Saturday, January 09, 2010
The Harry Reid Ghetto Pass
How nice to see that, when it comes to race in American, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has such, ahem, "enlightened" (pun intended)!
|
A nice nugget from the soon-to-be-published '08 campaign retrospective written by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann:
On page 37, a remark, said "privately" by Sen. Harry Reid, about Barack Obama's racial appeal. Though Reid would later say that he was neutral in the presidential race, the truth, the authors write, was that his "
encouragement of Obama was unequivocal. He was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama -- a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one," as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.E-mails sent late Friday to Reid staffers were not immediately answered. (Update: Reid apologized.)
Thank goodness no jive-talkin' darky ever thought about running for president! No way Reid could have supported him!!
Despite Reid's apology for his awkward choice of words, this nonetheless makes Reid's recent phone call to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg rather curious. He told the billionaire mayor that he shouldn't get involved in former Rep. Harold Ford's possible New York senate run.
Look based on the the pictures I've seen of Harold Ford, he strikes me as a pretty light-skinned dude! (Below: Ford's the one on the left. The gentleman on the right is clearly too dark a Negro to get Harry Reid's endorsement for political office!)
2009 MLK Day of Service in Norfolk VA
Old Dominion University's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture with Harold Ford Jr, U.S. Representative, D-Tenn. and Virginia Governor's Advisory Board on National and Community Service member Dr. Jarris Taylor Jr.
And, for a Southern guy, his dialect isn't too Negro-ish! So, like, what's the deal, Harry? Not enough that you pushed the darker-skinned (though admittedly corrupt) Roland Burris out of the Senate? You can't even tolerate a cafe au lait brother in the Senate?
Day-um!!
UPDATE: Marc Ambinder also pulls out a nice Bill Clinton-Teddy Kennedy anecdote on Obama. Will be interesting to see if Clinton's response/apology is as clear-cut as Reid's.
Labels: Harold Ford, Harry Reid, left-wing racism
