“He’s ‘the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.‘” As you no doubt heard, Joe Biden torpedoed his own official candidacy announcement this week by using dubious language to describe his rival, Barack Obama. (Well, at least the words were his own.) The sticking point in the news seems to be Biden’s talk of Obama as “clean” — Al Sharpton had a nice riposte: “I take a bath every day.” But really, “articulate” is pretty bad too: It’s one of those classic buzzwords of unwitting racist condescension. (He’s so well-spoken!) Say it ain’t so, Joe.
One thought on “Biden’s Macaca Moment.”
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TPM’s commenters were doing some closer analysis, and it seems Biden deserves a (very partial) reprieve. See http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/012209.php
In the quote, he paused before the word ‘who’ suggesting that he didn’t mean that Obama is the first african american to be clean etc, merely that he though obama is clean etc.
Of course, this doesn’t excuse his choice of adjectives…
seriously, though I’ve heard Obama is a really nice guy! He’s never even killed anybody! I even had him over for dinner the other night with my white daughter.