Posted on 10/25/2007 5:38:22 PM PDT by personalaccts
WASHINGTON (CNN) — In what the Washington Post is describing as a "stumble," Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said in an interview with the paper Wednesday that Washington's high minority population is one of the reasons for the city's education problems.
Explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than those in Washington, D.C., Biden told the Post, "There's less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."
"When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there's no books, where the mother from the time they're born doesn't talk to them — as opposed to the mother in Iowa who's sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom," the Delaware Democrat added.
The paper reports Biden's campaign quickly sought to clarify the remarks, saying in a statement that the senator was not making a "race-based distinction.
This isn't the first time Biden's words have caused controversy. Last February, on the same day he officially announced his presidential bid, a newspaper quoted the senator describing Sen. Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."
And, in a June 2006 appearance in New Hampshire, Biden commented on the growth of the Indian-American population in Delaware by saying, "You cannot go into a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. Oh, I'm not joking."
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Close call, but Dodd takes it by a (the) hair.
Exactly. Biden still doesn't deserve to cut the White House lawn, but at least he nailed the answer.
This was actually a top story on WTIC-AM, the major talk-radio station here in CT this morning. They reported it almost exactly the way the Post did, word for word.
Rush should make these same comments on his show today. Just to see how it’s handled.
In Senator Biden’s defense, he probably plagiarized the remarks.
[snip] Explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than those in Washington, D.C., Biden told the Post, “There’s less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with. When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there’s no books, where the mother from the time they’re born doesn’t talk to them — as opposed to the mother in Iowa who’s sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom,” the Delaware Democrat added... Last February, on the same day he officially announced his presidential bid, a newspaper quoted the senator describing Sen. Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
I wonder wheter he’s after a nobel prize.
Imagine if an American candidate (Hunter, Tancredo, Thompson for example) had said those same things......the howls of “outrage” would be heard on the moon and every lowlife lefty gutter snipe group would be “organizing” and holding “protest” marches and screeching like a cat with its tail caught in a ringer!
If he's smart, he'll stay in the race. Since statistically 100% of all US Presidents have been white and male, and since Biden is white and male, his biggest threat is John Edwards. Unless, of course, Al Gore jumps in. Most likely, we will see Hillary and Barak vying for the VP slot next spring.
Interesting.
Yeah, not racial discrimination, but social class discrimination. That should go over well. < /sarcasm >
Joe needs to know that school administrators who abuse their power and never get held accountable for their child abuse are also part of the problem of public education being the failure that it is.
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