Yet again, Harry Reid has managed to shove his foot into his mouth all the way up to his hip joint. In an upcoming book on the 2008 Presidential campaign, we find that Reid was awfully darned impressed with Barack Obama’s ability to, in the words of Chris Rock, “speak so well”.
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.
Was this an unacceptable racist statement, by modern standards? Sure it was. Just ask Trent Lott or George Allen. Will Harry Reid have to suffer one moment of punishment, or face so much as a moue of disapproval from the national media? Not bloody likely. He’s already delivered his pro forma apology for his “poor choice of words” and, unless I’ve completely misread today’s media environment, the case is closed. He won’t have to give up his position as Senate Majority Leader. He won’t even be asked to consider it.
I suppose I should go off on a rant about double standards and how the Democratic Party has never been a real friend to blacks in America but why bother, really? The situation isn’t going to change based on my say-so. Harry Reid’s goose is darned-near cooked in Nevada as it is and there’s no way Democrats are going to buy any more drama for themselves, especially when it would pull attention away from getting government-run health care shoved through Congress. Don’t expect the media to make a deal of this suddenly either. Let’s not forget what happened to the prominent Democratic Senator who called Barack Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”. He’s now our Vice President.
Truth is, there is a double-standard in America on race. Democrats can pretty much say whatever they want and they get the free pass by their own party and the national media. Republicans don’t get an inch of slack. That’s the way it is and I don’t expect it to change. The best we can do, I think, is handle the situation ourselves. That’s not really as bad as it sounds, though, since our country was built on the principle that “we the people” should handle our own problems without an elite class of politicians or intellectuals to clean everything up for us. Harry Reid’s candid statement gives the voters of Nevada another reason to prove that the Founding Fathers were a pretty clever bunch of guys. Instead of waiting for an outcry that will never come, they can use the power the Constitution gives them, the power that overcomes every amount of media bias and political double-standard, and boot his incompetent hide out of office.
UPDATE: I’m pretty sure that is going to leave a mark.
Tags: Democrats, Harry Reid, Media Bias, Racism
Start sending boxes.
What is far more disturbing than Reid’s comment itself, is that elected officials, paid with taxpayer dollars, would spend valuable time criticizing Reid, or any other politician who just happened to say something offensive, inappropriate, or stupid, instead of tending to the important business of the nation. And this applies to members of ALL political parties.
And why do they do it? To advance the long-term positive and material interests of the nation? No. Pure and simple grandstanding for their political purposes. They ALL should arguably be voted out at the next available opportunity. As for we citizens, we should never underestimate the power of laughter, and ignoring people.