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30 years after busing, is Massachusetts ready for black governor?
Boston.com ^ | 09/09/2006 | Glen Johnson

Posted on 09/09/2006 10:59:18 AM PDT by Panerai

BOSTON --In April 1976, Ted Landsmark was walking near City Hall when he stumbled into an antibusing demonstration. The photo of a white man using an American flag to spear Landsmark, who is black, won a Pulitzer Prize and branded Boston as racially intolerant.

Thirty years later, Landsmark is president of the Boston Architectural College. And he watches with great interest as another black man, Deval Patrick, runs neck-and-neck with his opponents in the Democratic gubernatorial race.

The question is whether Massachusetts voters today are ready to elect their first black governor. The Democratic primary is Sept. 19. The general election is Nov. 7.

Should Patrick win, he would be only the second black ever elected governor in the nation, although two other African-American candidates -- Kenneth Blackwell and Lynn Swann -- are running for governor this year in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"The state's demographics have changed dramatically in the 25 years since we last had a person of color elected statewide. And there's been a substantial increase in the minority electorate in cities across the state. That opens possibilities for a candidate to be considered less on the basis of race per se and more on the basis of their managerial skill and vision for the commonwealth," said Landsmark, a Yale-educated architect and lawyer.

David Gergen, a former White House aide who now is a national political observer and teacher at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said it's hard to gauge public opinion, since voters may not answer racial questions honestly.

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections; gabrieli; governor; haley; massachusetts; mittromney

1 posted on 09/09/2006 10:59:20 AM PDT by Panerai
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To: Panerai

Mass. is ready for a gay , black , secular , ultra liberal , socialist governor ,right now I believe .


2 posted on 09/09/2006 11:06:32 AM PDT by lionheart 247365 (( I.S.L.A.M. stands for - Islams Spiritual Leaders Advocate Murder .. .. .. ))
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To: Panerai

Massachusetts is one of the more racist places I've been. To see how the libs arrange things is a real eye-opener.


3 posted on 09/09/2006 11:20:48 AM PDT by claudiustg (Iran delenda est.)
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To: Panerai

A black governor? Ohmigawd! Why, didn't Massachusetts have a black senator in the 1970s???? And he was a Republican at that!


4 posted on 09/09/2006 11:26:37 AM PDT by Rummyfan
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To: Panerai

Anyone seen any headlines asking if Pennsylvania is ready for a black governor? Oh wait, my bad, Swan is a Republican.

How is Michael Steele's campaign doing? Lots of crossover votes from Democrats supporting a black, I'll bet. /sarcasm

The liberal media just never gives up.


5 posted on 09/09/2006 11:31:35 AM PDT by spudsmaki
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To: Panerai

A state that will put Ted Kennedy in office for what, 30+ years now should be ready for Joe Stalin as Govnernor.


6 posted on 09/09/2006 11:37:19 AM PDT by clearlight
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To: clearlight

Barney Franks, Kennedy's, Gay Marriage, higher than high taxes, 'the dig', .......they're ready for anything.....except for the whirrrrrrr of their forefathers spinning in their graves in response to what they've become.....


7 posted on 09/09/2006 11:39:54 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Panerai

I don't care what Patrick's pigmentation is. All I care about is that he is a doofus liberal who loves to spend other people's money.


8 posted on 09/09/2006 11:42:27 AM PDT by MIchaelTArchangel
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To: claudiustg
Massachusetts is one of the more racist places I've been.

Too true. I've lived in the South and I've lived in Boston. Boston is a very geographically segregated city.

9 posted on 09/09/2006 11:46:53 AM PDT by 6SJ7
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To: claudiustg
To see how the libs arrange things is a real eye-opener.

I lived in Seattle (Queen Anne) for a little over a year. It is easy to be Liberal when the people you want to "help" don't exist.

10 posted on 09/09/2006 11:48:20 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (the war on poverty should include health club memberships for the morbidly poor)
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To: lionheart 247365
>"Mass. is ready for a gay , black , secular , ultra liberal , socialist governor ,right now I believe ."

Not yet, he has to be a gay black secular ultra libera socialist albino eskimo with a speech impediment and a limp fraudulent war hero young girl drowning drunken drug abuseing muhhslime! To be the perfict Dumbocrap candydate!

11 posted on 09/09/2006 12:03:42 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (If a monkey bangs away at a typewriter twice a week for ten years it could write an M. Dowd column.)
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To: rawcatslyentist

Plus he has to pimp his boyfriends from the basement of the governor's mansion. You forgot that.


12 posted on 09/09/2006 12:20:06 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Panerai

"The governor's a ni--" [*BONG!*]
"What did he say?"
"He said the governor's a-near!"


13 posted on 09/09/2006 12:24:32 PM PDT by RichInOC ("'Mornin', ma'am. And isn't it a lovely mornin'?" "Up yours...!")
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To: Panerai
Massachusetts is "ready" for a Black governor, just not Deval Patrick. The people who support him are the ones who supported Robert Reich, the sort of people who still have Kerry bumperstickers on their cars. When these people really want something the rest of the state, like the rest of the country, usually votes the other way.

About the start of the article: it's a cheap shot, but journalism is largely made up of cheap shots. It's written for people who don't have a clue about how things are on the ground. That's why people pay less and less attention to the media.

14 posted on 09/09/2006 12:28:26 PM PDT by x
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To: rawcatslyentist

I believe you've nailed it . But isn't that Ted Kennedy ??


15 posted on 09/09/2006 2:36:49 PM PDT by lionheart 247365 (( I.S.L.A.M. stands for - Islams Spiritual Leaders Advocate Murder .. .. .. ))
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To: lionheart 247365

You forgot "FOB".


16 posted on 09/09/2006 2:39:14 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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