I am glad to see that Barack Obama has disavowed comments made by his “political godfather” state Senator Emil Jones about Delmarie Cobb. He had no choice. What is amazing is that Jones was not “man” enough to issue an outright apology. He issued a quasi-apology to the Hillary Clinton supporter he allegedly called an “Uncle Tom.”
“We don’t have time for that kind of stuff,” Obama told a reporter who asked him about the flap at the Quad Cities Airport in Moline, Ill. “What we need to do is focus on unifying the party to win in November, and that’s what I intend to do.”
Just hours before Jones received a last-minute, pre-prime-time speaking role at the Democratic National Convention, he expressed regret to Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb for insulting her — after insisting earlier in the day he had no reason to apologize to her. Telling a bare-faced lie, I might add.
The Obama camp and Jones worked feverishly to minimize fallout from the racial flap that threatened to further alienate Clinton supporters. Why is this man awared a coveted convention speaking role while embroiled in the fallout from his comments?
As you will recall, the tempest began with a hotel lobby meeting between Jones and Cobb Saturday night. And it escalated during what had been intended as a celebratory opening of the convention, which included an unprecedented lineup of Illinois speakers.Cobb said Jones finally apologized during a Monday event.
“He came over, sat down. A couple of people obviously had something to do with it,” Cobb said, without elaborating. “He sat down at the table with me. He said, ‘I apologize and let’s move forward.’ I accepted his apology and said, ‘OK, we will.’ It was never my intention to continue things that would hurt Barack Obama.”
According to the Chicago Sun Times, Jones, however, offered a much less apologetic version of his Monday conversation with Cobb.”I said ‘If that’s what you think I said, I don’t want to have no hard feelings, so I apologize. We’ve known each other too long.” In an encounter with a reporter, Jones still insisted he never called Cobb an “Uncle Tom,” saying “But that’s not what I said””That’s all over,” he said.
Jones started the day out Monday defiantly claiming he never hurled the slur at Cobb, instead insisting he had characterized her as a “Doubting Thomas” for not being fully aboard the Obama bandwagon. Hello people, how does “Doubting Thomas” sound like “Uncle Tom?” She walked away, and I said, ‘All you doubting Thomases got to get on board.” Is he linguistically challenged? Oh, maybe the people who heard it were deaf.
As I reported yesterday, Cobb’s allegation, which was supported by two aldermen who said they heard Jones say the slur “in jest.” The latest dustup in this tempest comes courtesy of feminists aligned with Clinton, including the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women. “That was a pretty horrible comment,” said Illinois NOW president Bonnie Grabenhofer, who called for Jones’ immediate resignation.
“I’ve never heard anything as awful or as sexist or as racist as to call her that for supporting Hillary,” said Clinton delegate Gay Bruhn, another NOW member in Illinois who called for a public apology from Jones.
At a Monday morning meeting of Illinois delegates, Jones made clear to reporters he had no intention of stepping down before his January retirement from the state Senate or of apologizing to Cobb or the Clinton delegates.”I cannot apologize for one misinterpreting what I said. That’s all I can say,” Jones said.
What a moron and this speaks to the character of yet another person associated with Barack Obama. This is a shameless sideshow that we need to watch. This is distracting and taking Obama away from addressing the issues as to why he should be selected as our next president and not that “wrinkly guy with the white hair,” to quote Paris Hilton. I think the bar has been set so low, that Paris Hilton made perfect sense in her commercial.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Delmarie Cobb, Emil Jones, Hillary Clinton, John McCain
Black Political Thought 