Joe Biden’s arch-nemesis – his own mouth – has struck again, according to a one-day story on Page A7 of the Washington Post:
Biden also stumbled through a discourse on race and education, leaving the impression that he believes one reason that so many District of Columbia schools fail is the city’s high minority population. His campaign quickly issued a statement saying he meant to indicate that the disadvantages were based on economic status, not race.
After a lengthy critique of Bush administration education policies, Biden attempted to explain why some schools perform better than others — in Iowa, for instance, compared with the District. “There’s less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with,” Biden said. He went on to discuss the importance of parental involvement in reading to children and how “half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom.”
Naturally, rather than tattoo this statement onto Biden as it did with George Allen, the WaPo gives him an immediate out, and then drops the issue:
The Biden campaign moved quickly to clarify the senator’s remarks in a statement: “This was not a race-based distinction, but a discussion of the problems kids face who don’t have the same socio-economic support system (and all that implies — nutrition, pre K, etc.) entering grade school and the impact of those disadvantages on outcomes.”
I’m sure if this was a GOP Senator that would not be the end of the story.
Unless the GOP senator was Jesse Helms or Strom Thurmond.
The social ills that contribute to disparities in opportunity, and thus outcome, are deeply impacted by past and present racism, as well as by economic conditions, and that it appropriate for government to participate actively in working to address those social ills. While that position should not preclude reference to matters of personal responsibility (or to the need for individual leaders and community groups within poor and minority communities to help people help themselves rather than waiting for government solutions),some are far too quick to pounce on those who address the personal responsibility side of the coin.
But the media was focusing on the truly important national story regarding race relations — Dog the Bounty Hunter’s comments.