It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

Interesting and insightful commentary on Michael Moore's influence on the election and the asymmetry in calls for a "Sister Souljah moment" by Matt Welch. Among other things, he asks:

When, during the entire presidential campaign, was the incumbent president of the United States ever asked to come up with a Sister Souljah moment?

I find this to be a fair and significant question. Are only Democrats required to repudiate odious statements made by their supporters? Were there many calls for Bush to repudiate statements by Jerry Fallwell, Pat Roberston, or even Pat Buchanan (not to mention Michael Savage or Ann Coulter)? Welch goes on further to contrast the fact that most of the cases in which Kerry was criticised for not repudiating statements made by Michael Moore or Whoopi Goldberg were cases of non-elected celebrities making statements. On the other hand, there are many Republican elected officials who have made controvrsial statements with apparent impunity (read the whole post for examples). I don't know if I believe that an elected official has the obligation to single out and denounce anything and everything said by one of their supporters. But if we are going to demand this of some politicians, we probably should demand it of all of them.