Thursday, Aug 28, 2008
This debate was a last stand of sorts for Bradley, as even some of his supporters acknowledged Monday night. He is in serious danger of being blown away in the March 7 primaries. Here in his almost back yard of New York, two recent polls place him at least 15 percentage points behind Gore among Democratic voters around the state.
"He's got to win New York to stay in it," says Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who worked for the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1996. But Sheinkopf sees Bradley's prospects as weak, since most New York politicians are supporting Gore. "Who turns out on March 7? Organization Democrats. It's not a normal election day. If Bradley gets trounced badly in New York, then there isn't much left of Bradley. He's pinning his hopes on getting a black vote, but I don't see how he gets that."
Indeed, the incumbent vice president has gotten most of the endorsements of African-American elected officials, particularly in New York City, a point he gleefully pointed out Monday night.
"Do you think that they all have such poor judgment, Sen. Bradley?" he asked.
Ooh! Low blow! Low blow!
"What I think is they don't know your record as a conservative Democrat," Bradley responded. More shrieks and boos. "They don't know that you voted five times over three years for tax exemptions for schools that discriminate on the basis of race."
Uh-oh. Bad move.
Traces of a grin -- no, make that a sneer -- spread across Gore's face. A ripe opportunity had just presented itself. "Y'know what, in my experience, Black Caucus is pretty savvy," he said. "They know a lot more than you think they know." An explosion of yelling and applause rose from the crowd.
He wasn't done yet.
"The Congressional Black Caucus is not out there being led around. They know what the score is, and they know their brothers and sisters in New Jersey said you were never for them walking the walk."
Ouch.
So, despite the urgency of the occasion for Bradley, it didn't seem as if he'd won. Near the end of the evening, he grasped for a reliable portion of his playbook: He talked of his days as a rookie for the New York Knicks, and of getting offers to do endorsements that should have gone to his black teammates.
Being a strong president who wants to deal with race means "sometimes telling white Americans what they don't want to hear," said Bradley, who cited what he calls "white-skin privilege" -- a term that attracted much attention when Bradley used it early in his campaign. Rarely has a mainstream candidate spoken so candidly about race. Bradley, it seems, was actually going to build his campaign around race and the continuing mistreatment of people of color by white people.
But that theme, like the rest of Bradley's campaign, just never caught fire, not even after his 90 minutes at the Apollo Theater.
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