Only on Lemmy do I see such petty debate over liberal vs leftist vs progressive.
In the US, where we really only have two parties, are democrats really just centrists? Yes. But on a spectrum where you only have one dimension, the above terms all generally mean the same thing.
It’s hard to say how that would have played out. You defend it by saying “that’s a common saying I was quoting.” And see how long that plays out in the news cycle. Yet here we are 20+ years later joking about his stumbling over this simple expression. Is that better or worse than if the news had the “shame on me” sound bite on repeat for a few days? Which we most likely would not be talking about right now? I don’t know.
They fear the watermark?