Should the governor say this in Pittsburgh?

Maybe you remember, it seems like a year ago, there was this former president who campaigned around South Carolina for days. He was the fellow Maya Angelou once called "the first black president," although he wasn't really black.(A number of loyal Ticket readers remind us it was, indeed, Toni Morrison who said that not Ms. Angelou. Thanks.)

So this black but really white ex-president was campaigning hard for his wife and he appeared to inject the racial issue into the campaign in the state where the Civil War began. And he also seemed to suggest that somehow her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, was like a marginal candidate running solely on race as the Rev. Jesse Jackson did in the 1980s. And there was a lot of criticism directed toward the ex-president for bringing race in to help his wife win the Democratic primary, which she didn't do in a big way.

So the former president got kind of quiet and said he was going to just promote his wife and not "defend" her.

Now comes yet another white male supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton bringing up race....

in the crucial upcoming states of Pennsylvania, which votes April 22, and, right next door, Ohio, which votes March 4. After losing all three primaries Tuesday, the New York senator better win both Ohio and Pennsylvania or she'll be stuck as a senator for longer than she planned.

"You've got conservative whites here," Gov. Ed Rendell, a high-profile Clinton supporter and surrogate, volunteered to the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "And I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African American candidate." If there weren't before, it seems like they just got permission from the white governor to feel that way now.

Then, Rendell, who is a former mayor of Philadelphia and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, brought up his 2006 reelection campaign against an African American Republican, former football star Lynn Swann.

"I believe," said Rendell, "looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann been the identical candidate that he was -- well-spoken, charismatic, good-looking -- but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so. And that attitude exists. But on the other hand, that is counterbalanced by Obama's ability to bring new voters into the electoral pool." He means black voters.

So it looks like the race issue has been introduced now up north too. Just not by the ex-president this time.

After the white governor's remarks were widely distributed, his spokesman said, gee, he didn't mean to offend anyone. "He was simply making an observation about the unfortunate nature of some parts of American society," Chuck Ardo said. "He wasn't being critical, he wasn't making accusations, but just being realistic."

And the fact that his realistic remarks could appear to raise and/or provide permission for such feelings and help Sen. Clinton salvage her campaign are merely coincidental.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[crat3]

Obama is riding a wave of black racism based on skin color and he won't debate or talk about the issues because he is hiding behind the color of his skin. This is completely ignored by the media. There was nothing wrong with the comment of the governor; the problem is with the biased media that's giving Obama a free pass.

[Jesse]

He should consider Obama's recent win in Virginia, which isn't exactly known historically for racial tolerance. Obama's ability to cross all lines can't be underestimated. It's true that the media wants it to seem like the demographics are locked in and they're all going to vote a certain way, but people are looking at the issues more and more, and are refusing to be told how to vote. It certainly isn't as if the candidates are identical and it comes down to 'identity politics.' This article shows the places where the voting record of the two candidates significantly differ: http://politicalmaelstrom.blogspot.com/2008/01/actual-differences-between-barack-and.html

[Joan Lewis, Stockton, CA]

It was Toni Morrison who said Bill Clinton was the first black president.

(Thanks, Joan, and the others for catching this. Have fixed it.)

[Karl]

Toni Morrison not Maya Angelou once called Bill Clinton "the first black president,".

[Joan Lewis, Stockton, CA]

No. The governor is deliberate and intentional in making a racist comment to cause division in the electorate.

[Karl]

Toni Morrison not Maya Angelou once called Bill Clinton "the first black president,".

[jc]

Only Monica Lewinsky knows for sure if Bill Clinton was indeed the first "BLACK" president. You go, MONICA !

[Joan Lewis, Stockton, CA]

No. The governor is deliberate and intentional in making a racist comment to cause division in the electorate.

[CAM]

What Gov. Rendell should have specified is there are Racist Democrats in Pittsburgh. The conservative (Republican) whites will NOT vote for any Democrat, period! The Dem Rendell should not and can not speak for conservative whites in Pittsburgh or Pennsylvania

[Darrell Elliott]

What a total jerk. I suppose this entire ordeal will be spun into Barack Obama playing on the race card. What will be next out of this guys mouth? "Yes, don't vote for a black candidate. Allow me, a racist pig to guide you to the right candidate."

[Arthur Fitzgerald Holmes]

Making a statement like that hurts him more than he realizes. Eventually, the people of pennsylvania will demand that he step down as governor of that state. This comment will drive more white voters to the polls because they don't want people to view their state as a racist haven. Hillary Clinton must distant herself far away from this sort of figure because it will ruin her bid for president and ruin her image amongst New Yorkers. So she had better act quickly, and make sure her supporters believe her.

[zjemi]

Wow. You picked up on that before I did. I've heard some acquaintances say this before each primary that Obama has won--There are white people in Iowa or Kansas or Nebraska, etc. who won't vote for him--and I wondered what their problem was. Now that I think of it I know. They were all Hillary supporters.

It backfired when Bill Clinton did it and it will backfire when Ed Rendell or anyone else does it. I hope.

(Thanks for the nice note and for reading us. Hope you'll come back often.)

[E. David Litvak]

"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate,"

Whatever else Barack Hussein Obama may be, an African-American he ain’t. By common usage the term: African-American is applied to citizens of the United States of African descent whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains, who were stripped of their names, their language, their traditions, their culture, and their heritage.

None of these things apply to Senator Obama who knows exactly who he is and who his fore bearers were.

Barack Obama, Sr., who came to this country of his own free will, was born in Kenya, and was of Luo ethnicity. Senator Obama’s mother was the late Ann Dunham Obama of Northern European ancestry.

When Barack Obama, Sr., “married” Ann Dunham he already had a wife back in Kenya. Perfectly legal in Kenya as under Sharia Law a Muslim is allowed up to four wives and as many concubines as he can afford to purchase, but under U.S. law, and that marriage did take place in Hawaii, a man is allowed only one wife at one time. In other words that “marriage” was, under U.S. Law, fraudulent.

Finally, it is also an undeniable fact that Barack Hussein Obama was born into the Islamic faith and was considered by one and all, a Muslim. If he is now a practicing Christian, he is one by conversion and if so, there should be a baptismal certificate on file somewhere.

E. David Litvak

P.S. Someone should point out to the junior senator from Illinois that the MSM has to build him up first before they can turn around and savagely tear him apart.

[Dave]

What Ed Rendell says is true, that there are a lot of bigoted people still, but what is also true is that there is a larger number of people of good will.
What we forget is that in 1960 there was a large ant-catholic vote. If it wasn't for LBJ being on the ticket and Mayor Daley's "gaveyard vote", Richard Nixon would have been elected in 1960. However the people who voted against JFK because he was a catholic were roughly balanced by the people who voted for him because he was catholic. When Guiliani ran the question did not come up.
When Lynn Swan ran against him, I assume, he ran on the ticket of the Bigot party (aka GOP). Look at what they did to Mitt Romney, because he was a Mormon. Does he think that the same thing would happen to him in a Democratic Primary?

[Devonia Washington]

Doesn't matter what Ed Rendell says--he's looking for a position in Washington through Hillary Clinton. Well, that's NOT going to happen. People will vote for Obama--black, white, red, yellow--they have and they will. Let Hill's folks play the race card--Barack can handle it.

[ck]

Even presuming the PA governor’s comments were as inflammatory as your blog perniciously suggests, why insinuate that Hillary’s campaign had anything to do with them? He was speaking about his previous campaign, not hers, making an observation about some U.S. voters’ behavior, BTW, an observation that could’ve easily been made by the Obama camp itself. What if the comment had been, “I think there are some men who are not ready to vote for a woman candidate”? Apparently, the media is allowed to use gender-based tactics at every turn with impunity, yet must shriek in horror each time race comes up, even in a passing comment about voter demographics. With your usual ploys of obfuscating the issues and using innuendo to anger and confuse the already woefully ill-informed and gullible public, you sexist, sensation-mongering hacks want to ensure that yet another incompetent male occupies the Oval Office. Why? Because you know in your heart there’s absolutely nothing incompetent about Hillary. Wait, in your view, she’s incompetent because she’s not a man.

[Ashley]

I live in Pittsburgh, and volunteer for Barack Obama's campaign through efforts of my own and the community.
No matter how true or untrue, the governors assessment of his state were, it is that exact racism and flawed political mentality that we are rallying to change. He is obviously condoning it by suggesting that his decision to endorse Clinton was influenced by this 'reality'.
I don't know about the Governor but when I vote on April 22nd I'm going to pick the candidate that is a catalyst for change, not one that simply reinforces where America stands. If I were Hillary, I would be offended to take votes simply because I am white (which I am).
Obama does not just bring 'black voters'; he brings Independents (I switched my registration to Dem for the PA primary), new voters, Republicans (RepublicansforObama.org), and those who have been politically apathetic for the past 8+ years. Hillary is an admirable woman but still a product of a political machine that people like Rendell and the majority of other super-delegates wish to sustain.
Look where that mob mentality got us before.
http://urltea.com/2p6c

[George Chell]

I was surprised to find many racist white women in PA and in MD too!

[PC]

Mr. Malcolm:

Toni Morrison, not Maya Angelou.

Do yourself a favor: Be embarrassed by such an egregious error – or do all African-American female authors look and sound alike to you? This mistake tinges (actually singes) your column at once with unintended humor and racism – some feat given the subject matter.

Then spend some time reading both Morrison, an Obama supporter, and Angelou, a Clinton supporter.

By the way, "fact" is the subject of your last sentence, so your verb should have been "is," not "are."

PS Please cultivate a habit of checking your facts and your grammar.

And please change "Top of the Ticket" (also, unintentionally funny) to something more appropriate – perhaps "Bottom of the Barrel."

[Margaret Farah]

Gov. rendell is desperate. This is the time for Obama to shine. You cannot quarrel with success

[Marie Horrocks]

I did not like the remarks (predictions) Governor Rendell made about the PA Primary and white voters, to say the least. I was appalled! Was this his way of giving a further boost to his endorsement of Senator Clinton? And to think that I changed my party affiliation in his first bid for his current position so that I could vote for him in the primary!

[Cara]

I'm a Pennsylvanian and no fan of our governor but, I don't understand. Rendell voiced what many other political observers are thinking: Are voters ready for a black president? And, all of a sudden those comments are deemed offensive or racist? Please.

It's a legitimate question and I hope Rendell is wrong on the answer. But, if you spend any amount of time in the coal fields of Pennsylvania you'd find that most of the people are union Democrats and a lot of them would never vote for a black man.

America really isn't that far removed from the racism of the 1960s. Sticking your heads in the sand and pretending it ain't there will not make the racism go away.

[r brown]

if you know that maya angelou incorrect--why is her name still on the page? isn't the beauty of a blog that you can actually correct your errors?

(It is corrected in the next sentence. LATimes.com policy in the interests of transparency is not to hide the mistake and make everyone guess what was wrong but to correct it in the same place. You'll get over it.)

[damn]

How did this idiot Rendell become governor anyway.
I live in Penn. and I cannot express how much this jerk offended me.
I am republican white man and voting for Obama this time.
Bye the way governor you just lost my vote too.

[Is Hillary Going After The BIgot Vote?]

When this question came up for John Edwards (and it did a lot), he would unambiguously state that he did not want the votes of those bigots who would not be willing to vote for a black man or a white woman. Since Edwards got out of the race, it seems that Hillary's people have been sending an opposite message. Sergio Benedixen made a comment about Latinos not having an "affinity" for Black people and now Rendell says the same of White Pennsylvanians. Both of these Clinton surrogates have gleefully (and incorrectly, I think) raised the specter that Obama's race is a barrier to his electability. Isn't it time for Ms. Clinton to follow Edward's gracious lead and say that she would not want anybody to vote for her if they are only voting against Obama because of his race? Why is she not speaking out?

As a Latina who voted for Obama, I thought Benedixen's comments bordered on group defamation. Yesterday, Latinos in Virginia proved Benedixen wrong. I hope Whlte Pensylvanians do the same for Rendell.

[Jean Weld]

How is it, pray tell, that in every primary state in which Clinton feels the pressure to win breathing down her neck --- there is a white male surrogate dissing Barack Obama in a racial slur? Remember Billy Shaheen in NH with the "coke dealer" remark altho there's never been ANY indication Obama sold cocaine (maybe ask the Clintons about the FBI investigation of their Travel Office White House employees for using cocaine prevalently in the WH? or ask Secret Service guys about cocaine being used at WH parties when Bill played the sax>?)--
Remember Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska reminding folks of the drug situation. The surrogates weren't always white either - but yes the attack dogs seem to be always male -- good ol', always controversial, Andrew Young (THAT comment I couldn't believe) "Bill Clinton has probably gone with more black women than Barack Obama." So, that's about the gutter level of politics the Clintons like to play. Even tho Mr. Rengell was in Pittsburgh & Mrs. Clinton was in Texas, no one can convince me she didn't know what he was going to say.

[just me]

Picture this:

Hillary is running against a white male in nationwide primaries that have generated unprecedented voter turn out. The governor of Penn has previously announced his support for the white male. Then, during a press conference on his state budget, reporters ask him to weigh in on the primaries. He doesn't talk about how his state is prepared to handle the voter turn out; he doesn't talk about how it's an impressive competition with two strong candidates; he doesn't even mention his support of the white male (which would be fine). No, instead he makes an elaborate statement that his constituency just isn't ready to vote for a woman. Then he gives an illustration that further details what he means. And finally he repeats that people will not vote for a woman.

Sure, some people won't vote for a woman, but that's for us regular folks to talk about. That's not what a leader goes to great lengths to describe at a press conference in the days prior to an important election. If he thought it was an unfortunate truth that was worth talking about, he could simply say, "People should vote for the best candidate and not let gender prevent them from doing so. I think my guy is the best and that's why I've endorsed him." In other words, he could show leadership and still speak his truth.

Politicians know their words have power. They have learned over time to choose their topics and words carefully. Either the governor knew what he was doing or it was an oversight due to fatigue. If it was fatigue, he could have shown leadership during subsequent media coverage. Instead he went on several TV shows and merely recounted his belief that an African American couldn't win. He said he was only saying what was unfortunate but true.

Get it?

[irv]

People please get a clue:
Obama got three times as many votes as Clinton in ALASKA, which, in case you didn't know, is not populated with lots of black people, nor is it a hotbed of radical leftists.

[Edward]

I live in PA and I can tell you that Gov. Rendell is a complete moron. He constantly says things he should not say. He has a terrible temper. He almost caused the city of Pittsburgh to lose its Penguins acting like "King of the World" and throwing temper tamtrums in meetings with the Pens. His mafia friends are now controlling the casinos he pushed that are supposed to lower my property taxes. So far, higher income taxes, no property tax relief and addicted gamblers growing in my state. Rendell spoke the truth about people in PA. It is one of the most racists states in the US. He brought it up to remind his constiutients to vote for the white person.

[Robert Kemp]

Kenya is mainly a Christian country where English is the common non-tribal language, according to the CIA factbook of nations. See below for quote from the factbook about religion in Kenya. There is no sharia law there.
FACTBOOK
Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, Muslim 10%, indigenous beliefs 10%, other 2%
note: a large majority of Kenyans are Christian, but estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to Islam or indigenous beliefs vary widely