OT: Race In Appalachia

David Gergen is a republican commentator that served in the Clinton White House. I have always had enormous respect for him as a straight shooting honest man. And nothing could be more honest than what he says in the above video about the Clintons. As background, in Kentucky, West Virginia and elsewhere in and near Appalachia, twenty percent of the voters in exit polls admitted that race was the reason they were voting against Barack Obama.

Gergen calls for Hilary to denounce the racist vote and to say that if that is the reason you are voting for me I don't want your vote. Wow.

I tend to be pretty hard on the younger generation. I think they have an extraordinary sense of entitlement. Among other things it manifests itself in cavalier attitudes around things like plagiarism, expecting high grades in school when undeserved, and indeed, music piracy.

But I must say, on the issue of race, I am extraordinarily happy to say that there is little racism in the younger generation. It appears that in thirty or forty years when all the racist bastards die off, we will really be able to start again. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, and Bill and Hillary Clinton seem perfectly happy to pour salt in the wound just to get elected. It appears all their historical work in the civil rights arena was nothing more than a political calculation around a powerful monolithic voting block.

What Gergen suggests would be a welcomed move towards repairing their horribly damaged image that they have created for the rear view mirror of history. But knowing what I now think I know about Bill and Hilary, such a gracious and proper move is almost inconceivable.