Obama personally called terminated USDA Director Shirley Sherrod to apologize. He won't apologize to George W. Bush for slamming him at the get-go in his very own inaugural address (or the 85,621 times I estimate Obama has publicly bashed Bush behind his back since), for walking out of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to eat dinner with his family, for insulting the Cambridge, MA police department in defending the boorish behavior of his Harvard crony professor, but for his Agricultural Secretary to fire a woman whom exemplifies his very vision of post-racial America... I imagine Shirley Sherrod told the President she understood; after all, the Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was governor of Iowa, home to all those white farmers. And, of course, Shirley Sherrod just might have given the Chief Executive some advice for his next Cabinet meeting: the next time Tom Vilsack asks him for something, say, an increase in his budget, Obama can keep in mind all the things in his power he could do for Vilsack, but just give him the bare minimum he needs....and send him to one of his own kind, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, to pick up his check.
Am I Being Unfair to Ms. Sherrod?
Have I read the full transcript of the speech? Yes. Is the Breitbart video fair? It depends on how you define "fair". Breitbart did not put words into Shirley Sherrod's mouth. (You can find a comparative analysis here.) I think no matter how much Shirley Sherrod thinks she has been racially transformed, it's very clear in how she discusses her initial meeting with the white farmer in question that she is still speaking from the perspective of her racial experience and even though it was 24 years ago, the memories are as fresh as if they happened yesterday. She did regurgitate predictable progressive accounts of class warfare--absolutely nothing new there that Obama hasn't already mentioned better several hundred times. No matter how much she says she's also interested in helping poor people from other racial or ethnic backgrounds, these discussions were mostly in the context of pushing a class warfare agenda, she mostly fixates on the struggles of lower-income African Americans. (To a certain extent this is to be expected, given she was speaking at an NAACP event and her life experience.) And if my view, she used the white farmer in the same way one might cynically say, "Some of my best friends are white..."
Alleged threats to sue Breitbart seem rather absurd; I think he could have done a better job framing the piece and the general nature of the speech, and the clip wasn't representative of the whole speech. Was it taken out of context? I know most people disagree, but no, it was, in fact, the chief evidence she used to support her contention her thesis wasn't all about black people. She later did admit it was wrong (I'm not convinced altogether she herself really meant it, but she did understand it was necessary to say it). However, the speech was also very political in nature, which in my view is a violation of restrictions on civil servants.
Any reasonable person would have to agree if a white person had said the same thing about a black farmer within the context of a conceptually similar speech, there would have been no outcry from the liberal mass media, no apologies from any administration, never mind a new job offer. I don't intend to make this post about "reverse racism"; I strongly suspect many or most white people have not gone through her life experiences. It's more of a question of double standards, as Breitbart truthfully observed. I don't think the audience needed to know how much she relished (and still relishes) putting that self-superior white farmer in his place. How is it fair for her to do that behind his back? The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Shirley Sherrod's speech was poorly conceived and delivered; it showed bad judgment and was in sore need of a decent editor. Did it deserve Sherrod being terminated? Probably not; I did in yesterday's post say if Ms. Sherrod had any moral integrity, she would refuse a new job offer with the administration. That's because her speech was inconsistent with Obama's own expressed beliefs of a post-racial America, and by an objective nature, her use of language and examples was divisive and inconsistent with the spirit of Obama's discussion of racial matters. It wasn't so much what Ms. Sherrod said, but how she said it. The administration certainly was in its rights to terminate Ms. Sherrod.
Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!
The Democratic Senate finally gave up on trying to pass comprehensive "tax-and-trade" legislation, which is one of the last things a fragile economy needs.
The President's Ratings? Gloom, Despair and Agony
There were clips on Hannity tonight showing befuddled national news reporters in a state of denial that his approval ratings have dipped to 44% or lower in some polls... After all, he's passed the stimulus bill, the health care bill, the financial reform bill, BP seems to have finally stopped the bleeding of oil into the Gulf... Gee, how do we disapprove of him? Let me count the ways... How about 2 fiscal years on his watch which will average over $1.4T each in the red? How about anemic economic growth and over 9.5% unemployment nationwide? How about the fact that the stimulus bill, which was passed without a thorough review, has been mostly a waste of resources consisting of Democratic spending targets? How about the President signing a corrupt health care bill based on smoke and mirrors accounting, hugely unpopular with the American people as a whole? And don't get me started on the Obama apology tours, the KSM trial, the Ft. Hood massacre and the near-miss Christmas bombing over Detroit and near-miss one near Times Square. Then there's the Arizona fight over immigration, and the feds are more interested in fighting for their turf and the right not to enforce immigration law, including sanctuary cities. Not to mentioned the federally botched handling of the Gulf Oil crisis and phony crises like Professor Gates and Ms. Sherrod.
Yes, the President has run up the score on pent-up Democratic political priorities; he came into office with one of the most lopsided Congressional majorities in decades, including a nearly filibuster proof Senate. He should have been able to pass a lot of stuff. I know for a fact that if I had a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats with similar numbers, I would have gotten between 4 to 8 more things done than what Obama has achieved, and I would have higher approval ratings.
Political Cartoon
Mike Lester portrays the first post-racial President whose Administration is now on its first domestic apology tour (Shirley Sherrod is supervising the Bush Bash). No doubt Obama wants to build on the profound success of his Beer Summit; however, I suspect we can safely rule out his inviting her over to a Tea Party. Maybe a photo opp reunion with the white farmer? How's that 'bringing people together' thing working for you, Barack?
Quote of the Day
Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
Henrik Tikkanen
Musical Interlude: Chart Hits of 2002
Sheryl Crow, "Soak Up the Sun"
Cher, "Song for the Lonely"
Céline Dion, "A New Day Has Come"
Kelly Clarkson, "A Moment Like This"
