A book on the 2008 campaign quotes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid making the following comment about President Obama during the campaign:
He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately.
Reid was quick to apologize today and Obama quickly accepted the apology. Reid said “I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words.”
Would he care to elaborate how he would rephrase his comment to be more acceptable?
Ironically, when in 2002 then Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott made some ill-considered remarks at a birthday party celebrating Senator Storm Thurmond’s 100th birthday, Barack Obama called on Republicans to drive out Trent Lott.
Lott had said we would have been better off, if Thurmond would have won an independent run for the presidency in 1948. In 1948, Thurmond supported racial segregation, a position he subsequently repudiated.
The Weekly Standard reports that Obama said in 2002:
The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.
Racial segregation is certainly infinitely worse than Reid’s remarks, but then again Lott wasn’t referring to segregation, he simply was toasting the long career of a senator near the end of his life.
Another example of Democrat double standards.
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