Listening to Mike Barnacle on MSNBC this morning was confusing at best, totally infuriating at worst. He and the others on the show, Mika Brezynski(sp?) and Joe Scarborough, were talking about whether Hillary’s remarks about Martin Luther King and President Johnson were racist, and whether they would adversely affect her chances of getting the black voters to choose her. Of course they’re still ranting about how racist it was, except for Mika, who seemed to be more openminded about it. Mr. Barnacle, however, went into a rant that went something like “…who put the pen in Lyndon Johnson’s hand so he could get a bill to sign? Martin Luther King did!” Ok……but I seriously have to differ with both his statement and the whole racist attack on her.
First of all, Martin Luther King was an impressive speaker, as anyone who ever listened to him can attest to. He could move you with the simplest statements, and when he really got going, he was magic to listen to. I have no doubt his “I Have A Dream” speach was the impetus for most of the Congressmen and Senators who ended up voting to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, and he deserves full credit for that. I believe he actually changed the hearts and minds of people all over this country with that speach, also. But Hillary is right: Lyndon Johnson’s pen is what gave us that bill, and there’s nothing racist about that statement. Anyone who says there is has to be looking for something else to derail her campaign with, as it takes a very great stretch of the imagination to turn what she said into a racist sentiment.
Mr. Barnacle’s rant, while seeming very heartfelt and sincere, was so far off the mark as to be almost laughable. First of all, MLK didn’t put the Presidential Pen in Johnson’s hand, Lee Harvey Oswald did. Had he not killed President Kennedy in Dallas, thereby putting that pen in the hands of then Vice President Johnson, Kennedy would have been the one using it, and he also would have signed that bill. Thanks to Mr. Oswald, however, the task fell to Johnson. Had there been any other President at that time, there is no way of knowing whether the bill would have been signed into law or not, but the chances would have been diminished, quite likely. All the speachifying in the world would not have mattered, eloquent or not.
Second, what Hillary said in no way resembled racism. She simply stated the above-stated fact that President Johnson is the one who put that bill into action. She was correct in what she said, she wasn’t trying to diminish the effect of MLK’s beautiful speach, and she certainly wasn’t trying to imply it was white over black in that area. She simply stated the facts. The intent was simply to show that great words are wonderful, but it takes action and the ability and willingness to provide that action to get the job done. Barack Obama says wonderful things, he conjures up dreams of what could be, but that’s not enough to make it so. He doesn’t have the experience and the know-how to get the things done he keeps talking about. Hillary, however, does, and she can.
She is well-respected by the other members of the Senate and House, as evidenced by the statements of even her Republican “adversaries”. She can and does work with members of both sides of the aisle to get the things done that need to be done, and she has earned the respect and admiration of all she’s worked with. Yes, I know that sounds inpossible, but it’s true. Republicans who’ve worked with her on bills, or watched her work, have nothing but good things to say about her and her abilities as Senator. She has a much better chance of reaching bi-partisan agreements than any of the other candidates, Democrat or Republican…except maybe John McCain. He can cross the aisle sometimes, but he’s a little crotchety while doing so. Anyway, Hillary is the one who can do more than just talk about what what needs to be done, she can actually get it done because of her bi-partisan connections, and unless there is a major change in Congress, that’s what will be needed to get anything done.
Just look at what we’ve gotten the last 12 years or so. Yes, Bill Clinton could get Republicans to side with him under the right circumstances, but most of the time they were fighting him so hard he couldn’t do anything, and even when he’d sign a bill into action, they’d simply vote it down. And Bush….he had everything he wanted for his first four years, but once the Democrats took over, things got a little touchy. They would pass bills we need, and he would veto them out of hand. It didn’t matter how good they were for the country, if he didn’t like them (or more specifically, if his big-money backers didn’t) they were dead in the water. We need better than that. We need someone who can work both sides of the aisle and actually get us the legislation we need to lift us out of the swamp of a bad economy, a war we can’t seem to end, and the increasing hatred of us from even our best friends. We need Hillary.
I hope the Obama camp’s attempts to paint her as a racist blow up in his face. I hate when something that has nothing to do with anything gets blown all out of proportion, distorted into something it never was meant to be, and used to trip up a really good person. The whole Viet Nam thing with John Kerry is a perfect example, and even now he is painted as less than the hero he truly was in that war because of the Bush campaigns need to tar him with enough filth to keep him from winning. It’s not only hurtful to the one being attacked, it’s an embarrassment, or should be, to all those who actually believe the hype and allow it to shape their opinions about the person being assaulted. I truly hope people will see this for what it is and turn the tables on these people. After all, we expect these kinds of attacks from the Republicans, not from other Democrats. But then, we have been very good at eating our own young over the years. Ted Kennedy…..Howard Dean……John Kerry…even Al Gore, to a certain extent. We have to stop doing that and work to get the best candidate nominated. We have very little hope for the future if we don’t.
