phrase existed until five days ago. And when I first listened to the clip, it was obvious to me that he said Black.
>
> But I then watched it again. And again. And again and again. And now I can actually see a plausible interpretation that Santorum mistakenly starts to say the word lives before he says people’s, so he then self-corrects, adding people’s before he repeats lives again. And the end result winds up sounding a lot like “Black people’s lives.”
>
> Maybe. I change my mind each time I watch it. (And who knows what the audience heard, though it’s fairly unambiguous that they liked whatever it is that they think he said.)
---
### Author:  [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/53 "2012-01-06T09:17:11Z")
> [@Grumman](#):
>
> I’ve listened to three different versions and they all sound the same to me, and not at all like “black”. Not to mention that it makes no sense given the context.
I think it makes perfect sense. If you, like many hard right Republicans, believe that (a) Welfare is literally a _liberal plot_ to both infantilise and acquire the dependence of the black community in order to perpetually retain their vote and (b) that the overall majority of Welfare recipients are black - a shockingly common misconception among the Republican base - then you can easily see why Santorum might say “black people’s lives”.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/54 "2012-01-06T10:04:09Z")
I’m a hardcore liberal. I have no use whatsoever for Santorum and I would never doubt for a second that he’s a heartless racist fuck.
Having said that, he didn’t say black. He was fumbling a bit and it sounded a lot like black on the first hearing, but if you pay attention and listen a few times, he’s not saying black and I don’t think he even started to say black.
FWIW.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/55 "2012-01-06T12:08:28Z")
Please see post #50. Santorum does not dispute that he said “black people”, and he even provides the context.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/56 "2012-01-06T12:31:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#):
>
> He was clearly saying “to blave” which means “to bluff”.
Well played, sir.
> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> I am utterly flabbergasted at this. He is so obviously _not_ saying “black people.” First of all, do people seriously think Santorum would be _stupid_ enough to make such a blatantly racial remark, with _no context whatsoever_, at this public meeting? And not even a vaguely, round-about racist remark, but actually saying “BLACK PEOPLE”? No. There’s no way. And it’s obvious from listening to him that it was a slip of the tongue. He says “blyyyyy - people”. It’s just one of those _noises_ that people make when they’re speaking and momentarily say the wrong syllable - it means absolutely nothing, and everyone does it sometime.
I’m still ambivalent over whether it’s a slip of the tongue or an aborted attempt to say “black”. However, to any sentence beginning “do people seriously think Santorum would be stupid enough to…” the answer is likely to be yes. If this were Romney I’d question it hard but after some of the other things he’s said in this campaign (and particularly after his interaction with those Christian college students) I’d easily believe that Santorum would perpetuate a right-wing myth (that welfare recipient = black) without thinking about it.
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### Author:  [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/57 "2012-01-06T13:46:28Z")
I, for one, am glad to finally see a politician taking a stance against the Blah people who are ruining this country. Damn Blah People.
---
### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/58 "2012-01-06T14:24:00Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#):
>
> He was clearly saying “to blave” which means “to bluff”.
You know, I really started to hate that movie when it became so prevalent to quote. But you NEVER get a chance to quote that line, so my hat’s off to you. Well done.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/59 "2012-01-06T14:54:22Z")
I haven’t listened to the clip (and don’t give a shit about anything Rick Santorum says anyway). I must say, therefore, that I find it awfully interesting that people in this thread who think he said black, and people who don’t, break down almost perfectly along party (or at least ideological) lines.
It’s just **Marley** and **Stoid** fucking things up.
---
### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2012, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2012-nominees-for-the-ballsiest-excuse-of-the-year/608484/60 "2012-01-06T14:59:14Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> Administrator? How about lying sack of crap? Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining! You are a disgusting idiot. Whether or not what he said was racist or not in intent, the word was “black”. Whether or not “black” used in that context made sense or is scandalous is beyond the point. He said “black”. Anybody who looks and listens to that tape and hears otherwise is a liar.
>
> You, Marley23, are a fucking liar. Liar, liar, pants on fire.
>
> I wouldn’t accept you for prison trustee duties.
>
> That he said “black” is not a matter open to opinion, it is fact.
The hate is strong in this one.
And, don’t call me a liar. Listen to the idiocy you’re spewing. “Anyone who hears otherwise is a liar”? So lying = comes to a different conclusion than **The Second Stone**.
Well, I listened to it a few times. Missed the exact moment the first time because I heard nothing that sounded like “black,” other than a plosive and non-descript vowel sound of general stammering.
_And_, in context, that word makes no freaking sense.
> [@](#):
>
> They’re just pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependant on them so they can get your vote. I don’t want to make **black** people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.
Really? That word is so out of left field. We’re already talking about ‘you’ (the hard-working yet financially-strapped audience), and he’s just throwing shit about niggers in here for kicks? Because he can’t help himself? Please.
If this had come out of anyone else’s mouth, no one would bat an eye at it; just tongue-tripping.
I don’t hear it. And, by my definition, that makes **you** a liar, **The Second Stone**. Stop being such a lying sack of shit. Liaaar! Neener-neener-neener!!!
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Please see post #50. Santorum does not dispute that he said “black people”, and he even provides the context.
Sure. Because getting into a pissing match with the media will hurt rather than help. It’s clear that people who want to hear the worst are not going to be convinced. He’s got no choice but to capitulate. Doesn’t mean that he said “black,” just that he can’t win a fight about it.
And, FTR, I’m voting Obama in November, baring something bizarre and unexpected. I can’t stand Santorum’s politics or how he expresses his faith.
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