OK, fair enough: If you're in public life, you have to get used to getting corrected when you make a mistake. But O'Donnell went much further, as Sheppard records, in a masterpiece of transcription and exegesis. Here's part of what Noel wrote:
Regardless of the answer, readers are advised to fasten their seatbelts, because things were about to get really ugly:
O'DONNELL: What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are whiter than the average district. 92 percent white in fact.
What? They're ignorant because they're white? Are you kidding? O'Donnell continued:
O'DONNELL: But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent white and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
Well, if that "explains nothing," why bring it up? It's almost like O'Donnell and his staff knew they were going too far with the 92 percent white remark, and felt they needed to soften it a little by bringing up Emerson's district.
But the damage was already done. After all, imagine for a moment Bachmann was black, Emerson was black, these were black districts, and the commentator was a conservative:
What makes those voters so ignorant? Well, for starters, they are blacker than the average district. 92 percent black in fact. But that explains nothing. Missouri's 8th Congressional district is 91 percent black and has been represented by Jo Ann Emerson since 1997. We do not have a litany of imbecilic comments by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. In fact, we have none. If we’ve missed any, please submit them to our website, thelastword.msnbc.com, and we'll see if they compare to Michele Bachmann’s.
You think that would have gone over well in the black community, or would there be calls Tuesday for said conservative commentator's immediate termination?
The Cable Gamer can say that the real problem, in O'Donnell's mind, is that the people of Bachmann's district aren't "diverse" enough. If the district were more "diverse," O'Donnell thinks, maybe Bachmann would not be in Congress.
But of course, O'Donnell himself is plenty white, but he just bought himself some "diversity cred" with this screed. And so nobody, O'Donnell hopes, will remember that he is many other things besides white, such as self-described socialist, and out-and-out snob.
