pathetic - and unrealistic - attempts at rationalizing their violent rhetoric

Sarah Palin Aide Rebecca Mansour: Our Crosshairs Map Had Nothing To Do With Violence Or Guns
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"We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights," she said in an interview with talk radio host Tammy Bruce Saturday. "It was simply crosshairs like you'd see on maps." Bruce suggested that they could, in fact, be seen as "surveyor's symbols." Mansour added that "it never occurred to us that anybody would consider it violent" and called any attempts to politicize the Arizona tragedy "repulsive."

The suggestion that the symbols were related to guns seemed to come, however, from Palin herself. On March 23, Palin tweeted to her supporters a note about the aforementioned Facebook message, writing, "Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: 'Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!' Pls see my Facebook page." And as Politico's Jonathan Martin points out, in November Palin boasted about defeating 18 of the 20 members on her "bullseye" list.

(Huffington Post)

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Considering that Palin's own words debunk this sad attempt, I think it's time for her to simply apologize for her extreme rhetoric and "poor choice of words" and say that she never intended anyone to actually resort to violence and apologize to the victims that some madman took her words too literally. She would get a lot more respect if she took some responsibility for her actions and I think it would end up serving her well in the long run.