Learn From War

Everyone who leads a public life steps in the crap once in a while. (Some way more frequently than is believable.) But something you would think every single one of them would know:

Any time you try to emphasize your side of an argument using a simile involving "holocaust," "Nazi Germany," "under Hitler," "book burning," or "concentration camp," you are going to almost immediately have to stand before the press and ask for forgiveness for your insensitivity.

WalMart is going through this exercise right now (they were banned from opening a new store by a city ordinance, and they ran an ad with vintage 1940 book burning images). But we watched it happen no fewer than three times here in Washington state recently during the Senate and house discussions on stem cell legislation.

There are lots of ways to effectively make a point. This, clearly, is not one of them.