What troubles me about the Reid comments is that as someone who does not know the man personally I can't help but assume that he does not have a single black American in his life that he is genuinely close to and spends any real time of consequence with on a personal level. Because if he did, I find it hard to believe that such a gaffe would be possible. (Note: black people who are paid to spend time with Reid or anyone else, as employees, whether as nannies or office staff, do not count as close, personal, friends.)
I heard Keli Goff discuss her article on Harry Reid's comments on NPR today. Here is that segment as well as another view on the issue.
In short, Harry is basically the same kid from rural, white bread Searchlight, Nevada. He probably has never been around a lot of black people. In truth, his work to get more minorities working in the halls of Congress is a testament to his trying to go the right thing.
Let's face it, the guy works in an almost exclusive white man's club. The Senate has one African-American, one Latino, three Asian/Pacific Islanders and that's only if you count White Poster Child John Ensign. And seventeen women. In a body of 100 people. That's not exactly a microcosm of America. Hell, that's not even a microcosm of upstate idaho.
So, yeah, his words are unsavory. Mind-numblingly stupid in a sense. Not that anything he said was incorrect. The first black president of America was always going to have to alleviate the fears of rural Democrats. Obama managed to do that.
But to have these racist "Kill the Kenyan socialist" asshats calling for Reid's resignation is too much.
I say Reid should take each of them to task for their overblown charges of racism. When THEY quit, he will too. We lose the majority leader and the whole damn GOP has to resign and get replaced by uneducated Palinite teabaggers. Serves them right.
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