You Make the World Seem Fresh and Clean
I thought one of the nice touches in Barack Obama's race speech the other day was how he basically absolved Geraldine Ferraro of racism, and (rightly, in my judgment) painted that particular kerfuffle as ultimately trivial in the course of human events. How did Mondale's better half return the favor?
"To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable," Ferraro said. "He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred."
Awesome. Whole thing here; found through L.A. Observed. Bonus link: Tim Cavanaugh's oddly prescient yet perceptively strange political Me-a culpa (which, if nothing else, illustrates how daily exposure to a big city's politicos and activists will blast you cause you to break on through the doors of perception). Excerpt:
Perhaps it was hubris to touch the third rail of American politics. I freely admit my Achilles' heel was that I ignored the elephant in the room. But I could not let a rogue actor continue to thumb his nose at the international community, while handing money hand over fist to the same old tunnel vision and short-term thinking. This is not about politics; it goes to who I am. To understand my decision, you'd have to go back to my recently discovered Jewish ancestor Madam Valdez, who arrived on the Mayflower. Those are the kind of deep roots and local values I brought to the Capitol. At a hastily called prayer breakfast, I consulted my deeply held beliefs, and mistakes were made.
