That wasn’t jumping to a conclusion, that was skipping out of an airplane and skydiving.

Triple shame on Justin.

Wow, eight miles away. Of course, Ronald Reagan, energetic fellow that he was, was speaking at small country fairs all across the South and the other less sophisticated parts of the country.

I concede the occasion. I wrote from memory but this was the least important point in my statement.

Last, I never said that Reagan was racist. In fact, I said the opposite. I said his campaign and, indeed all Republican campaigns of the last half century have been racist. Few Southern cities had the stigma attached to it that pertained to Philadelphia, MS so do not try to lump the Carter and Reagan campaigns.

First, the speech was not in Philadelphia MS – it was eight miles away at a county fair.

Second, it was not ‘announcing his run for the presidency’ as you claim. It was during August following his nomination at the Republican Convention but prior to the Democratic Convention that year. August is traditionally a media lull with Labor Day in September usually considered the ‘official start’ of the full campaign following both conventions. It was around a year after he had announced his run for the presidency.

And no, Reagan’s campaigns were not racist. Even Jimmy Carter that year said Reagan making a speech in Mississippi should not be considered as racist in any way.

Mississipi is still a state and national candidates do give speeches there. Since the south had voted strong for Carter in 1976 it was considered a potential swing state and it’s perfectly logical that Reagan would speak in that state at some point.

When officially opening his campaign around Labor Day that year, Carter himself spoke in an Alabama town that had a troubled Klan past. Reagan’s official campaign on that same day opened with a speech in Detroit.

Bottom line–anyone who judges a person–GOOD or BAD–based on the color of their skin is a racist. Blacks who give Obama a pass and whites who disregard him–both groups without making a determination based on his merits and flaws–are behaving in a racist manner.

“Q (Ben Johnson, Columbia Missourian): Mr. President, during this conference, we’ve talked a lot about race relations in this country. This is the 20th anniversary of the Kerner commission report. I’m sure many of us would be interested in your assessment, in this year when we have a black man running for President, of the status of race relations in this country.

A (The President): Well, I hope that race will not be a part of this campaign in any way. And I’m sorry that in the campaign that’s going on with one candidate of the black race that it seems that more attention is being paid to the difference in color than is being paid to what he is actually saying. And I have to believe that a great many of us would find ourselves in great disagreement with the policies that he is proposing and that we would perhaps be more vocal about them if it wasn’t for concern that that be misinterpreted into some kind of a racial attack.

Contrary to what some people say, the most frustrating thing that I have endured since I have been here in the image making that goes on is that I have been portrayed so often as, in some way, a racist and prejudiced in regard to racial matters. And it’s hard for me to take because I grew up in a family in which that was considered the greatest sin — prejudice and discrimination. And all my life — back when I was a sports announcer and broadcasting major league baseball, I was one of the little handful across the country that continued to editorialize for the breaking of the ban and the allowing of blacks into organized baseball. And it’s carried on through my life.

And as I say, I regret that this has become a factor. The candidates should all be based on what are their policies and what is it that they would propose to do. And I will be very frank with you: I find a great disagreement with some of the things that are being proposed by Jesse Jackson. But I also find a great deal of disagreement with his fellow candidates in that party, which is why I’d suggest that everybody should vote Republican. [Laughter]”

Ref:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1988/041388e.htm

Sad.

Worse that Hillary Clinton’s camp has not denounced her remarks, simply ‘disagreed’ with them. They’re hoping to get some political gain out of it by letting it play out on the side. Shameful, but nothing shocks me about Hillary’s campaign anymore.