President Obama has been anything but the post-racial president he promised to be. In fact, he sounds a little like H. Rap Brown or Stokely Carmichael of late. Here’s what he said yesterday as he urged Latinos to go to the polls (emphasis added):
“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s gonna be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2.”
And here’s what he said later in the day (emphasis added):
Now that progress has been made, he said, “we can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.”
That doesn’t sound very unifying and post-racial, does it? Remember when George Bush was called a divider, not a unifier, if he took two breaths in a row? Where’s all that talk now? Note that The New York Times, in its story about the Latino quote, never pointed out the divisiveness of the rhetoric, something they would have done reflexively for Bush.
Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, had the best line:
What’s his 2012 slogan going to be? “Get Whitey — Vote Obama?” At this rate, yeah. . . .