(via TPM)
Gov. Ed “Don’t Call Me ‘Fast Eddie’ “ Rendell met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week to talk about his latest budget. But before turning the meeting over to his number-crunchers, our voluble governor weighed in on the primary fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and what the Illinois senator could expect from the good people of Pennsylvania at the polls:“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,” he said bluntly. Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser. “I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was —well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother “articulate”], charismatic, good-looking — but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so.”
Typical Rendell
This is so typical for Rendell. He says this in front of a bunch of reporters!!
Remember when he told MSNBC live on the air that Al Gore should concede?
He said that AFTER the Supreme Court made its ruling
Short of staging a coup, Gore was done at that point.
Maybe true
Yep, it was like 10 minutes after, at which point the DNC and Gore’s lawyers hadn’t yet read the Supreme Court’s opinion or decided what their next move was.
You’re right, Gore was done, but many many Democrats saw Rendell as disloyal and held a grudge for a long time.
Apperently not enough of a grudge to stop him
from whupping Bobby Casey Jr.‘s butt in 2002.
obama
of COURSE many whites wont vote for obama and its his own fault – its NOT color it ideology and why would anyone vote for him when his pastor who he REFUSES to condemn insults you like that – let condi rice – or alan keyes or even colin powell run – you would see a very different reaction – its sad – Obama ALMOST had me convinced until he started playing sematics about condemning the remarks of the so called reverend – there is NO excuse for it – and Obama has lost credibility with people because of it – thats the way it is
He's mostly wrong
I say he’s mostly wrong b/c there are certainly people who will not vote for Obama b/c he african american. But there are also people who won’t vote for Clinton b/c she’s a woman, won’t vote for McCain b/c he’s old and won’t vote for Huckabee b/c he’s from the south. To which I say, so what. My guess is that the people who won’t vote for Obama b/c he is african american also wouldn’t vote for Clinton or any other left of center pol.
But I think he’s incredibly wrong about Swann. Swann would have lost by 20 points regardless. He ran an underfunded campaign, light on experience and never really convinced the whole party he was worthy of their vote. And he ran against a machine of a gov. Rendell isn’t giving himself enough credit in that regard. Also, the fact that Santorum got squashed tells me it was a terrible year in general to be an R. It had nothing to do with race.
LV
Well stated. Fast Eddie ia
Well stated. Fast Eddie ia a Clinton clone.
IS IT 2010 YET?
Rendell embarrasses me more than CBK does. At least Knoll is endearing. He has no excuse and is dead wrong about about Obama’s chances.
Conventional Wisdom is a crutch.
Prehaps Rendell is voicing his "personal" opinion
Rendell’s history of administrative appointments of african-americans and the bad press he experiences in Philadelphia and Pittsburg regarding his judicial appointments, raises questions as to whether or not he won’t vote for Barack because he is a black man.
They Won't Vote for a Democrat Anyway.
I suspect that most of those who would not vote for an African American would also not vote for a woman. I will also go out on a limb and say that those “conservative whites” voters probably would not be caught voting for any democrat. His statement may be theoretically correct, but it will not affect the “electability” of a democrat.
“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,”
whoa Guv... whoa
Although the Guv is a very candid individual, he should choose his words more carefully. The point expressed above that conservative white voters would not vote for any Democrat is dead on. Would you expect liberal voters in Philly to vote for any Republican? Further, comparing Barack Obama and Lynn Swann is pointless, as being black may be the only characteristic these two gentlemen share. I agree with other posters that evaluating both the primary and general election returns is a worthwhile exercise that could give us some important insight into socio-cultural state of Pennsylvania’s electorate. Sociologists have long utilized political preference as a significant predictor of religious, racial, gender tolerence.
The State of Rendell
Well, in the face of his rapidly-decreasing political stature throughout the state, our fine chief executive has decided to further alienate himself from his constituents by labeling a large portion of them racist. The worst part of his “commentary” is that he misrepresented the results of his own re-election two years ago. A healthy number of the “conservative whites” Rendell referenced pulled the lever for Lynn Swann in 2006 (in fact, Swann ran ahead of Rick Santorum in some largely white, conservative counties). The one caveat is the fact that the Republican vote was down across the board last cycle, but Swann still carried most of the “red” areas of Pennsylvania fairly comfortably. On the votes that Swann didn’t receive, I would argue that it’s nearly impossible to know if he lost them due to his race or the anti-GOP backlash that swept the country in 2006. One must scratch their head at Rendell’s remarks. If this stunt was Rendell’s way of ginning up votes for Hillary, I’d say our governor has failed at yet another task. It’s also comforting to realize the regard in which Rendell holds a large number of Pennsylvanians. Hypothetically, If Rendell was forced to face the voters again, I know quite a few individuals, Republican and Democrat, black and white, who would give Fast Eddie the electoral boot. We, um, “wouldn’t be ready” to give Rendell another 4 years to drift through the state, eating oversized cheesesteaks and posing with oversized checks (both of which feeding his oversized sense of importance). At least now the entire country might realize what an unmitigated blowhard our chief executive is. Do us a favor, governor: keep shoving sandwiches in your mouth. At least that way, garbage would be going in, not coming out.
ALL BAD APPLES
The racism shown by our Govenor, shows the hypocrisy that the cloak and dagger boys of the elected democratic cacus try and Govern by.
Pennsyltucky?
I’m growing quite curious as to what exactly the race relations in Pennsylvania is like. I’ve heard many commentators describe Pennsylvania as “Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west and Alabama in the middle” meaning “white Alabama”. Even your Gov. Ed Rendell acknowledges the contribution racism played in his election into office. You can read the fox-news article yourselves:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/02/12/pa-gov-ed-...
I always believed Obama would lose Pennsylvania, but I didn’t think it was because Pennsylvanians are racist.
I guess some things will never change.
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