Dump the joke, guv
Friday, Feb 10, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
I think it’s time that Gov. Blagojevich stop telling this joke.
An incident happened on his way to the airport to go to Washington, the governor said.
“We were stopped at a red light,” he said. “I rolled down a window, and a young girl, 12 years old, African-American, I looked at her, she looks at me. I look at her again. She looks at me. She gasps and she said, “Oh, my God, it’s Mayor (RICHARD) DALEY.” […]
“And we’re walking out, and there’s a whole crowd of people,” Blagojevich said. “And you could hear a young African-American girl, maybe 12 or 13 years old, and she was starstruck. She saw President Clinton. She said, ‘President Clinton!’”
“And then she saw Senator Obama, and she said, ‘Wow, Barack Obama!’ And then she saw me, and she said, ‘Wow, Mayor Daley!’” That drew laughs, of course.
I’m not sure why he thinks it’s OK to always mention that it was a young African-American girl. A joke like that, repeated like he did with different facts, could ruin a Republican.
UPDATE: Zorn has posted audio of the two stories back-to-back here.
Blagojevich states twice that she’s an African-American in one of the stories, making it seem even worse than the quote above. Again, if a Republican did this, he or she would be in huge trouble.