Yesterday I wrote a scathing blog about the obnoxious mega-pandering speech President Joe Biden made to Morehouse College graduates and their families at the school’s commencement ceremony.
Today I read the Wall Street Journal’s editorial on the speech…and struggled to find a point of difference between my views and those of the WSJ editorial board.
Here are a few highlights:
The polls say President Biden has lost support among black Americans, and the White House appears to have settled on a strategy to win them back: spread more racial division. That’s the main message from the President’s dishonorable commencement address Sunday at storied Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Mr. Biden naturally offered the 2024 graduates a list of what he sees as his accomplishments for black Americans. He indulged in his familiar gilded personal history as a civil-rights crusader. He gave the impression that the Delaware Democratic Party was a racist operation until Sen. Joe Biden came along. At least that’s the somewhat forgivable politics of self-aggrandizement.
Less forgivable was the President’s attempt to stir resentment among the graduates on what should be a day to appreciate what they accomplished and to inspire hope for the future.
Then, after enumerating several of the racially charged quotes I did, the editorial had this to say:
Thanks for the uplift, Mr. President. Since Mr. Biden is asking questions, is this what he wants these young graduates to believe about their country—that American democracy is defined by its racial animosity, as if they still live in the Jim Crow South?
As others have noted, imagine working hard for four years to graduate and on a day of celebration for you and your families the President of the United States sends you off with a message that your countrymen who are white want you to fail. Is this what President Biden thinks of America?
Apparently it is. He also told the graduates that Republicans don’t want blacks to vote. “Today in Georgia, they won’t allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about? I’m serious. Think about it. And then the constant attacks on black election workers who count your vote,” he said.
Yes, the Wall Street Journal is correct. Yes, this was an ugly example of racial pandering by someone whose history – including racial comments he has made and some of the people he has aligned with – gives him no standing to do any such thing.
My guess? Not only will this not help Biden among Black voters, but it will hurt him.
Oh, one more thing: Biden’s claim that “today in Georgia, they won’t allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election.”, like so much other barf that Biden regurgitates, is a complete lie.
In Georgia, water – and food – cannot be given out to people on voting lines, the theory being that it could be seen as a bribe (“Hi, I’m with the Biden campaign, here’s a nice, frosty bottle of water, a few snacks…and don’t forget to vote”). But they are not prevented from having their own.
Want proof? Read this, from politifact, via Tom Kertscher’s article at wral.com, and see the actual law wording:
Here is the section of the law that addresses water and says no person shall “participate in the giving of any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink, to an elector, nor shall any person solicit signatures for any petition, nor shall any person, other than election officials discharging their duties, establish or set up any tables or booths on any day in which ballots are being cast (1) Within 150 feet of the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established; (2) Within any polling place; or (3) Within 25 feet of any voter standing in line to vote at any polling place.”
It is a misdemeanor to violate the law, punishable by up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Under the law, poll workers are allowed to make available “self-service water from an unattended receptacle to an elector waiting in line to vote.“
Does that say voters can’t have food and drink on line? NO. It does not. It only says food and drink can’t be given to them by others. End of story.
The only thing Biden accomplished, if you ask me, is making it even more likely that Democrats have to find a way of dumping and replacing him on the ballot.
With who? That’s a great question…that I don’t have the answer to.
