A Sorry State of Affairs

FLANIGAN: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this televised debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. I’m Andrew Flanigan along with Sheila Reynolds and veteran White House correspondent Rick Grennell. You’re watching CABC’s continuing coverage of “Campaign 2004: The Road to the White House.”

Sheila, as we watch the candidates positioning themselves behind their respective podiums, give us your thoughts about each candidate’s strategy tonight to win over the undecided voters in America.

REYNOLDS: Well Andy, I don’t think there’s any doubt in the Kerry camp that the senator should be relentless about pressing for an apology from President Bush. I think it is his well-documented reluctance to say he’s sorry that Kerry will try to leverage into more political capital. Ever since his press conference last spring, Democrats have recognized just how politically damaging it is for the president to refuse to say the word.

Kerry’s people think if the senator can keep backing him into that corner and create a repeat performance he’ll win the debate tonight. The American voters dislike anyone who isn’t in their estimation “man enough” to apologize.

FLANIGAN: Rick, you’re close to the White House. What are the president’s people saying about his refusal to apologize for Iraq?

GRENNELL: They’re saying that it’s a no-win situation, Andy. They’re saying Kerry, along with what they call “the liberal media,” has found the perfect strategy: accuse a person of something and then misdirect attention from the unproved allegations to a demand for an apology. When the accused person falters and hesitates to apologize for something he feels he didn’t do, he acts like he’s caught in a web of self-justification and looks guilty.

FLANIGAN: The strategy has proven effective. According to the polls President Bush’s approval rating drops a few points every time he refuses to say, “I’m sorry.”

GRENNELL: That’s right, Andy. Privately, some high-level presidential advisors have referred bitterly to this strategy as the American media’s version of a weapon of mass destruction.

REYNOLDS: But I’m not sure that Kerry’s strategy might not backfire if he presses too hard.

FLANIGAN: How’s that, Sheila?

REYNOLDS: My guess is the American people will catch on to the strategy …

GRENNELL: Especially because we — and all the political pundits — are spelling it out on national television!

REYNOLDS: Right, Rick. The viewers will be wary of the political tactics behind the call for an apology. Plus, I wonder if they might not begin to actually empathize with the president.

FLANIGAN: How so?

REYNOLDS: You may think I’m getting too personal here, but recently I’ve found myself in a situation where someone wants me to apologize. They’re demanding it of me. But I can’t say it just because they want to hear it. It seems to me a “sorry” has to be freely given. Once it’s demanded it’s devalued.

FLANIGAN: (laughing lightly): You’re right, Sheila. Too much information.

GRENNELL: But she’s right, Andy. Whether or not ultimate blame for Iraq should be laid at the president’s doorstep, if Kerry presses too hard, it may remind voters of being in a similar unpleasant position from time to time themselves. They may actually resent Kerry for it. Because most people learn eventually that apologies only mean something when they are voluntarily surrendered, not forced out of hiding like Saddam Hussein.

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The above scenario is pure fiction. There’s less of a chance we’ll hear this kind of conversation on national television than of Bill Gates asking me for my autograph someday.

America is currently embroiled in this politics of apology. Matters of morality and conscience are being used for political gain by both sides.

There may be nothing we can do about it on the national scene, but at least we can avoid this kind of shallow moralism in our personal lives.

Apologies that heal relationships can never be required; they can only be received. Let’s not politicize our relationships and demand “sorrys.” I hear of too many church or marital problems where one party is waiting for the other party to apologize before being willing to step across the divide with an offer of reconciliation and forgiveness.

I’m sorry, but that’s kindergarten morality, not kingdom morality.