Excerpted from the Boston Herald, “Pay grade — an unartful dodge”, by Michael Graham, August 20, 2008
“Well, uh, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or, uh, a scientific perspective, uh, answering that question with specificity, uh, you know, is, is, uh, above my pay grade.” – Sen. Barack Obama, on “When does a baby get human rights?”
In 1948, they had Harry Truman and “The buck stops here!”
(In 2004 the got John Kerry and “I voted for it before I voted against it”.)
In 2008, they’ve got Barack Obama and it’s “above my pay grade.”
This is definitely not your grandfather’s Democratic Party.
My grandfather helped push Patton’s tanks across Europe, and one reason for my grandfather’s unshakable party loyalty was his belief that Harry Truman saved his life by dropping the A-bombs on Japan.
If Truman hadn’t made the call – if he’d demurred that such a profound life-and-death decision was “above my pay grade” – my grandfather believed that he and untold thousands of Americans would have died invading the Japanese mainland.
When Obama got the invitation to an evangelical forum hosted by a pro-life pastor, he had to know that issues regarding life and the law were going to come up.
And his prepared answer to the most fundamental question about public policy and abortion (“is the fetus a human being?”) is that it’s “above my pay grade?”
Among phrases that should never be spoken by a guy whose job it is to sit next to the Big, Red Button is “That’s above my pay grade.”
Leaders don’t pass tough questions to the next “pay grade.” They don’t need five minutes to answer yes-or-no questions.
That’s not leadership, that’s politics.
Full editorial:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1113869&format=&page=2&listingType=opi#articleFull
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