Open Mouth, Insert Foot [Updated]

Yesterday former Democratic nominee and Obama supporter John Kerry confirmed everything that Geraldine Ferraro said. Not only that, he took it a few steps further, In an interview with the New Bedford Standard Times Senator Kerry stated that:

the color of Obama’s skin makes him uniquely qualified for president and even reach out to the moderate Islam world (VIDEO BELOW).

Please take note that John Kerry used the phrase the color of Obama’s skin makes him uniquely qualified for president.

Now excuse me if I belabor the point, but didn’t Geraldine Ferraro say basically the exact same thing when she stated:

“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against,” she said. “For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” she continued. “And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

Ferraro was referencing the truth that anyone else with Obama’s light experience would not even be considered for the Presidency. But since he is an African American and charismatic people are willing to look past his relative inexperience that would otherwise be seen as a non qualifier.

But Kerry took it even further. According to him electing Barack Obama would somehow redeem the United States.

USANews

“It would be such an affirmation of who we say we are as a people if we can elect an African American president, a young leader who is obviously a visionary and got an ability to inspire people,” Kerry said. “It will give us an ability to talk to those countries, to in some cases go around their dictator leaders to the people and inspire the people in ways that we can’t otherwise.”

Well, a short message to Senator Kerry who evidently has a bad case of short term memory loss. Not 8 years ago we had a President that was able to inspire people. He was also able to talk to countries in ways that had not been possible before. But the reason he was able to do this had nothing to do with the color of his skin. It was based solely on the content of his character which should be above all else the determining factor in who our leaders should be.

Apparently Senator Kerry seems to think that electing Barack Obama would not only help us get rid of our awful white guilt about our slavery past, he seems to think that electing an African American as President would somehow open up new avenues with more moderate adherents of Islam. And no, I’m not making this stuff up.

The Massachusetts senator said Obama has an ability to perhaps even empower moderate Islam “to be able to stand up against the racial misinterpretation of a legitimate religion.”

The racial misinterpretation of a legitimate religion? Is he talking about The Nation of Islam? Because that is the only racial misinterpretation of Islam I can think of. And just what is it that supports Kerry’s contention should this even be true? Is it because Obama is a long standing member of a church that recently gave a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, calling him a man that “epitomizes greatness”? Is that his bonafides that will convince “moderate” Islamists to venture away from the Nation of Islam? Somehow I just don’t see that happening.

And yet Kerry decides to really explain this for us so there is no doubt as to how Obama will help us.

Asked by a reporter what gave Obama the credibility to do so, Kerry said, “Because he’s African American. Because he’s a black man, who has come from a place of oppression and repression through the years in our own country.

Lets see… Kerry is making the claim that Obama came from a “place of oppression and repression”. Hmmm… the facts don’t square much with the myth. Barack Obama was not born into poverty and hardship. I have never read that he went a day without a decent meal. In fact he attended private schools since he was a child. And he graduated from Harvard. In fact in the year 2006 Barack and Michelle Obama claimed a combined salary of $506,618. That is OVER a half million dollars in one year. Not exactly anywhere near the poverty line. Obama’s Senate salary alone is $169,300 + VERY generous benefits. That ain’t so shabby. In fact I would be quite happy making that much money every year.

But somehow Senator Kerry attributes Obama’s background as coming from a place of “oppression and repression.” I can’t speak for anyone else but if I made the kind of money Obama makes and was as popular and all that, I am not so sure that I would consider myself oppressed or repressed. I mean sure, compared to some of the real million and billionaires I might feel like Ma and Pa Kettle but otherwise I would feel pretty successful. Definitely not repressed or oppressed. Unless I went to a church that preached every Sunday how the white man had been oppressing me in the US of KKK A, that is.

Senator Kerry being the astute politician he is answers the deeper question with a lesson in history.

We only broke the back of civil rights, Jim Crow, in the 1960s here. Everybody in the world knows this is a recent journey for America too. And everybody still knows that issues of skin and discrimination still exist.”

So because civil rights weren’t established in the 17 states that had Jim Crow laws until 40 years ago, we need Barack Obama to be our President to show people just how far we’ve come? Is Senator Kerry suggesting that BECAUSE Obama is a black man he would make a better President? Isn’t that the definition of a Double Standard?

If you can stomach it, watch the words come out of Kerry’s amazing mouth.

UPDATED (From Larry Johnson): Tremendous piece, as always, by Fleaflicker. Since I pay for the blog I wanted to exercise an owner’s right and attach myself publicly to quality work. John Kerry has an important point that has been overlooked so far in the comments. Muslims really do like black people better than white people. How do I know? How many white people did Arab slave traders kidnap and sell? Not many. How many black people? Millions. I hope my sarcasm is understood. I cannot believe that Kerry could be so simple minded and misinformed about history. Retired, who comments below, has it right–Kerry went full auto in shooting himself in the foot and catching Obama in the friendly fire as well.