So, the civility debate rages (ironically) on. And as everyone’s buzzing, the president’s now caught up in it, having remarked off the record in a CNBC interview that he thought Kanye West was a jackass after Kanye’s Taylor Swift-boating stunt at the VMAs. ABC reporter Terry Moran tweeted the comment indiscreetly, then deleted it, and is now finding himself and his network among the legions of apologists cropping up after they blurt out inappropriate remarks in various media outlets.

Question: is President Obama also now to be lumped among the uncivil cretins at whom we wag shocked moral fingers? Or, was his comment, whether you agree with it or not, acceptable because it was never meant to enter the public discourse? 

Off the record ought to mean off the record, no? So, is it a crime to mutter your opinion, just a minor rookie mistake on the part of the prez, or a real moral flop on the part of reporter Moran?

Or is it the technology we ought to blame for our loose lips? With Twitter making indiscretion almost too easy, blurting out thoughts without, well, thought, seems to be becoming all too common.