Making A Mockery Of A Molehill
A Creigh Deeds campaign tracker recently filmed BET co-founder Sheila Johnson parodying Deeds' halting speaking style during an event with ex-AG Bob McDonnell (R). The Deeds camp subsequently released the video to Dem-aligned blogs and then held a conf call with reporters today to tee off on what it called an attempt by the McDonnell camp to "openly" mock VAers who stutter. These comments, Deeds adviser Mo Elleithee said, are "offensive to so many people."
"I think they're offensive to a lot of Virginians, who truly do suffer from speech impediments, and the fact that they would be so cavalier about it is disappointing and I think outrageous to a lot of people," Elleithee said. The campaign, he added, had received a lot of phone calls from "disability advocates" who were "outraged by these comments."
Elleithee called on the McDonnell camp to "do the right thing" and "apologize."
Pressed later in the call about whether Deeds actually has a speech impediment or not, the campaign admitted their candidate has never sought "medical attention" for his condition.
(SEAN J. MILLER)
Oh yes, by all means highlight that your candidate is a stuttering moron... That will SO turn people onto voting for him as their governor...
Hi everyone. I'd like to personally thank Ms. Johnson for making stuttering a topic that makes some news.
So Deeds doesn't have a medical condition, he just isn't very good at speaking. But in order to boost his political hopes, his campaign suggests that people who actually have medical problems with speech should be outraged that Deeds stutters?
I think they should be outraged that Deeds is trying to use their real conditions for a cheap political trick.
The Deeds campaign is pretty stupid. They could have secretly leaked the video to Ben Tribbett, he would have run it for them, and they could have stayed out of it.
But by making this an official Deeds Campaign complaint, the story now is that Deeds has no speech impediment, he just isn't very good at speaking, but thinks people with medical problems should be outraged anyway.