Obama's Second Leadership Failure: Biden's Soft Racism

Senator Barack Obama's (D - Illinois) selection of Joseph Biden (D - Delaware) as his running mate for President and Vice President of the United States represents his second major leadership failure since winning the nomination. Read about his first leadership failure here.

As a blogger I am happy Senator Biden is back in the race. He is a walking gaffe machine which provides a lot of fodder for blogging. For example, read the Senator in his own words here and here.

But, for this blogger the primary evidence of the unsuitability of this individual as the Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate is the debate conducted on June 28th 2007. During this debate the following question was asked:

DeWayne Wickham’s question: Thank you, Tavis. This question is about the link between education and poverty. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006 the unemployment rate of black high school graduates -- black high school graduates -- was 33 percent higher than the unemployment rate for white high school dropouts. To what do you attribute this inequity, which keeps many black families locked in the grip of poverty?

The Senior Senator from Delaware was given the first chance to answer. He said:

We should remind everybody that the day before a black child, a minority child, steps into the classroom, half the achievement gap already exists. ... And that gap widens... because we do not start school earlier. We do not give single mothers in disadvantaged homes the opportunities that they need in order to know what to do to prepare their children. A mother who talks to her child on a regular basis from infancy to being a toddler, that child when it’s two years old will have a vocabulary 300 words more than a child not talked to.

So it’s simple. You’ve got to start off and focus on the nurturing and education of children when they’re very young, particularly children from disadvantaged families. You’ve got to invest in starting kids in preschool at age four.

This answer is objectionable on several fronts. First, it doesn't answer the question. Early childhood vocabulary doesn't explain why high school drop-outs have a lower unemployment rate than high school graduates. If anything, it explains why there is difference in high school graduation rates. Second, it is racist. What does race have to do with the ability to mother? Note that the Senator did not say that single mothers in disadvantaged homes do not have the time to talk to their children because they must work. He says "know what to do." Third, the proposed remedy doesn't fix the problem. If the problem is that mothers need to talk to their children during early childhood, putting the child in pre-school at age four isn't helpful. First, early childhood is over at age 4. Senator Obama apparently understood this when he said "Early childhood education. And John’s exactly right, it starts from birth." Second, taking the child from the mother will prevent her talking to the child, not help her talk to the child. This apparently was lost on both Senator Obama and Senator Biden.

Senator Obama should have chosen someone who can effectively articulate positions. Instead, he chose Joe Biden who he agrees with on nearly 100% of the issues (notably except Iraq and the War on Terror) and cannot articulate a logical answer to questions from the media.

Senator Obama could have and should have done better.