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What are your thoughs on porch monkey?
Tar baby is one of those sticky wickets. It has a large geographic variation in usage. In many parts of the country it is used primarily to refer to a sticky problem you can't get away from once you're involved. In other parts of the country it is used primarily as a racially derogatory term. Personally, it has enough taint that even though I grew up in one of the former areas I'd probably never actually use the phrase unless talking about a literal tar baby (as seen in Song of the South, for example).
What is particularly bizarre about Romney's usage is that Tony Snow got into trouble for it just a couple months ago during one of his first press conferences as Press Secretary.
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