I’m sure I've said some careless things before, as we all have, and it’s hard to be disdainful of someone of any political party making an off-the cuff statement that wasn’t as well put as it should have been ~ because I understand it's hard to be in the spotlight ALL the time, but …
What I don’t understand is how someone presumably with a good speech writer, someone like Hillary Clinton, could say during a planned speech that the White House “has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about,” to a mostly Black audience.
I don’t think I’m overdoing the politically correct thing by finding that offensive.
3 comments:
I don't think you're overdoing it either. Her comment is one I had not heard. I'll look for it on the newswires.
I agree with you, in general, but I don’t thing that the remark was off the cuff at all, but was made quite deliberately, with malice aforethought.
Senator Clinton has a political problem. Although, in common with all other serious Democrat contenders for President in 2008, she has been critical of President Bush on Iraq, her attacks have been relatively moderate. She has criticized President Bush’s use of intelligence, and his planning of post-war operations in Iraq, but has not endorsed the MoveOn.org/Cindy Sheehan/John Murtha cut-and-run-yesterday position that passes for the position of the Democratic left nowadays. She has paid, and is paying, a political price for this.
Given that this is the case, she needs to find a way to appeal to the left, because the MoveOn.org crowd dominates Democratic fund raising. Saying that the House of Representatives is run like a plantation is a safe way for her to take out a left wing position. She does well by doing good in political terms, because this will probably help her raise some money. The statement was uttered at an event of the National Action Network, which is an Al Sharpton organization. Rev. Sharpton is a good person to know for a Democrat trying to raise money in New York State, and a Democrat trying to stay on the good side of Black Democratic Party power brokers.
You may remember President Clinton husband denouncing the rapper Sistah Souljah (sp) during the 1992 Presidential campaign. Then-Governor Clinton did this deliberately, also with malice aforethought, because he was thought too left-wing to be electable, and needed points for bashing a leftie figure of some kind. Although Senator Clinton is much more left wing than her husband ever dreamed of being, the Democratic Party has moved left, and she has the opposite problem. She needs to appeal to the left.
I don’t think this will work for her; for a variety of reasons, I think that she is not likely to be the nominee. Not even Senator Clinton is left wing enough now. The Senate is a terrible place to run for President from, as Senator McCain is about to find out. I suspect that Al Gore has the inside track.
I agree with you, I found her remarks offensive. But I am not a Democrat. However, I understand full-well why she behaved this way.
I don't think it was made off the cuff either. I'm just really, really surprised that in this day and age something like that can be deemed appropriate for political reasons.
I'm curious to see if Condi will run.
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