Hi Joe,
It's me again. Remember? I was the one who wrote you last October, urging you to take serious the pending attacks from Trump over Burisma, the company your son, Hunter, worked at. P.S., he hasn't forgotten and neither has the GOP. They've already started hearings in the Senate. That's not what I want to write you about this time around.
Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, so I'll just come right out and say it. You can't tell African Americans that if they don't vote for you, they ain't black. You just can't do that. Period! For one thing, it's politically stupid. For another, it's just not true. Take it from somebody who's spent a quarter century in sales and who's lost his fair share of customers to the competition: you can never, ever assume the sale.
For the record, I have no idea why any reasonably sane black person would consider voting for a racist president who calls Third World countries shit-holes and who called the city of Baltimore rat infested, anymore than I can figure out why a blue-collar worker would vote for a president whose policies have done jack shit for the Rust-belt region. As I've often said, stupid is as stupid does.
Yes, I know the host was Charlemagne tha God. And, yes, I know the guy can be an asshole. That's bedside the point. You agreed to the interview; you should've known what was coming. The guy wasn't there to throw softball questions at you. He's not Joy Reid or Rachel Maddow, for Christ's sake. You've been in politics longer than some Americans have been alive. You know perfectly well what the term "What have you done for me lately?" means. Just because you won the black vote in places like South Carolina doesn't mean blacks don't have serious concerns, especially when they're still being shot in broad daylight. Jesus, if Hillary could figure that out, you have no excuse.
Look, I know you're heart's in the right place. It's not your heart I'm worried about; it's your head. It's one thing to put your foot in your mouth; it's quite another to add salt and pepper and a pinch of Tabasco sauce. Over a career that has spanned more than four decades, you've had your fair share of faux pas. Remember the heat you took last year over your praise of a couple of racist senators from your early days? Well, this one was a beaut.
At least you realized you stepped in it and you quickly apologized. That's good. Trump hasn't done that once in his whole miserable existence. Another good thing you've got going for you is that you truly care about people. It's the one defining thing about your candidacy, and it'll be your greatest asset going up against a man who wouldn't know what empathy was if it bit him in the ass.
But you've got to stop these unforced errors. They're not just a distraction; they're potentially fatal. If African Americans don't show up for you in droves this November, you are going to get trumped, no pun intended. Given the fact that this president is firing every inspector general in the government and threatening states just for protecting their citizens, that would be political malpractice.
Throughout this entire campaign you've dropped Obama's name more times than Trump has wrapped his arms around the American flag. Maybe it's time you borrowed a page from his playbook.
Rule number one: Don't do stupid shit!
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