One advantage of the Obama presidency may turn out to be the rapidly diminishing value of the race card -- for decades a tactical staple of Democrats facing criticism. New York's highly unpopular Governor David Paterson just played his race card to general derision, even from black Democrats; The New York Post reports:
The state's first black governor yesterday blamed his political woes -- and those of President Obama -- on a white-dominated media that he accused of taking part in an "orchestrated" attack campaign.
"We're not in the post-racial period," Paterson said in a freewheeling interview on the liberal talk-radio station WWRL. "My feeling is it's being orchestrated, it's a game, and people who pay attention know that."
"We don't have the kind of forces in the community that we had before, in other words, our black media outlets," the Democratic governor continued.
"Even our own reporters from our own community buy the public line, which is, 'We're going to get rid of David Paterson.' "
Interesting how the Governor seems to exclude non-blacks from his community, and how he seems to be calling black media racist.
The New York Daily News found some prominent African Americans who disagree:
"He's given the media more than enough to feed on with the incompetence shown in his administration," said state Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn), an African-American.
"To quote Michael Jackson, he should start with the man in the mirror," Parker said.
Even state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem), a black supporter of the governor, urged him to be more like Obama by staying "focused on the message."
Speaking of Obama, Paterson warns that that the nation's highest elected official will follow in his (Paterson's) footsteps:
"The next victim on the list -- and you see it coming -- is President Barack Obama, who did nothing more than try to reform a health-care system . . . only because he's trying to make change," Paterson said.
This claim of racism is desperate and self-discrediting. Kudos to the black politicians who call out this nonsense for what it is.
Most Americans desperately want American to get beyond race. How about a moratorium on spuriouos claims of racism in defense of bad conduct or poor performance? Aren't we ready for that yet? The fate of David Paterson may hold a lesson.
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