The Climate of Political Warming

The Presidential race of 2008 is already underway, and it is having an impact at all levels of the political systems of our nation. It is causing tempers to flare and secret –isms of the heart to be made public for consideration by voters across the political spectrum.

Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) recently made a positive (but perhaps revealing) statement about another presidential candidate, Senator Barrack Obama (D-Illinois). When asked what he thought about Senator Obama, he said that he is “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean."

When asked about his comment, Biden said that he regretted the comments and that he hadn't meant to disparage other blacks who had run for president in the past, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the late New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

So, is there an –ism to be detected in Biden’s comment? Perhaps, especially when you add this one to the long list of other things that he has said that seem to portray a certain –ism.

This week a high-ranking Hispanic party official, Alvaro Cifuentes resigned abruptly after having a heated argument with an African-American aide to the DNC Chairman Howard Dean.

Twice in the argument he called the aide “boy” and witnesses stepped in to calm the situation. They felt that Cifuentes' actions were physically intimidating, and that his remarks were racially insensitive. Cifuentes was the Chairman of the DNC’s Hispanic Caucus.

So, another temper has flared, and the Climate of Political Warming is, well, warmed even further.

The next 21 months are going to be very interesting as it relates to tempers and –isms being revealed!