My must read of the day "Landrieu on Obama: South Not Always ‘Friendliest Place for African-Americans,’" on NBCNews.com:
Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu said Thursday that the issue of race is a major reason that President Barack Obama has struggled politically in Southern states.
"I'll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans," Landrieu told NBC News in an interview. "It's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader."
Noting that the South is "more of a conservative place," she added that women have also faced challenges in "presenting ourselves."
The comment prompted a fiery response from Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, who called it "remarkably divisive."
"She appears to be living in a different century," he said in a statement. "Implied in her comments is the clear suggestion that President Obama and his policies are unpopular in Louisiana because of his ethnicity. That is a major insult by Senator Landrieu to the people of Louisiana and I flatly reject it."
Are there still people who are sexist and/or racist? Yes, unfortunately there are—and they are not solely found in the South.
I'm a southerner through and through (and very proud of that). I was born in North Carolina and grew up in Georgia. My Dad was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of an Air Force Chaplin who until going into the Air Force spent his entire life in Spartanburg, South Carolina. My mother was born and raised in Florence, South Carolina, and just to really drive home the southern image for you, growing up my mom was an elementary school teacher and my dad was a Presbyterian minister. That surely fulfills at least half of your southern stereotypes.
I'm also very aware of the South's history, and what Landrieu said isn't entirely wrong. There are some people who still think like that, but they absolutely do not represent the mindset of most Southerners.
Landrieu insulted the character and intelligence of her voters by suggesting that they were racist and sexist, and by implying they were too daft to see beyond it and judge Landrieu or the president for the policies they've implemented.
There are four days left in this election, and none of the candidates are pulling the fifty percent needed to avoid a run off. When it’s just Landrieu and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), she is down 4.5 points.
I suspect Landrieu’s comment was a last ditch effort to appeal to base voters and increase turnout to hopefully avoid a runoff, but it's a PR disaster that is not going to play well with her constituents on the whole. It's especially dumb considering that the people the comment primarily singled out (white male voters) are the ones who tend to turnout in midterms. Purposefully lobbing a stereotype type, which most Southerners would consider a personal attack, against the people you know will show up to vote seems like a terrible idea.
In fact, I can assure you, it was a terrible idea because this will without a doubt infuriate many people from the South—whether they're male or female. What will probably make it worse is that she said it to an outsider—Chuck Todd of NBC—and not a local news outlet.
It’s of course worth noting the president's disapproval is not only bad in Louisiana or the South—it’s bad everywhere. If the president's disapproval is only because he's black, then apparently fifty-three percent of Americans are racist and think of nothing beyond skin color, and those people also live in "deep-blue states" such as California and New York.