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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Grieving party seeks Bates' replacement ... Ashland apology expert expands on 'Sorry About That' ... West Rim Road reopens as Bybee Creek firefighting continues ... Grieving party seeks Bates' replacement ... Ashland apology expert expands on 'Sorry About That' ... West Rim Road reopens as Bybee Creek firefighting continues ... BOOKS Ashland apology expert expands on 'Sorry About That' SOU Professor Battistella cited in national media story on presidential candidate apologies — or lack of them Comment By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 8, 2016 at 1:59 PM By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 8, 2016 at 1:59 PM » RELATED CONTENT • Should racially offensive books remain on display? • Read local, buy local at Ashland Public Library author fair • 'Sorry About That' • Author Edwin Battistella to speak » Social News In a bitterly-fought presidential campaign like this one, there are plenty of exaggerations, accusations, misstatements and plain old lies — in short, no lack of things to apologize for. But since apologies are seen as a sign of weakness and not strong leadership, who wants to apologize, even if they should? Almost no one, says Edwin Battistella, a Southern Oregon University English professor and author of the newly expanded “Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology.” How our present crop of politicians apologize is usually in a roundabout ramble that paints a context where staff can take much of the blame and where it looks like the politician has done a lot of study of a big issue and really meant something different, which they will now explain. When Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said the Reagans were advocates of AIDS research, it roused the anger of many in that field who felt it was untrue, so she couched her apology, he says, by saying they backed stem-cell research and she “misspoke … and for that I’m sorry.” Battistella reflects on Clinton’s style, noting, “She doesn’t like to apologize. It may go back to her work on health care in the '90s when she said she regretted the failure of the Clinton health plan and the media characterized that as an apology for her failure. After that she was cautious.” Republican nominee Donald Trump “seems to resist apologizing in general … It would be smart for him to apologize, but it’s probably not in his nature.” The closest Trump came during the campaign was his re-tweeted slur on Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife. He later said that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t have sent it. This is one of many forms where you can seem to apologize, but you’re not really doing it; you’re saying you’re “sorry” it turned out as it did, but you learned from it because you’re smart. It’s a “fake apology,” something Battistella noted, when quoted recently in Huffington Post, that Trump should at least try doing instead of attempting to talk his way out of the uproar after his dissing of the Gold Star Khan family. Battistella was recently quoted in an article by Bahar Gholipour headlined "Trump Crossed Deeply Ingrained Moral Boundary With Khan Comments" on huffingtonpost.com , one of the most popular U.S. news websites with more than 100 million unique viewers monthly, as saying, "'I thought of adding Trump to the paperback version, but realized there wasn’t much to say,' Battistella said, considering the dearth of public apologies from the GOP candidate." “If you apologize sincerely, American voters will respect it,” he says. “People think how they’ve felt when a friend has apologized. You feel a sense of reconciliation. Apologizing may be thought of as weakness in politics, but it’s a sign of strength.” A real apology has a progression, he says and includes naming what you did wrong, exploring the ethics of it and why you are wrong, then apologizing with no waffling, saying “I apologize” not “I’m sorry,” which could be read as merely a description of your emotions, then explaining what you’ve learned from it and how the future is going to be different. A good example was Bernie Sanders’ apologizing for his staff accessing Clinton data. “He did a nice job,” says Battistella. Cruz, he adds, did pretty good in apologizing to fellow candidate Ben Carson when the Cruz staff put out the false word that Carson was quitting. He called it a “mistake” (which takes away from the apology), but did say “I apologize.” However, says Battistella, on his "Apology roundup: 2016 presidential race" blog ( http://bit.ly/2aGWNk8 ), Cruz plowed new ground for non-apologies, after saying Trump had “New York values.” Cruz flipped it to an insult, saying he’d be happy to apologize “to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by the liberal politicians of that state.” Most politicians “short-cut” their apologies — reframing them as “mistakes,” as it seems to indicate that staffers pulled the snafu, he says. The political culture has changed much with the internet, 24-hour news, Facebook and Twitter, Battistella notes, so that anything untoward gets splashed in all media instantly and is flogged by commentators for weeks and months, he says, with endless commentator thoughts. By contrast, after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, President John F. Kennedy told the press it happened on his watch, he’s responsible and “no more discussion is fruitful” — an instruction which the press heeded. Today, Battistella says, it would go on indefinitely, because journalists have so much time on cable networks and space on the Internet to fill. Many politicians come around to apologizing years after the fact, he notes, as President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield did after the shocking Abu Ghraib torture and photos. Both current presidential candidates have mastered the art of using “dog whistles” — key phrases like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and Clinton’s “Stronger Together.” The first calls on nostalgia and suggests relief from discomfort with change, he notes, while the latter appeals to the desire for solidarity. If you think the political discussion in this country has degraded recently, Battistella says you can drop that notion. The anything-goes bar was set low for presidential campaigns by the time of the tussle between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr in 1800. According to Smithsonian.com , after Jefferson and Burr — who ran on the same ticket against President John Adams — tied in the number of electoral votes, Burr refused to cede to Jefferson and "a shaken President Adams was certain the two sides had come to the 'precipice' of disaster and that 'a civil war was expected.' There was talk that Virginia would secede if Jefferson were not elected." “What’s new is the pace," Battistella says of this year's campaign. "It’s much faster now — and with many surprises. It’s the oddest election I’ve ever seen. And there may still be big surprises.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By John Darling For the Tidings Posted Aug. 8, 2016 at 1:59 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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