WAPO Op-ed: "While GOP candidates stammer, Clinton directly confronts race"

[Statistikhengst]

Photo source.​

While GOP candidates stammer Clinton directly confronts race - The Washington Post

The massacre last week at a church in Charleston, S.C., opened a leadership opportunity for the nearly two dozen politicians running to be the next president.

But few stepped forward to seize it.

The Republican hopefuls mostly stammered and stumbled in response to the shootings. At first, some resisted calling the massacre racially motivated, only to reverse course when it became obvious it was.

Most stopped short of calling for South Carolina leaders to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia. Some, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, declined to comment at all. Only after South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley, emotionally declared Monday that the flag should come down did most GOP candidates join the chorus.

Some also lacked sensitivity. Sen. Ted Cruz joked Friday — less than two days after the slayings — that in his home state of Texas, gun control means “hitting what you aim at.” The next day, he campaigned at a shooting range.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, by contrast, has forcefully initiated a conversation about race and bigotry in recent days. At this moment of national trauma, the Republican candidates seemed as though they didn’t know what to say.

“This is a leadership opportunity for candidates to show the kind of moral clarity and risk-taking leadership it will take to lead the free world,” said Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “I think that candidates who are skittish are demonstrating that they’re not aware of where the country is right now.”

Clinton gave an impassioned speech about persistent racism to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Saturday...

...For Republicans especially, rising to the occasion has proved difficult. The candidates have been balancing the political imperative to present a welcoming face to minority and moderate voters with hesitancy to turn off conservative white voters who see the Confederate flag as a representation of their family heritage and Southern traditions.

The result has been timid, measured responses. It is telling that the most unambiguous Republican statement came from a non-candidate; 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney tweeted Sunday, “Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol.”

There is more at the link. Also interesting to note is that this op-ed was written by not just one, but rather, two individuals:

Philip Rucker

Philip Rucker - The Washington Post

Phil Rucker promoted at Washington Post - POLITICO.com
-and-

Ann Gearan

Anne Gearan - The Washington Post

AP veteran Anne Gearan joins the Washington Post JIMROMENESKO.COM

Two journalists with long resumes, a hell of a lot of credentials and a lot of experience. They are no wilting daisies, to be sure.


Discuss: are the GOP candidates showing lack of leadership in the wake of the massacre in Charleston, SC? Did Hillary Clinton seize the moment?

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

“It’s tempting to dismiss a tragedy like this as an isolated incident, to believe that in today’s America bigotry is largely behind us,” Clinton said.

Hey lady, it largely was, until Obama, Sharpton, Conyers, the rest of the Black Caucus and YOU stirred it all up again.

"You want to end racism? Stop talking about it."
- Morgan Freeman

 

[candycorn]

Its pretty much the perfect storm for the GOP candidates:

Coming out against it pretty much destroys their chances in politically significant South Carolina (3rd in the nation--first in the South). So now you have these guys saluting a flag they never pledged allegiance to (until now).

Rubio missed a golden opportunity to sieze the "new" GOP mantra. He's beholden to legislation he shepherded through the Florida House when Bush removed the Stars and Bars from Florida....

The legislation read:

No monument, memorial, plaque, marker, or historic flag commemorating or memorializing the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, or the Native-American War displayed on public property of the state or any of its political subdivisions may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered.

I betcha he wishes he had that one back.