Words Are Cheap… Own 'Em!

Over the course of any given day, I'm responsible for a lot of words.

As the executive editor of a magazine, an author, the owner of numerous Twitter accounts, a semi-regular Facebooker and an over-enthusiastic gabber, I create a whole lotta words. And for better or worse, I'm responsible for each and every one of them. If words have consequences, and they often do, I believe it is my responsibility to face them.

Which is why (or at least one reason among many) I could never go into politics.

See, a funny thing happens when you run for office, as evidenced by recent events that have unfolded around the various candidates hoping to become the Republican nominee in this year's presidential election. At least three of the people wanting to lead the free world have spent a lot of time denying words that they (or someone on their behalf) have put out there.

Ron Paul would have us believe that he never read his own newsletter, and that he's now shocked -- positively shocked, I tell ya! -- to find out it regularly contained racist, offensive material.

When asked about an ad bashing occasional front-runner Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney denied any knowledge of the spot... despite it ending with the words, "I'm Mitt Romney, and I approved this message."

This week, in the days leading up to the Florida primary, folks in that state began receiving a robocall informing them that Mitt Romney had, while governor of Massachusetts, voted to cut funding for kosher meals in nursing homes... meaning some Holocaust survivors were, according to the ad, forced to eat non-kosher food for the first time in their life. When Gingrich was asked about the ad, released by his campaign staff, his response was to say, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Not that anyone believed him.

Further pressed to comment on the ad, which addresses a claim Gingrich first made earlier in the week when talking to a crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, he refused to comment on the grounds it was "something I don't know about."

It's disturbing to me that three different people running for the most important job in the United States are acting as if their words should be treated about as seriously as those of someone posting from behind the anonymity of a made-up name on Twitter. More unsettling is their complete lack of accountability. I assure you, were I to be running for dog catcher — much less president — I would be sure to personally approve every single poster, press release, commercial or skywriting stunt being sent out into the world by my campaign staff. (We’re not talking aobut Superpac-funded ads here, where there is a supposed disconnect between the candidate and those acting on his behalf.)

We have become a nation that loves nothing more than to lash out from a safe distance. Whether on Facebook or in the comment section of an article posted on the New York Times webpage, we anonymously say things we would never say to the face of the person we're talking about or responding to. Any actor brave enough to venture onto Twitter will quickly learn that the old phrase "If you don't have something nice to say, say nothing at all" has morphed into "If you don't have something nice to say, create a Twitter account using a fake name and say it with out a thought as to pesky things like decency, empathy or even personal responsibility."

Or just launch a political campaign. Same diff.