PoliBlog(TM): Democratic Debate

January 12, 2024

Democratic Debate

Here is an interesting exchange from a story in today's NYT, In Final Debate Before Caucuses, Democrats Tangle on Race Issues:

In one of the sharper exchanges of the whole campaign season, the Rev. Al Sharpton confronted Dr. Dean with what Mr. Sharpton described as the lack of minority officials in senior positions in Dr. Dean's administration as governor.

"Do you have a senior member of your cabinet that was black or brown?" Mr. Sharpton demanded, after Dr. Dean had earlier suggested that hiring more minorities was a key to racial understanding in America.

"We had a senior member of my staff on my fifth floor," Dr. Dean responded elliptically, in an apparent reference to the executive offices in Vermont.

"No, your cabinet!" Mr. Sharpton said. Dr. Dean responded quietly: "No, we did not."

"Then you need to let me talk to you about race in this country," Mr. Sharpton said.

I find this amusing for three reasons, in no particular order:

1) Dean's very specific "we had a guy on the fifth floor" response, which is amusing on several levels.

2) The idea that the only way that Dean could possibly understand race would be that if he had an "black or brown" cabinet member.

and

3) Vermont isn't exactly the most racially diverse state in the union, so I am guessing that the odds of a particularly diverse cabinet are mighty slim as well.

Posted by Steven Taylor at January 12, 2024 06:37 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I had to laugh when I heard Sharpton attack Dean. If it were Bush, Sharpton would call Powell and Rice "not his kind." So I guess what goes around comes around for the Democratic party.

If Sharpton really wanted to be brash, he would have told Dean that the lack of minorities in his cabinet gave him new pause to Dean's comments about wanting to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks.

Posted by: mark at January 12, 2024 07:03 AM

Indeed. He almost certainly had a cabinet that "looked like Vermont."

Posted by: James Joyner at January 12, 2024 08:30 AM

I have a theory about Sharpton's comments to Dean. The "insiders" are worried about Dean's electability and are trying to knock him down. Sharpton wants to be seen as the new Jesse Jackson. Perhaps, Sharpton is trying to play ball by attacking Dean, positioning Sharpton to be a force within the party. Just a theory.

No one thinks Dean is a racist and Sharpton's attack was silly. If Dean did have an african-american in his cabinet, wouldn't that be 100% of the african-american population in VT?

It's too late, but I was waiting for a Sistah Soulja moment with Sharpton. One of those guys should have said, "Get lost Al. After what you put people through with the Tawana Brawly hoax, you have no place here."

Alas, no one had the cojones.

Posted by: Anthony at January 12, 2024 10:15 AM