Hillary Clinton must be wincing at the Andrew Young’s talk given on the website Newsmakerslive.com . Andrew Young, one of the smartest and most worldly civil rights leaders ever, seemingly tripped over his own tongue in the interview.
His first line was funny and to apt to his point that Senator Barack is too green to be president.
“I want Barack Obama to be president….[pause] in 2016.”
The subsequent remarks caused a minor tempest: He basically called Hillary Clinton, the captain of what others have called the Bill Clinton bimbo patrol, and that former President Clinton probably went out with more Black women than Senator Obama.
Nevertheless, don’ t think that the interview is either worthless or tasteless. Listen to the whole interview. Andrew Young presents a cogent critique of Barack Obama in 2008, as opposed to 2016. He calls Barack Obama smart; every bit “as brilliant as
You also get a mini history lesson of what it took for Martin Luther King to be a leader and by inference, why Hillary Clinton is, in Young’s opinion, the best person to be the Democratic nominee for 2008. By implication the Republican are going to do politically to their opponents, what their political forbears did to Martin Luther King literally—put him in a straight jacket in the back of the paddy wagon and drive 100 miles over bumpy roads, bug him, proposition him, accuse him of being a traitor. (I am not accusing any current Republicans of being homicidal. But lest you think I exaggerate, remember that Republican Party basically accused Max Leland, a man who lost three limbs in defense of his country, as a traitor.) Basically, a presidential nominee and a president has to be tough, seasoned in adversity, and resilient. And he or she needs to have a network with the same qualities. Rightly or wrongly, Andrew Young thinks that Mr, Obama is lacking on both counts.
In front of a live audience, perhaps too comfortably seated, this wise old man, the former U.N. ambassador was making these points with jokes that Hillary Clinton probably wished he had not.
The sound bites, classically, out of context seem little better than right wing radio talk show drivel, which unfortunately is what has aired and which completely obscures Andrew Young’s argument.
To a largely African-American audience he said: “[Bill Clinton] is every bit as Black as Barack…he has probably gone with more Black women than Barack”
He went on to say look “I’m just” [joking around] …with you”. Yet, this quote, however much in jest, does raise what some in the African-American community have said about Barack Obama—is he really Black? The question to me is way out of bounds. Look Clarence Thomas is authentically Black and authentically crazy—even Antonin Scalia says so by implication, according to Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine. Here I give the former Ambassador a pass.
Young also said that Mr. Obama’s children will really suffer in the White House. Let them grow up awhile, he said. When was the last time you heard that from a commentator.
At 75, Young reminds me of many forthright smart elders, who as much as say: Look I’m too old to sugar coat it. I’m not here to make you feel good. Here is what I think. And guess what, I’m probably right and you know it.
As for me, all I do know is that any quote out of context can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time.
Nick Henderson
nrhenderson.com
I am a partner at
By way of a disclaimer I was always an admirer of Ambassador Andrew Young, known as Andy. (An amusing side note when I worked in the Carter Administration in my twenties, I called Ambassador Young, “Andy”. Back in
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