Commenter Of The Day: Thumper's Corollary Edition [Commenter Of The Day]

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http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/12/2009/08/500x_rabbit.jpg (http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/08/rabbit.jpg)How to react to the death of a prominent yet polarizing political figure (http://jalopnik.com/5345995/edward-kennedy-statesman-and-terrible-driver-dead-at-77)? Well, in Bambi, Disney's animated treatise on child-rearing and a cornerstone of 20th-century American morality, we all learned— some better than others— how Thumper's mother taught him an important rule: If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Now, how is a commenter, whose very role is to say something, supposed to abide by that, especially in these politically-charged times? And when the figure in question was Teddy Kennedy, a figure more polarizing than most? Clearly Thumper's Rule was penned before the advent of the internet. But as it turned out, smalleyxb122 (http://jalopnik.com/people/smalleyxb122/) discovered a corollary that allowed him to handle the situation rather adroitly:

Ted and I were seldom on the same page, politically, but I have to give credit where credit is due. He was, by politician standards, unwavering in his convictions, and acted upon them whether they were popular or not. While I don't agree with many of his actions, I admire that he acted. Again, well said. Now on to discussions of Kennedy's Olds 88! This is a car site, after all.

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