A Different Kind of White House

Bush and Race

Bush genuinely appeared to take pride in the historic election of an African American president in his Rose Garden remarks yesterday.

Dan Eggen writes in The Washington Post: "In a warm statement yesterday praising the election of Democrat Barack Obama, President Bush made a point of highlighting the historic importance of the moment to African Americans and other minority groups.

"Obama's victory 'represents a triumph of the American story,' Bush said, and illustrates the 'strides we have made toward a more perfect union.' . . .

"The gracious words came from a president who entered office pledging to reach out to African Americans, Latinos and other ethnic groups that had long eluded the Republican Party, even as they made up a growing portion of the electorate. Bush appointed a record number of minorities to senior posts, pushed through changes in education law aimed in large part at minority children, and unsuccessfully pushed to rewrite immigration law.

"But such efforts do not appear to have had a lasting impact on the makeup of the Republican Party. . . .

"'He came up woefully short,' said Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau, referring to Bush's record with African Americans and other minorities. 'Even though he appointed a number of people from certain minority groups, they didn't seem to focus on the real challenges faced by those groups.'"

Johanna Neuman blogs for the Los Angeles Times: "True, he appointed popular retired Gen. Colin Powell to his Cabinet, making him the first black secretary of State in history.

"He installed Condoleezza Rice as his national security advisor (another first) and then, in his second term, as Powell's successor at State.

"And, in what may emerge as his singular humanitarian achievement, Bush spearheaded a massive program to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.

"But the war in Iraq was deeply unpopular among African Americans. His judicial appointments were seen as hostile acts. Mostly, Bush has never recovered from the flawed government response to Hurricane Katrina."

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann asked Newsweek's Richard Wolffe about Bush's sincerity last night:

Olbermann: "[H]e seemed to be expressing a genuine admiration, even a pride in the Obama victory... It would be hard to fake that. Was it genuine? If it was genuine, why was he not upset by what was contained in the decision last night, this electorate's utter repudiation of his entire eight years in office?"