Much Ado About Dialect
0 comment Sunday, August 31, 2014 |
Here's the AP clip on Harry Reid praising Obama as an electable candidate, electable because Obama is "light skinned and has no Negro dialect unless he wants one."

And then came the inevitable comparisons to Trent Lott's remarks at Strom Thurmond's 100-year old birthday party.

Not one to be outdone, Rod Blagovich joined the party.
"I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up," Blagojevich told Esquire magazine.
But then he elegantly backtracked. "It's not appropriate for me, a white person, to stand out somehow and claim to be a black person, that's just wrong."
Conservative columnist George Will stepped into the fray and defended Harry.
GEORGE WILL: I don't think there's a scintilla of racism in what Harry Reid said. At long last, Harry Reid has said something that no one can disagree with, and he gets in trouble for it.
CHENEY: George, give me a break. I mean, talking about the color of the president's skin...
WILL: Did he get it wrong?
CHENEY: ... and the candidate's...
WILL: Did he say anything false?
CHENEY: ... it's -- these are clearly racist comments, George.
WILL: Oh, my, no.Well, Reid may not have been racist but his remark was certainly elitist, elitist and offensive to voters. Harry Reid, you see, doesn't think the great unwashed masses, us "stinky Washington tourists," are smart enough to recognize and vote for the best candidate, black or white.
Once again, we see the liberocratic oath in action: first, let them do themselves no harm.
But maybe Reid was right about the electorate after all, if Bill Clinton represents a large part of it.
Clinton reportedly belittled Obama when he was seeking Ted Kennedy's endorsement for Hillary, telling Teddy. "Just a few years ago, this guy would be getting us coffee." Nice.
These recent stories, about who's racist and who's not, haven't just grown legs. They've turned into a thundering herd of elephants.
The hoopla from both sides, I suspect, is really being driven by the health care debate.
The Dems need Reid to get health care passed. And perhaps they need these distractions.

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