The “Affirmative Action Candidate”
Someone should tell Susan Estrich, former Dukakis campaign manager and continuing Democratic talking head, that when in a hole one should stop digging.
Offering her 1¢ worth on the Ferraro firestorm (originally it was 2¢ worth, but I devalued it based on content), Estrich writes:
I don't think she in any way meant to put Obama down by pointing to his race as an essential element of his appeal. It is an essential element of his appeal. That doesn't mean he's the affirmative action candidate. It doesn't mean he's unqualified or undeserving.In other words, if were an “affirmative action candidate,” she is clearly implying, he would be “unqualified or underserving.”
It’s always interesting to see what friends of affirmative action say about it when they’re not being careful.
ADDENDUM
I find it interesting that those who support racial preferences most vociferously also deny most vociferously any suggestion that anyone actually received something of value because of his or her race. They describe as racist the demand for colorblind equality, but they also describe as racist any suggestion that any individual’s success or failure can be attributed to the preferential treatment extended or not extended to that individual’s racial or ethnic group. Finally, they describe as racist any suggestion that the practice of racial preference calls into question the earned accomplishments of members of preferred groups.
Go figure.
ADDENDUM II [16 March]
Obama seems to agree with Estrich that “affirmative action” results in the selection of those who would not have been selected but for their race. As he stated in an interview with reporters and editors of the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Ferraro’s “implication was that I was an affirmative action beneficiary.”
Say What?
Your adendum sums it up quite nicely.
Posted by: DADvocate | March 16, 2008 6:06 PM
Don't forget: Ending race preferences is tantamount to the return of Jim Crow. For this to be true, virtually all blacks would have to be beneficiaries. But to suggest that anyone benefits from it is somehow still racist.
The old Star Trek series had a committee of people whose sole job was to ensure the various ideas (scientific, political, philosophical, historical) did not contradict each other. I find it hysterical that a science ficion show took reasoning and logic more seriously than a modern political movement. The Democratic party should hire those committee members and stop making asses of themselves.
Posted by: MJ | March 16, 2008 7:00 PM
Hmmm...Susan Estrich...?
What else is it she did after the miserable failure
promoting Massachusetts "Proud Liberal" Mike Dukakis? Wasn't that AFTER he threw John Sasso off the life raft?
I mean BESIDES 30 second appearances on talking head shows that cater to the self righteously inflamed white- guilt demographic!
Posted by: CaptDMO | March 16, 2008 9:43 PM