Harry Spins A Race
By Pat Racimora on January 13, 2010 at 9:45 AM in Current Affairs
* Bumped up *
Notice, I said Harry Spins A Race, not Harry Spins Race. That “A” is important, because that is what concerns me far more than what some are calling Reid’s racist characterization of Obama.
Game Change, the gossipy potboiler destined to make authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin richer than God, reports that Harry Reid 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.’”
Reid must have actually uttered these sentiments since he has publicly apologized to the President and other Black leaders.
The initial outrage is followed by increasing whispers that Reid’s word choices may have been politically incorrect but otherwise he was spot-on accurate. On yesterday’s Today show, Matt Lauer asked PBS’s Gwen Ifill, who is Black, “Isn’t Harry Reid implying that a dark-skinned African American who speaks in a way that some would consider more stereotypical would not be electable?” Ifill responded, “Well, yes. Because it’s true.”
Liberal Rapture puts it even more bluntly:
Any white American over 40 who tells you that it’s just as easy for them to stomach a dark skinned black man speaking with the thick rhythms of a southern preacher as it is a light skinned Harvard educated college lecturer speaking with a standard American accent is either
1. In a small minority.
2. Lying.
My problem with Reid’s words went in an entirely different direction.
What I see is a manipulative politician who decided that the ability to deliver a good speech (note—I did not say write a good speech because that is done by others) and a “certain look” were important credentials needed in a President during these troubling times. What happened to relevant experience and proven performance?
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
* (Included in the 
* 
.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
