I don't see it that way at all. In private we say things, but we are not acting as a representative of how others or a particular political party should think. There really is a certain level of responsibility or maturity that we expect from out public leaders.
I personally think Bush and Cheney are alone together swear like the lowest of the low, and make racial and ethnic jokes constantly.
However, that is understood as private, but what they say in public is a different matter. They are judged, and should be judged for what they do in their capacity of employment and responsibility.
Nixon was a foul mouthed SOB, Johnson was known for his profanity laced tirades behind the scenes...but neither one to my knowledge blurred the line of what they said in private and what they said publicly.
Look, if you are at home with some friend and yell "Fire" no big deal, right? Just a joke.
Go to a theater and try to make the same "joke."
Hypocrisy is the most over rated and overused logically fallacy in this forum.
When does hypocrisy actually matter?
When does it make a genuine difference?
When a person is making an argument that "you should be like me, you should act like me, you should think like me and the image that I project, because I am righteous and true" and then they are found to be different than their image, their argument which resided on the foundation of their own personal image crumbles.
The mailman can be 100% hypocritical, but it has zero impact on the mail he delivers.
We are so misled by the continually fallacy of evaluating the messenger as a means to determine the truth or falsity of the message, that it has reduced the population to even greater depths of stupidity than I thought were ever possible.
It is a fact that ad hominem works, and it is also a fact that ad hominem is a logically fallacy...and the real question is why do the people and the klones here continue to fall for the same stupid trick?
Oh, and I think Gore's message is either true or false, independent of what he does personally.
If this country is nothing but followers, and does nothing but act like the politicians say they should act, not on the basis of their own thought process, we are fallen beyond comprehension...
Quote from TM_Direct:
My point is public or private...everybody has used the same words...its called being a hypocrite...like Al Gore having 3 homes and 3k in total electric bills every month.....then telling everyone else to conserve.