Harry Reid's old thinking on race

Apparently Harry Reid thought all of the black candidates for the open Senate Seat in Illinois couldn't get elected, so he advised Blago to pick otherwise:

Reid wanted Madagin or Duckworth

Days before Gov. Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, top Senate Democrat Harry Reid made it clear who he didn't want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones.
Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.


The facts are that the state of Illinois has demonstrated its' willingness to vote for African American candidates statewide including: Carol Mosley-braun, President-elect and Senator Obama, current Senate nominee Burris, and so on.

Next, we are trying to change and make history not be slaves to it. So even if Reid thinks that the viable black candidates can't win, this would be the best time to try to change the state and the country.

His analysis is wrong.

Anything is possible, once the country has voted for an inexperienced black President named Obama. Before this election cycle Reid, and many others (including myself) would have argued that the first black President would need to be "over-qualified" in the mold of a Colin Powell. His politics would need to be unquestionably moderate and mainstream. We were wrong. Reid should have learned from this election. America is who we all wanted her to be all along. Much more than not.

Democrats are having a rocky time adjusting to majority status. We need to think about principles and ideals. What is it that we are willing to lose power over? We need to make sure our time is used in a way we can be proud of. This senate seat is an example, we should establish ideals about picking the best person regardless of race and gender, and then working hard to help them win. If we don't win, we will have 57 or 58 seats in the Senate and a record of acting on principle. But I think we will win that seat under all good circumstances anyway.