Foot in Mouth Disease hits America.

[The Fish 11127]

 

Americas

 

The Times February 01, 2007

 

Race gaffe hits Democrat presidential campaign

Tom Baldwin in Washington

A Democratic presidential candidate last night apologised for describing Senator Barack Obama as the “first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean”.

 

Joe Biden said: “I deeply regret any offence . . . I may have caused. That was not my intention and I’ve expressed that to Senator Obama.”

 

He was forced to say sorry on the same day that he began his candidacy — 20 years after his last run at the White House imploded after he was caught plagiarising Neil Kinnock, then the Labour leader. Mr Biden spent most of yesterday struggling to keep his latest campaign on track after making remarks that appeared to confirm a reputation for talking first and thinking later.

 

Only last year he was in trouble again for saying: “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

 

Mr Biden said that he had spoken to Mr Obama, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, who had told him: “ ‘Joe, you don’t have to explain anything to me’ . . . he understands what I meant — this is a very special guy.”

 

Asked what he did mean by saying that Mr Obama was “clean”, Mr Biden said: “He’s fresh, new, smart, insightful. Lightning in a jar.”

 

Mr Obama issued a statement later that read: “I did not take the comments personally, but they are historically inaccurate.” He listed many AfricanAmerican politicians who should never be described as inarticulate.

 

Among those names was the Rev Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, who stood for the presidency in 1984 and 1988, and who was clearly unhappy yesterday at being deemed to have been out of the mainstream. “This was bumbling bluster. I made the mainstream into a river . . . putting on millions of voters in 1988, when I beat Joe Biden,” he told The Times.

 

Rev Jackson had asked Mr Biden’s office for an explanation for his “divisive” remarks, adding: “Joe is a decent guy. He is not Trent Lott [the former Republican Senate leader who resigned after making racially insensitive remarks], but I don’t understand what he meant.”

 

The black vote is seen as crucial to winning the Democrat primaries, where Mr Obama’s candidacy threatens Hillary Clinton, whose husband, Bill, retains huge affection in the African-American community.

 

Mr Jackson said: “They’re all going for it. John Edwards announced (his candidacy) in New Orleans. That sent a message. Barack Obama gets my vote, but Hillary Clinton has some legacy of relationships.”

 

Mr Biden also had hard words yesterday for Mrs Clinton, whose policy on Iraq “would be disaster”, and Mr Edwards, whose proposal to withdraw 40,000 troops indicated that he did not know “what the heck he is talking about”.

 

[Lazarus 0]