Clinton's Love of Racist Voters, and Other National Embarrassments

This has not been a great week for us here in the United States of America. I don't mean that anything bad has happened to us, I just mean that it has been the type of week where we have to look at ourselves in the mirror, groan, and wonder just who we are.

Here is what Hillary Clinton told USA Today about why she should be the nominee:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," ... As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me." [Emphasis mine]

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Sen. Clinton, if you don't understand that you shouldn't appeal to people's racism in order to win - even if it is the only way to win, then you don't deserve to be our nation's leader. If you are unclear about just why those statements were reprehensible, this post a Racialious should make it clear. Or this discussion at The Angry Black Woman. Or, if you only care about the opinions of white people these days, Melissa McEwan at Shakesville also explains some of what's wrong with the above.

Yeah, that little episode was embarrassing for all of us who would like to be proud of Sen. Clinton's candidacy.

I doubt though, that most of McCain's supporters will be embarrassed by his laughing dismissal of an "attractive young woman's" concerns that he isn't sufficiently dedicated to gender equality. It embarrasses the rest of us, though, to have a presidential candidate condescending to us while laughing-off our worries that he doesn't care if companies pay us less based on our sex, for example - don't let it trouble your pretty little head, darling.

Then there was Michigan's Supreme Court ruling that "Local governments and state universities in Michigan can't offer health insurance to the partners of gay workers." That's right, Michigan's state employers are now legally bound to discriminate against same-sex couples. Kristin at Delightfully Dawgmatic is embarrassed as a Michiganite, I'm embarrassed as an American.

This clearly hasn't been our week to shine.