Should He Have Said It?

and how true is it?

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, meeting with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate,” he said bluntly. Our eyes only met briefly, perhaps because the governor wanted to spare the only black guy in the room from feeling self-conscious for backing an obvious loser. “I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann [2006 Republican gubernatorial candidate] been the identical candidate that he was –well-spoken [note: Mr. Rendell did not call the brother “articulate”], charismatic, good-looking — but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so.”

Here’s how his side is explaining it:

“He was simply making an observation about the unfortunate nature of some parts of American society,” said spokesman Chuck Ardo. “He wasn’t being critical, he wasn’t making accusations, but just being realistic.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.