# Sarah Palin: "Rahm Emannuel called my retard baby a nigger!" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 3, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503 "2010-02-03T06:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rex\_Goliath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rex\_Goliath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Goliath)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/1 "2010-02-03T06:37:45Z")
Oh great, Sarah, real fucking Rosa Parks you are. Right on the front lines, fighting the good fight for tolerance everywhere. Mother of the year has a baby at a very late stage in her life, and it (surprise!) pops out with downs syndrome. Now she’s captain courage, defending her poor little retarded nigger baby against–coveniently–the President’s right hand man. [QUOTE=[http://www.salon.com/news/rahm\_emanuel/index.html?story=/politics/war\_room/2010/02/02/palin\_vs\_rahm](http://www.salon.com/news/rahm_emanuel/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/02/02/palin_vs_rahm)] Both Palin and the blogs were upset by comments reported in a profile in the Wall Street Journal last week. The paper quoted Emanuel telling a group of progressives at a strategy session on healthcare reform, held last August, that they were being “fucking retarded” if they carried out plans to run ads attacking conservative Democrats who opposed parts of the reform bill. _SNIP_ Palin, on the other hand, was infuriated by Emanuel’s quote because of her child with Down syndrome. “Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them – is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking,” she wrote on her Facebook page. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/2 "2010-02-03T06:40:11Z")
Gee, and I thought conservatives were supposed to be so opposed to PC offensensitivity. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/3 "2010-02-03T06:42:54Z")
> [@Rex Goliath](#): > > her poor little retarded nigger baby You know, come to think of it, there’s something to be said for PC offensensitivity. It sure beats gross and disgusting comments like this. (Yes, I know you weren’t seriously calling Trig Palin a “retarded nigger baby”. It was still gross and disgusting, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/4 "2010-02-03T06:49:11Z")
I see Murdoch is working on building synergies between the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/5 "2010-02-03T06:55:21Z")
> [@](#): > > The paper quoted Emanuel telling a group of progressives at a strategy session on healthcare reform, held last August, that they were being “fucking retarded” if they carried out plans to run ads attacking conservative Democrats who opposed parts of the reform bill. Rahm is right. That _would_ have been fucking retarded. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/6 "2010-02-03T07:37:47Z")
He should called them a bunch of Saras who "Palined-out’ of the healthcare debate right in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/7 "2010-02-03T13:38:06Z")
Lighten up Francis. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/8 "2010-02-03T13:58:28Z")
1. I believe Palin. That is, I think she’s genuinely irritated that people use the word “retarded.” She’s sensitive to the issue because of her child, and has what I think is an honest reaction. 2. I don’t think it’s objectively reasonable to put the word “retarded” in the same category as the n-word when it comes to offensiveness. Perhaps some day it will be, although I doubt it, but it’s certainly not true now. So her comparison is, while IMO genuinely felt, objectively unsupportable. 3. The OP’s characterization is also unreasonable. Palin didn’t say that Emmanual or anyone had called her child the n-word. She said that people who rightly object to the n-word should react similarly when “retard” is used. That’s not reasonable, as I argue above, but neither is it what the OP said. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/9 "2010-02-03T13:59:05Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > You know, come to think of it, there’s something to be said for PC offensensitivity. It sure beats gross and disgusting comments like this. > > (Yes, I know you weren’t seriously calling Trig Palin a “retarded nigger baby”. It was still gross and disgusting, though.) Agreed. I would be more convinced that Rahm Emanuel (one n) actually cared about the mentally retarded if he refrained from using such language. I never heard this kind of rhetoric from Ted Kennedy, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/10 "2010-02-03T14:14:02Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Gee, and I thought conservatives were supposed to be so opposed to PC offensensitivity. You could probably go to FreeRepublic right now and find the same people who are SO OFFENDED by this talking about ragheads and fags and how we need to bomb anyone who crosses the US-Mexico border. Proposal: Anyone who claims to be “offended” by anything is a liar, a partisan hack, and not worth listening to anymore. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/11 "2010-02-03T14:35:04Z")
I can’t say I’m personally offended by the OP, but I’d be surprised if any parent of a mentally handicapped child isn’t slightly stung by the use of the worded “retarded” in the sense theat Emanuel used it. I can clearly recall that there was a time when our society was urged to refrain from the use of the word “retarded” in favour of the new phrase “mentally handicapped” which is the common term today by medical and social workers. It comes to my mind, that I’d rather be called a nigger than a retard if someone wanted to disparage me. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/12 "2010-02-03T14:41:43Z")
Isn’t this just another example of Sarah Palin dragging her kids into the spotlight so she can then say, “Leave my family alone!” And Rahm? Clean up the language. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/13 "2010-02-03T14:42:02Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > I can clearly recall that there was a time when our society was urged to refrain from the use of the word “retarded” in favour of the new phrase “mentally handicapped” which is the common term today by medical and social workers. Rahm Emanuel isn’t a medical or social worker. My understanding is that “retarded” is not a big deal. But people object to _retard_ as an insult. And those people presumably wouldn’t like what Emanuel said either. > [@](#): > > It comes to my mind, that I’d rather be called a nigger than a retard if someone wanted to disparage me. Are you black? Because if you’re not, this is fucking re- … ally stupid. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/14 "2010-02-03T14:56:25Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Proposal: Anyone who claims to be “offended” by anything is a liar, a partisan hack, and not worth listening to anymore. I’m offended by that comment. I know, I know. I just proved his point, didn’t I? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/15 "2010-02-03T15:13:52Z")
> [@](#): > > in re Rahm Emmannuel: > Mr. President, you can do better, and our country deserves better. > > - Sarah Palin [Sarah’s Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=278672843434) I agree with Ms. Palin here, although perhaps not her reasoning. Rahm Emmannuel _should_ be forced to step down. He just hasn’t been effective in moving good legislation. The president and the country deserve better service. Someone like Howard Dean would be a better fit for Rahm’s position. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/16 "2010-02-03T15:42:21Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > I can’t say I’m personally offended by the OP, but I’d be surprised if any parent of a mentally handicapped child isn’t slightly stung by the use of the worded “retarded” in the sense theat Emanuel used it. > > I can clearly recall that there was a time when our society was urged to refrain from the use of the word “retarded” in favour of the new phrase “mentally handicapped” which is the common term today by medical and social workers. > > It comes to my mind, that I’d rather be called a nigger than a retard if someone wanted to disparage me. It’s an example of the [Euphemism treadmill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill) The word “retarded” is morphing it’s meaning. It is coming to mean “an extremely foolish act or argument” In fact, you’ll find people who don’t like the use of the word “handicapped” to describe people, and prefer “differently abled”. I’m in favour of moving the Euphemism treadmill along a little faster; I think Sarah Palin’ arguments are totally D’abled. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/17 "2010-02-03T15:45:48Z")
It’s not just Palin who objected. Tim Shriver, the CEO of the Special Olympics, wrote a letter to Emanuel expressing his disappointment and Rahm called him to apologize. Shriver has started a campaign to eliminate the “R” word. If Rahm had called them a bunch of “fucking faggots” instead, would that have been acceptable by the gay community? Hell no. His head would have been on the chopping block immediately. Rahm’s problem has always been that he gets worked up and then just opens his mouth without thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/18 "2010-02-03T15:47:55Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > In fact, you’ll find people who don’t like the use of the word “handicapped” to describe people, and prefer “differently abled”. I have never heard a human being use that phrase in any kind of serious way. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/19 "2010-02-03T15:49:33Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Rahm Emanuel isn’t a medical or social worker. My understanding is that “retarded” is not a big deal. But people object to _retard_ as an insult. And those people presumably wouldn’t like what Emanuel said either. Isn’t a big deal to whom? Neither the noun nor the verb have any place in a professional setting. I have no love whatsoever for Palin but think that she’s right in this case although calling for an apology (which he’s already done) would have been more appropriate. If Eunice Kennedy Shriver were still alive, I suspect she’d call Emanuel out on it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503/20 "2010-02-03T15:51:02Z")
> [@Slypork](#): > > It’s not just Palin who objected. Tim Shriver, the CEO of the Special Olympics, wrote a letter to Emanuel expressing his disappointment and Rahm called him to apologize. Shriver has started a campaign to eliminate the “R” word. > > If Rahm had called them a bunch of “fucking faggots” instead, would that have been acceptable by the gay community? Hell no. His head would have been on the chopping block immediately. Rahm’s problem has always been that he gets worked up and then just opens his mouth without thinking. He didn’t call anybody “retards,” he called an _idea_ “fucking retarded,” which it was, and which is no more an insult to mentally impaiired people than words like “moronic,” “imbecilic,” and “idiotic,” which used to have clinical meanings, but no longer do. Palin is just grandstanding. That’s what she does. That and attention whoring. If she really gave a shit about her baby, she wouldn’t have tried to kill it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarah-palin-rahm-emannuel-called-my-retard-baby-a-nigger/527503.md?page=2)