Rendell offers his defense on Obama race remark

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After dancing across the tripwires of race and politics, Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday defended remarks about whether some Pennsylvania voters would reject Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as a presidential candidate because he is black.

"I regret saying it because of the way it was interpreted," the governor said yesterday. "Remember -- I always tell the truth. Maybe I'm wrong, but I tell what my experience has taught me."

What the latest experience has taught him, Mr. Rendell said, is that a blunt answer on a touchy subject doesn't always work.

"What's so frustrating about this is that in this business, if you give an honest answer, you get skewered for it," Mr. Rendell said. "If you give the politically correct answer, the press says, 'Aw, that guy, he's just a shucker and jiver and never gives a straight answer.' I get in trouble for telling the truth."

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(Republican Lynn Swann - Rendell's '06 opponent) "I think it's obvious that Ed Rendell is looking for a place to support Mrs. Clinton and took an opportunity to make a statement that would be negative toward her opponent," Mr. Swann said. "There's no need for Ed Rendell to make that comment whatsoever, and I think it's arrogant on his part to make the statement that he still would have won by 17 percent."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08045/857368-176.stm

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Grovel, Ed, grovel. And I hope my home state proves you wrong in April and if Obama wins the nomination in the GE in November. I think we will.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. His statement may result in

unintended consequences for his endorsed candidate. In fact, it may very well backfire like Bill Clinton's comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson, a remark that galvanized many voters in South Carolina to switch their support from his wife to Obama. His "honesty" may have been truer in the historical scheme of things and even as far back as the fall, but given the current, simply awesome (in my opinion) fact that more whites than EVER have "pulled the lever" for Obama, the statement appears to be disingenuous - at least based on this election cycle and its obvious demographic voting history. States like Utah, Idaho, North Dakota, Nebraska, Alaska, etc., where a black candidate was chosen over a well-known white one, illustrate how times are a-changing.

As a PA voter as well, I don't think that PA will be a lock for Clinton and interestingly enough, one of my brother-in-laws who is a dem Committee person in his county, noted that Clinton had not even setup an official office here in Phila. yet.

[Fluffdaddy]

2. Between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is Alabama

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Although they elected

a Jewish governor.... twice. So it's not quite like a stereotyped Alabama. Those who choose to dwell on such rejection may opt not to vote at all in any case. The key for the dems in general may be to register new voters and encourage non-voting dems in the middle and northern part of the state, to come out and not concede to their repuke counterparts. The fact that Santorum was booted is a perfect example for what is possible and the fact that Specter panders to the urban dems by espousing views like a "liberal" repuke in order to stay in office, suggests a long-due change is happening in this state. Sadly, there are many many disaffected dems across the country who believe the DNC abandoned them in the post-Reagan years, and hopefully this is being corrected this year.

[MikeNearMcChord]

9. Some call it Pennsyltucky

[RamboLiberal]

12. I had to laugh at Tweety who thinks he knows PA

talking about how the gun-toting hunting PA Dem won't vote for Obama - hah, I hang out with some of these guys and they don't exactly love Hillary. And some of them aren't real fond of McCain either. I'm hoping they sit out the primary and the GE. A lot of the gun toters have never forgiven the Clintons for the AWB.

We got a lot of DINOs and Toomey Repukes in this state - but remember Specter still managed to fight off Toomey and Santorum finally got the boot!

I think Obama will at least make it close here and may even win once he starts campaigning and running ads in PA. I think he'll do ok in Ohio too.

[PittPoliSci]

15. exactly.

[AX10]

4. He's right.

Offering a blunt assesment is not popular when being in the spot light.
The elitist left does not like honesty at all.

[PassingFair]

8. Please identify this "elitist left" of which you speak.

Who is their "leader"?
What are their goals?
How do we identify them
within the party?

[jasmine621]

5. And pretty soon there will be a backlash from many whites who

soon will beging to feel that race baiting by Obama is passed over but anything anyone else says about the reality of his race and the impact on some voting blocks is charged with being "race baiting." And before you start throwing the flames, I am of mixed heritage but considered black by myself and the rest of the world. I know fairly well, both sides of this issue.

[IsItJustMe]

6. To many people make the mistake that since they think something, then it's the truth. That is BS.

There is perception and reality. 95 % of what goes through a person's mind is perception, based on a person's experiences and culture.

I can say that something I think or say is the truth, but it usually say's something more about me than any given truth.

[Doctor_J]

7. More like Grovel, Swanny, grovel. Why did he weigh in on this?

And FWIW, there is NOTHING for Rendell to apologize for. He stated an opinion that he truly believes. He is a good Dem and will support Obama in the GE if BHO gets the nomination. His statement was not disparaging to blacks and is held by a significant number of people. What's the problem?

[dazzlerazzle]

11. media always ready to pounce

He made sense to me. We will never know, but let's say Lynn Swann had been a democrat running for state office in Pennsylvania, how would he have fared?

[Divernan]

17. Swann was set up by the Pubs - no way he could have won.

None of the GOP powers wanted to run against Rendell that year, so they suckered Swann into thinking he'd be Pennsylvania's version of Ahnuld. Swann had not a scintilla of political or administrative experience. He couldn't answer questions requiring the most basic knowledge of the state government system. Traditional GOP donors gave only 1/10th of the usual contribution to a governor's race and concentrated their funds on other political races. If the GOP had bothered to intensely prep/educate Swann for the race, and funded him to match Rendell's $$$, he might have won - just like Ahnold.

[Divernan]

18. I don't think Rendell is a good dem - not lately anyway.

He's announced a plan to strip retired state employees of their adequate medical insurance coverage and force them into a private, faux medicare plan which will greatly limit which doctors they can go to and increase their prescription costs by a factor of 33 percent, plus limit any appeals for denial of coverage to the insurance company itsel - they will not be allowed to appeal to Medicare.
But Big Eddie covets the VP slot under Clinton and will be more attractive to her if he has a huge campaign kitty fattened by same private insurance corporation. And Ed refused to talk directly with any of the workers' union before or after his decision - sent his staff out to tell them basically to get lost.

[JimGinPA]

10. I Live In One Of The Most Conservative Counties In PA

And while it's true some of the repubs would never vote for a black man, a large percentage of Democrats here are very progressive. Many of the repubs here aren't really racist rednecks either. As an anecdotal example, back in 2004 my older son wanted to see 'Fahrenheit 911' (he was about 12 and just beginning to get interested in politics). I took him to a day showing in Lancaster, which is a notoriously conservative city. We got there early and as the theater filled up, we joked that it looked like it was going to be a private screening of some republican commitee. There were maybe a dozen black people scattered throughout the theater though. Just before the lights went down a younger black guy (in his 20's) came in and sat next to my son. The two of them talked quit a bit during the movie, to the extent I was afraid they would be annoying the people around us. When the movie ended I was fairly shocked that there was a standing ovation that seemed like it lasted for several minutes. People left the theater pretty slowly, engaged in conversation (with strangers). The was a gathering of at least 100 people outside, including most of the black people, that must have milled around for nearly a half an hour discussing what we'd just seen. It was a pretty inspiring moment for both me and my son.

[truthisfreedom]

13. "shucker and jiver "... Hmm, the last time I heard that phrase was on the Jeffersons.

This guy is an idiot.

[daleo]

14. Yeah, anyone who's not up on current slang must be stupid

Or evil.

[Divernan]

16. It's a racist comment, as Big Eddie well knew.

Turns his apology/explanation into a further, somewhat subtle invocation of the stereotypical Bo Jangles image.

[truthisfreedom]

19. I said nothing of the kind.

[daleo]

21. You connected the idea of him being an "idiot"

With his use of '70's TV slang. That would imply that his use of out of date slang proves he is an idiot.

Now, I don't doubt that he is an idiot, or that his comment was offensive. It is just that your comment seemed to be focusing more on his age (implied by use of 70's slang) than on his idiocy.

Perhaps I misinterpreted your meaning. There seems to have been a fair bit of pointless intergenerational conflict lately (because of the age difference between Obama and Clinton, I suppose), and I guess it was just getting to me.

[classysassy]

20. Now hear this

all republicans your race cards are in the mail.

[RamboLiberal]

22. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Columnist Tony Norman on Rendell

BTW, Tony is African-American. He's also writes some great columns. It was his reporting on Rendell's chat with the editorial staff that started this.

Nobody feels sorrier for Gov. Ed Rendell than I do.

Thanks to an item in my column on Tuesday, Mr. Rendell has had to deal with a tsunami of unwanted and unflattering national attention. The column was picked up by political Web sites and quickly metastasized.

If the hundreds of e-mails and dozens of calls I've received since Tuesday are any indication, the governor is being unfairly pilloried as a crypto-racist provocateur for suggesting that there are whites in this state who aren't ready to vote for a black candidate -- i.e., Barack Obama.

Those of us who live in this state are painfully aware that there are many parts of Pennsylvania that will never be confused with a racial Shangri-la.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08046/857634-153.stm