What an incredibly stupid mistake
Hillary Clinton showed up, last night, at the “Inner Circle” – a yearly New York silly-fest, similar to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner where local politicians get to vent their spleens to media.
During her stint on stage, Ms. Clinton engaged in a dialogue with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Leslie Odom Jr., a gifted Broadway performer who plays Aaron Burr in the mega-hit “Hamilton”.
Before continuing, let me remind you that, just last week, Hubby Bubba was in deep hot water for aggressively putting down a few #blacklivesmatter people who continually disrupted the speech he was making on his wife’s behalf.
Mr. Clinton answered them very well and very reasonably….which, these days, means he was immediately accused of acting like a racist jerk.
The next day Clinton tried to, at least partly, defuse the situation by saying he “almost” felt he should apologize. Time will tell if it worked.
But with that incident in her campaign’s recent past, you would think Ms. Clinton would be doubly vigilant to prevent being associated with anything which could be construed as a negative reference to Black people.
Well, here is part of the Inner Circle dialogue. Read it and tell me how she made out:
Clinton: (referring to the fact that de Blasio did not immediately endorse her): “I just have to say, thanks for the endorsement, Bill. Took you long enough” (loud laughter and applause)
Odom Jr.: “Oh, snap!” (as laughter and applause continues)
de Blasio: “Sorry, Hillary. I was running on C.P. time”. (i.e. ‘colored people’ time – a sarcasm meant to convey Black people are frequently late for appointments. It generated almost no positive reaction, and a few audible gasps)
Odom Jr.: “That’s not, I don’t, I don’t like jokes like that Bill…”
Clinton: “Cautious Politician Time. I’ve been there” (presumably supposed to make the C.P. line all better, and get a big laugh. It didn’t.)
Let me say again what I said at the beginning of this blog: What an incredibly stupid mistake.
Yes, it is true that Hillary Clinton herself did not utter those words – which, I am guessing, is what her campaign people will use to try and deflect criticism away from her (and, fascinatingly, put it on de Blasio in the process).
But that holds no water at all. Ms. Cinton of course knew it was going to be said. But instead of nixing it, she had her scripted rejoinder ready and waiting.
Can Hillary Clinton possibly be this tone deaf? Can she not have realized there would be consequences to those words? How could she have gone along with something that so obviously would be seen as racially negative?
Is this the level of logic and comprehension we want in the White House? As Commander In Chief of our armed forces?
Think about it.
