Sweet Home Pennsylvania: In Harrisburg, they love the Gov'nor!

Let's be clear about something: what Ed Rendell said about Barack Obama's run for the presidency was true. If anything, he was understating his case when he admitted that about five points would have been shaved off his own margin of re-election victory in 2006 had Lynn Swann been white, and he definitely overestimated the extent to which Obama's supposed ability to "bring new people to the polls" overcomes the disadvantage imparted by racism.

Pointing out the existence of racism is not, in fact, a racist act -- more often, the opposite is true. Only Republicans claim otherwise, since as the party of white supremacy they are officially committed to the fairy-tale idea that this is a "color-blind" society, and that it is therefore unseemly to talk about race (and therefore racial inequality) at all. These people are angry at Rendell not because he insulted Barack Obama, but because he insulted the white voting public by telling the bald-faced truth. So kudos to him for that, as far as it goes.

But there is another side to this. Even though what Rendell said was technically true, it amounts to an offensive statement when taken in its proper context. In this respect it is similar to the evangelical preacher's statement that "Almighty God does not hear the prayer of a Jew." Technically speaking, the statement is true, but it is still anti-Semitic, because we are all supposed to understand that the preacher really does believe that there is such a thing as an "Almighty God" who does "hear the prayer" of a Christian.

Ed Rendell is an open supporter of Hillary Clinton, and it is widely known that he is angling for a cabinet position in the unlikely event that she overcomes not only Barack Obama, but John McCain. So Rendell's observation on racist white voters, while technically correct, was intended to scare off people from voting for Obama, perversely using the racism of others as an argument for voting white in the Democratic primary. That, plus Rendell unselfconsciously referred to Swann as "well-spoken," the oldest term in the lexicon of patronizing whites -- something he presumably should have learned not to do as the longtime mayor of a majority-black city.

In short, then, Ed Rendell is a racist. So fuck him.