The Bent Reid
Harry Reid should fall on his sword, and make sure that he does so on the pointy end. It’s something he could screw up. Watching Reid over the years, one has gotten the impression that he is limited man. Industrious, perhaps, but not creative.
Reid has been a disappointment to his state, too, where polls show him seriously trailing three likely Republican opponents. That’s something when you have the power of Senate Majority Leader’s office. If you can’t wow your constituents with brilliance and gleaming service, you can at least buy their patronage with limitless earmarks.
As if Reid needed another reason why he should do the honorable thing and retire – they way his five-term Connecticut colleague did – he is now in deeper trouble yet for quotes he has owned up to in a new political book about the 2008 presidential race that has just come out and was also previewed on "Sixty Minutes." Reid is quoted as saying that Barack Obama had a good shot at winning the White House because he was "light-skinned" and didn’t speak in a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
It should be noted that Reid was a strong supporter of Obama’s going back some three years, so one must know that he wasn’t being intentionally disparaging. For that matter, his words weren’t wrong. Those were two reasons why Obama could and did win.
That said, it was an impolitic use of language, and for that he is suffering anew. He apologized to the president, and the White House "accepted" his apology.
Good gracious, even Al Sharpton has forgiven Reid, so you know his remarks weren’t terrible. Or more to the point, Sharpton thinks he’ll gain from supporting Reid.
Still, if this drives his numbers lower, as one might expect, perhaps Reid will be persuaded to make room for a better candidate. That’s what it’s about after all. Party politics. The facts always place second.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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