Biden’s Third Racist comment in a year
And so Joseph Biden is off and running, I guess on the “Inside the Beltway Ticket” because that’s about the only place he impresses anyone. (That includes this US News and World Report fellow, who is looking at the New York Observer piece and picks up on what Biden said about Hillary Clinton, when the buzz all over everywhere is what he said about Barack Obama, which was:
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
To which all of America winces.
II. 
III. In recent weeks — and for that matter from the very rise of Barack Obama in 2004 — and before that Harold Ford, Jr… and before that Colin Powell– American news magazines have been peppered with articles about how and why Americans would vote for Barack Obama as the first black President, saying he cuts the mold from the Jesse Jacksons of the world who came out of Protest Culture. Which is to say Barack Obama has a Harvard Diploma, and further — in the words of various yahoos — Barack Obama is a “Halfrican American”. (Why… he’s practically WHITE!)
So Joseph Biden has just clumsily added his quips to what is being couched in politically correct wordings in other outlets. Not to say there is no degree of truth in the news articles on who is and is not electable in this country — I guess Obama has to be considered more “mainstream” than the stable of former presidential candidates I have images of right above this, though Braun was basically an average politician — and not to say Biden made a racist comment that is incredibly patronizing to African Americans (I believe all of those candidates have to be considered “articulate”, whatever one thinks of their politics).
“Clean” comes across as particularly ugly. I will go ahead and figure he meant “scandal free”, as I believe all of these candidates showered regularly. Jackson had some dalliances here and there, I think most noxiously with Farrakhan. Braun was kicked out of office by the voters due to an ethical scandal — the details I don’t know, but it’s no different than what meets White politicians. Sharpton is a dispicable creature. So far as I know, Shirly Chisholm (an admirable person if there ever was one) had nothing on her. Alan Keyes is nuts enough that he’s ethically clean, and he’s the best one can do for Biden to brush aside as not being in the “mainstream”, though I suspect Biden maintains the same for Jackson and Sharpton in a matter of speaking.
The “storybook” is that you have a black man who might be elected president. That has never happened before. And if I’m going to give Joseph Biden any measure of support, that is what I will just have to accept.