Two Questions for Senator Clinton (and one for the Post-Gazette... or MSNBC)

I don't usually state my preferred candidates, but I will say mine dropped out of the running a while back. So at this point, I am concerned with democracy, truthfulness, and fair and honest campaigning.

I'm against superdelegates deciding the winner of the Democratic nomination, IF it goes against the popular vote.

However, since Senator Clinton has put me on her mailing list to ask for donations (daily), I would like SOME reporter, perhaps from MSNBC, to ask her two questions on which I have written to her(every time I get a donation request), but on which I have gotten no response. Ever.

1) When the Senate voted on whether or not to grant "retroactive immunity" to the telecoms, Obama and many other Democrats were there to oppose it. Unfortunately, some Democrats went along with the President, while still calling him a "bully". Poor babies. Not a lot of strength there, I'm sorry to say.

But where, also, is the strength in Hillary Clinton NOT showing up to vote against it? (Or for it if she feels that way.) I'd finally like to hear HER opinion on this issue. She's one of the Senators running for President. McCain and Obama are on the record. She's avoided answering it at every point.

2) While I'm at it, I'd like to hear her disavow Governor Rendell's comments on whether or not whites would vote for a black candidate in Pennsylvania. He's her campaign leader here and a pre-declared Hillary superdelegate - before the popular vote. It wasn't a comment that was asked for by the Post-Gazette reporters, they've said.

MSNBC had Governor Rendell on, but not any of the reporters present in the room... especially Tony Norman who wrote the follow up column 3 days later, calling attention to it (and also the only African-American in the room at the time.)

It was volunteered by Gov. Rendell, according to them, before he gave his state budget speech, which was his given reason for meeting with the P-G staff. He would have had to have known it would be reported. Or perhaps someone should ask the P-G staff if it was a question posed to him before his State budget speech, in which case, it's an opinion.

I would like to know whether it was a pre-determined "time bomb" to be dropped, or a question he was replying to.

In either case, I'd like to see Sen. Clinton disavow it as quickly as she called MSNBC to disavow similarly questionable comments by one of its reporters.

Gov. Rendell questions whether a white voter in PA will vote for a black candidate, MSNBC says it COULD have been taken out of context

I had read Gov. Rendell's comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last Friday and was wondering when the outrage would come... or as they say... when "things" would hit the fan. A number of people I came across in town had said the same thing. However, on Monday, Tony Norman's was the first column to address the lunacy of the statement. Just by his saying it, it became a racial issue.

Governor Rendell never said "I don't think the middle of the state will vote for a woman," unless I wasn't privy to some unreported comments. No, it was "I don't think some of the whites in this state will vote for a black candidate" - to paraphrase. (The actual quote is in a separate section of this blog.) He could have said (and in retrospect maybe should have said) nothing, rather than that. However, he is also one of Hillary Clinton's superdelegates - declared before the popular election has even taken place.

I noticed it came up last night on MSNBC election coverage... at first by Chris Matthews in terms of what a shocking comment it seemed to be. However... after about an hour Chris was trying to tone down Rendell's remarks as off the cuff and not so bad. It felt like the time various well-known sports figures were trying to stick up for "Jimmy the Greek" . Sorry, Chris, I often agree with you, but not here.

Congratulations to Tony Norman (who happened to be the only African-American reporter present at the meeting) of the P-G on bringing it to the forefront and NOT letting those remarks pass as we get nearer our state's election. They were said to reporters and meant to be reported. And I wonder if Chris, who now SEEMS to be defending Governor Rendell's remarks as "probably out of context", would be bold enough to have Tony Norman... or any of the other staff who were present at the meeting and Governor Rendell on together to clear the air. Or perhaps another show might want to do so. It would give both an opportunity to re-state their claims.

It sounded from Mr. Norman's article as though Gov. Rendell made the comment to make it, not as the result of a question. Tony stated it was "dropped" before the start of the actual purpose of the meeting... the state budget.

I would appreciate it if some of the national pundits giving Governor Rendell a pass on the remarks, would have the Governor and Tony or others from the P-G, who were present for those remarks, appear on their shows to define what was said and how. Otherwise, the national pundits are gossiping without the real details. Congratulations to Tony again on bringing it forward.

And perhaps Senator Clinton may want to distance herself from the remarks made by one of her supporters in a run up to that state's election, just as she's asked MSNBC to do with their reporter's "inadvertent" remarks about her daughter.

Gov. 'Blunt Talk' Rendell (and other topics)

A reprint of Tony Norman's column (an always-on-target columnist for the P-G) from today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I had previously read these comments from Gov. Rendell and found them to tread along the line of racism that Tony describes. I wondered when they might be addressed and by whom. (Tony - today) Pennsylvania is not a racist state by any stretch of the imagination, and comments like these have no place in this or any election. I hope the Clinton campaign makes a comment distancing themselves as quickly as they've asked MSNBC to fire David Shuster for comments that are probably not even this bad. Although those were off center, too. I say "Let's let them both keep their jobs, with reprimands from their supporters." (Greetings)

By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tuesday, February 12, 2008

So many topics, so little space:

Gov. Ed "Don't Call Me 'Fast Eddie' " Rendell met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week to talk about his latest budget. But before turning the meeting over to his number-crunchers, our voluble governor weighed in on the primary fight between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and what the Illinois senator could expect from the good people of Pennsylvania at the polls:

"You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate," he said bluntly.

Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser. "I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was --well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother "articulate"], charismatic, good-looking -- but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so."

I know I have a habit of sometimes zoning out in these meetings, but it sounded to me like Mr. Rendell had unilaterally declared Pennsylvania to be Alabama circa 1963. Was he suggesting that Pennsylvanians are uniquely racist in ways that folks in the states Mr. Obama has won so far aren't? By the way, Mr. Obama won Alabama on Super Tuesday, thank you very much!

What accounts for Mr. Rendell's overweening confidence that, no matter what, he'll always find a way to overcome the odds by at least 17 points even in a racist commonwealth, but that Mr. Obama can't?

If Mr. Rendell, a Clinton backer, is right about Pennsylvania's racial attitudes, maybe we should get a new state slogan. How about: "You've got a friend with a pointy white hood in Pennsylvania"?