When are we going to grow up and allow Truth to be a factor in our national discussions?
Besides the difference between the two men -- that Trent Lott of Mississippi would have a hard time denying racial prejudice and that Harry Reid has never had that as an issue -- there is a massive difference in the truth of what the men said.
What Majority Leader Trent Lott said was simply not true.
What Majority Leader Harry Reid said was true.
America would not have been better off if a Segregationist and racist, Strom Thurmond, had been elected president when he ran for that job in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) candidate. This is a man who conducted the longest filibuster ever in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The phenomenal strides forward that were made in the area of Civil Rights are one of the greatest achievements of America in The 20th Century. A Strom Thurmond era would have interfered mightily with that progress.
And, let's be honest here. With all of the progress we have made, is America ready for a very ethnic Black man, especially with an ethnic dialect, to be president?
Harry Reid's job is to count votes. He is a political tactician. And that's where his comment came from. He correctly analyzed the electoral mood of the country . . . not his mood. He was a friend of his fellow Senator. Sen. Barack Obama's color was of no consequence to him or his support.
But it was to much of America . . . and Barack Obama knew that and knows that. And he ran his campaign accordingly.
I remember sitting in that giant stadium in Denver on the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, awaiting some significant reference to the obvious historic coincidence during Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
And it didn't come.
Barack Obama played down the most revered African American in our country's history, and the whole campaign was about playing down that Barack Obama was the first Black nominee, playing down that he would be our first African American President.
Why?
Because Harry Reid was right.
Maybe America will be ready for a 100% Black President, and one with a strong ethnic dialect in 2016, or 2020, but it wasn't ready in 2008. Take away the fact that the Republicans put up a weak Presidential candidate in John McCain, a ridiculous Vice Presidential candidate in Sarah Palin, that George Bush had all but destroyed the Republican brand in eight years and that the economy was falling apart under his watch and the racial factor might have produced a different result, even as downplayed as it was, and as light skinned as Barack Obama is.
What Harry Reid said was pure political, "inside baseball" analysis. And it was 100% correct. Let's cut him a break and get back to discussing the real issues that The United States Senate must face . . . and stop comparing him to Trent Lott!
