Left: Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks shortly before Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is sworn in as 24th Secretary of Defense and welcomed into his new role in front of a large audience during a ceremony in the Pentagon Auditorium, March 14, 2013. (DoD Photo By Glenn Fawcett) (Released)
Right: Former Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams (Photo courtesy of the Georgia State House of Representatives)
Probable presidential candidate Joe Biden, has a race problem, writes Pat Buchanan in The American Conservative. To solve the thorny issue of his being an old, white, man (a sin in today’s Democrat Party), Biden is considering prepackaging himself with failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as his pick for vice president.
It is hard to imagine the media personalities who were aghast at John McCain’s choice of the “inexperienced” first term governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, being thrilled with Abrams whose experience is limited to a stint as Minority Leader in the Georgia State House, but given that she’s a Democrat, they’ll probably find a way. Pat writes:
Of 895 slots in the freshman class of Stuyvesant High in New York City, seven were offered this year to black students, down from 10 last year and 13 the year before.
In the freshman class of 803 at the Bronx High School of Science, 12 students are black, down from last year’s 25.
Of 303 students admitted to Staten Island Technical High School, only one is African-American.
According to The New York Times, similar patterns of admission apply at the other five most elite high schools in the city.
What do these numbers tell us?
They reveal the racial composition of the cohort of scientists and technicians who will lead America in the 21st century. And they tell us which races will not be well represented in that vanguard.
Joe Biden has a history on compulsory integration dating back to the 1970s that Senator Jesse Helms called “enlightened.”
And he has a record on busing for racial balance that made him a de facto ally of Louise Day Hicks of the Boston busing case fame.
How, with a record like this, does Biden inoculate himself against attacks by rival candidates, especially candidates of color, in his run for the nomination?
Perhaps he’ll run with a woman of color such as Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the 2018 governor’s race in Georgia.
An ancillary benefit would be that Abrams on the ticket would help him carry Georgia, a state Donald Trump probably cannot lose and win re-election.
Wrote Axios this morning: “Close advisers to former Vice President Joe Biden are debating the idea of packaging his presidential campaign announcement with a pledge to choose Stacey Abrams as his vice president.”
Read more here.
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