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Election

EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Kwame Anthony Appiah On Sununu And Race’s Role In The Election

By Zack Beauchamp on Oct 27, 2012 at 1:31 pm

This Thursday, Romney campaign co-chair John Sununu said that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Obama because both were African-Americans, despited Powell’s stated justifications being based on Obama’s foreign and economic policy record. Sununu’s comments (which are par for his course) brought the simmering racial subtext in this election to the fore: anti-black prejudice has spiked since President Obama’s 2008 victory, when the President likely lost three to five points in the popular vote as a consequence of racist voting.

To discuss the complex questions surrounding race, identity, and voting, ThinkProgress reached out to Kwame Anthony Appiah, Professor of Philosophy and African Studies at Princeton University and one of the world’s most prominent scholars of race, identity, and politics. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of that conversation.

TP: How does this assumption that African American voters think principally in racial terms work to define race in the United States?

KAA: Well [laughs], that’s a complicated question.

Look… I think that it’s …many people who voted for President Obama the first time around had in their minds the fact that they were voting for the first African American president and thought that was a consideration in favor for doing so, and that applies to lots of white people, as well and lots of black people. And in a country with our history, it’s not an unreasonable thought if somebody’s acceptable on other grounds as a president, that that should weigh in his favor. It’s true that President Obama has gotten a larger proportion of the black vote, I believe, than most Democrats. On the other hand, most African Americans vote overwhelmingly for white Democrats, as well as black ones. And the reason for that is that African Americans think Republican Party is less friendly to advancing the causes of black people and doing something about our history of racial inequality than the Democrats are.

And, so, I think that’s the context within which one has to think about the fact the president has done very well with black voters. The situation for minorities in general is such that they’re likely to value the thought that somebody of their own identity is a serious candidate for office. And not just minorities. It applies to women, as well, in country which has a long history of keeping women out of high places. Women have sometimes thought that the fact that someone was a woman was a consideration in favor for voting for her, as indeed have many men who think that the history of exclusion of women from power is a bad thing. And so I think that the identity of a candidate, especially if it’s a minority identity or a historically excluded identity, can be a reasonable basis for voting for them. I’m pretty skeptical that the reason Colin Powell endorsed President Obama was, as it were, simply that he was black. Colin Powell belongs to –- or used to belong, I don’t know what his current party affiliations are –- the moderate wing of the Republican Party and if the moderates in the Republican Party were attending more carefully they would notice that many, well if all of them were attending properly, they would notice that President Obama’s actual policies are pretty close to the polices that have historically been favored by moderate Republicans [laughs].

So I’m sure that Colin Powell would not endorse someone for president whom he didn’t think was not doing a good job for reelection to the presidency, who didn’t think he was doing a good job on domestic and foreign policy, and that I suspect is the main reason why he endorsed him.

TP: Right. And of course, those were his stated reasons, which is sort of why this remark has generated controversy because Sununu is implying that his real reasons are hidden and they really must have to do with race. What’s going on there? How would you analyze this assumption that everything must be about race in context of America’s racial history?

KAA: I think, as I say, it’s inevitable, given our history, that it’s one of the things you think about when you have a chance to elect a man who’s black or a woman. You think about what that means, and a lot of politics is about the meaning of things as much as about any particular matter. But as I say, someone like Colin Powell, who’s been so close to the circle of government most of his adult life, is in a good position to evaluate…whether he thinks the President is doing a good job on the issues he cares about.

And even if it’s the case that Colin Powell’s endorsement and support for the President has an element in it of believing that it’s good a good thing for the country to have a black president, I think that’s a reasonable thought. But it’s rather odd to reduce it to that. And in fact, frankly, I’m more worried about people who vote against President Obama because he’s black than I am people who vote for him because he’s black. [laughs] My guess is that there will be more of those on Mr. Sununu’s side than in the Democratic Party voting against him because he’s black.

I know the President’s people –- I don’t know if the President himself has spoken about this –- the President’s people believe that these two are a wash. That is, the number of people who vote for him, as it were, solely because he’s black is about the same as the number of people who vote against him because he’s black. And what they think is most Americans are smart enough to figure out that can’t be the only question.
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Politics

John Sununu’s History Of Racial Remarks About Obama

By Igor Volsky on Oct 26, 2012 at 9:04 am

On Thursday, Romney campaign co-chair advanced the theory that Gen. Colin Powell endorsed President Obama because he’s black. But this isn’t the first time Sununu or even Mitt Romney’s campaign have introduced Obama’s race into the election. The former New Hampshire governor has repeatedly suggested that Obama or his policies are “foreign,” European, and something less than American. Here are some of his greatest hits:

– Obama is foreign. Obama doesn’t understand the “American system” because “he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure.” [Fox News, 7/17/2012]

– Obama doesn’t know how to be an American. During a conference call, Sununu claimed, “The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses, from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way. And I wish this president would learn how to be an American.” [Conference call, 7/17/2012]

– Obama is a lazy idiot. Sununu described Obama’s debate performance as “babbling,” “lazy,” and “disengaged,” and dismissed the possibility that he could do better in the future. “When you’re not that bright you can’t get better prepared.” [Fox News, 10/4/2012]

– Obama has no class, just wants to be cool. “That moment of using the B.S. word was kind of a self-defining moment for the president,” he told Sean Hannity. “No class, wants to be cool. Sacrifices the dignity of the presidency for appearing cool to a magazine that works for some of his base.” [Fox News, 10/25/2012]

Romney has never publicly rebuked Sununu’s racial remarks, though Sununu has previously issued retractions of some of his statements. With just 11 days before Election Day, he remains the campaign’s most prominent spokesperson and is even attacking Obama for dividing Americans along racial lines. During an appearance on Fox News on Thursday he complained that Obama has instituted “class warfare,” adding, “This guy has tried to create some racial divides.”

Update

Related Posts

Justice

Romney Campaign Chair: Colin Powell Endorsed Obama Because He Is Black

By Ian Millhiser on Oct 25, 2012 at 10:21 pm

In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan this evening, Romney Campaign Co-Chair and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R-NH) offered a surprising theory on why General Colin Powell endorsed President Obama for reelection today — because both men are black:

SUNUNU: You have to wonder whether that’s an endorsement based on issues or that he’s got a slightly different reason for President Obama.

MORGAN: What reason would that be?

SUNUNU: Well, I think that when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being President of the United States — I applaud Colin for standing with him.

For the record, John Sununu is an intelligent and accomplished white man. He has also decided to endorse Mitt Romney, who is white, over Barack Obama, who is black. No one believes that Sununu made this decision for any reason other than the fact that he prefers Romney’s policies to Obama’s, and it would be absolutely inappropriate to suggest that Sununu joined the Romney campaign because he wanted a president of his same race.

Colin Powell is also an intelligent and accomplished man. Suggesting he is unable to see beyond the president’s race is no less insulting.

Update

Sununu releases statement in response to controversy:

Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made, I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the President’s policies. Piers Morgan’s question was whether Colin Powell should leave the party, and I don’t think he should.

Update

An astute e-mailer points out that Sununu is an Arab-American of Greek, Lebanese and Palestinian descent, a fact that still provides no more of a window into his decision to endorse Romney than General Powell’s race does into his decision to endorse Obama.

Election

Romney Campaign Chair On Obama: ‘When You’re Not That Bright You Can’t Get Better Prepared’

By Igor Volsky on Oct 4, 2012 at 1:11 pm

Mitt Romney campaign co-chair and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) appeared on Fox News on Thursday and took a victory lap following last night’s first presidential debate.

Sununu described Obama’s performance as “babbling,” “lazy,” and “disengaged,” and dismissed the possibility that he could do better in the future. “When you’re not that bright you can’t get better prepared,” he said. Watch it:

During a separate interview on MSNBC, Sununu doubled down on the characterization. “I think you saw him admit it the night before when he delivered the pizzas. He said, you know, they’re making me do this work. He didn’t want to prepare for this debate. He’s lazy and disengaged.”

Security

Top Romney Adviser Criticizes Obama For Not Killing Bin Laden Fast Enough

By Igor Volsky on Sep 29, 2012 at 12:37 pm

Mitt Romney campaign co-chair and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu accused President Obama of waiting too long to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, in an interview with the New York Times that was published on Saturday.

Sununu said that Obama was “timid,” could have gone after the terrorist mastermind sooner, and attributed the successful operation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

The president is trying to take credit for following the strategy and the tactics put into place by George W. Bush. At some point the president is going to have to explain why he was timid on the first two or three opportunities that we had. Thank goodness Hillary Clinton was there was to convince him to do the right thing. [...] His trying to take credit for having been decisive belies the fact that he wasn’t decisive until pressed by others.

But former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in both the Bush and Obama administrations, described Obama’s decision to order the raid that killed Osama bin Laden “gutsy,” saying that “people don’t realize” what a tough call it was and not everyone would have made the same call. Vice President Biden and Gates both advised Obama against taking the course he chose on the bin Laden raid, noting that “There wasn’t any direct evidence that he was there. It was all circumstantial.”

Indeed, even Romney had hinted that he would have not followed in Obama’s footsteps. In April of 2007, Romney said, “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person,” but quickly changed his mind after bin Laden was killed. “Any thinking American would have ordered exactly the same thing,” he proclaimed earlier this year.

NEWS FLASH

Romney Campaign Chair: Same-Sex Marriage Too ‘Complicated’ To Discuss | Romney campaign chair John Sununu sat down for a radio interview with Michelangelo Signorile yesterday, but was apparently unprepared to discuss the Republican Party’s platform. When he was informed that it called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage — which Mitt Romney supports — Sununu was at a loss for words, explaining the issue is “much more complicated” than a “two-sentence” answer could encompass. Instead, he offered to share two cases of beer and talk about it in a different setting, presumably not while being recorded. Listen to the interview:

Sununu Interview with Michelangelo Signorile by thinkprogress

Election

As Hurricane Approaches New Orleans, Romney Campaign Chair Complains Media ‘Is Obsessed With Mother Nature’

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Aug 28, 2012 at 9:18 am

When Hurricane Isaac showed a looming threat of hitting Tampa, Florida, during the GOP convention, Romney campaign co-chair and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu told Fox News, “we’ll keep hoping that Isaac moves as far west as he can.”

Now that the storm has moved west — and is on the same trajectory as Hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005 — Sununu complained on Fox News today that the media is “obsessed with mother nature” and is unfairly covering the storm instead of the convention:

SUNUNU: We aren’t talking about jobs. It’s the media that is obsessed with mother nature. This is a jobs campaign. 8.3 unemployment, 25 million Americans underemployed or unemployed, and college graduates, half of them can’t find decent jobs. But each of the last four years, it is jobs.

KILMEADE: But you have to admit for the last week it is Medicare, and we’ve been talking a lot about that. No one can help if there is a storm coming. We’ve got to talk that.

SUNUNU: But it is jobs, Governor Romney is the guy to fix the job’s program.

Watch it:

Sununu’s callousness has been echoed by other members of his party. Rep Darryl Issa (R-CA) said he’d be “fine” if Isaac made landfall in New Orleans, as long as Republicans could win in November, and radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested yesterday that President Obama intentionally messed with the storm track predictions of Isaac to scare Republicans into canceling their convention.

Economy

CNN Host Schools Romney Campaign Chair Over False Welfare Reform Attacks

By Travis Waldron on Aug 22, 2012 at 6:12 pm

Romney campaign chair John Sununu

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has flooded the airwaves with advertisements criticizing the Obama administration’s changes to the 1996 welfare reform law, accusing the administration of “gutting welfare reform” and removing the work requirements the law mandates. The ads are blatantly false, a point noted by independent fact-checkers, multiple media outlets, and even the newspaper cited in one of the ads.

This afternoon on CNN, Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer took Romney campaign chairman John Sununu to task over the false ads, reading directly from the Dept. of Health and Human Services directive that outlines the waiver program and the letters from Republican governors who asked for the waivers:

BLITZER: I’ll read to you, governor, the precise language from the Health and Human Services memo outlining what the states who seek this flexibility, and you were once a governor, and I’ll read to you what it says. It says the Department of Health and Human Services will only consider approving waivers relating to the work participation requirements that make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The secretary will not approve a waiver for an initiative that substantially likely to reduce access for assistance or employment for needy families.

SUNUNU: That’s correct.

BLITZER: They’re not going to approve anything unless it leads to greater opportunities for moving people from welfare to work.

SUNUNU: Look, to quote the president who signed the bill, it depends on what your definition of access is and expands is and background discussions were. The background discussions talked about broadening it to the point where you soften the hard reality of the work requirement. [...]

BLITZER: I don’t know, governor, if you’ve actually read the letters from the governors’ offices from Utah and Nevada, which I have here in front of me.

SUNUNU: I only heard their comments. I have not read their letters.

BLITZER: You should read the letters. Because I’ve read them in depth. [...]

BLITZER: We’ll make sure we’re precise. on this one, governor, on this — hold on a second. Hold on one second. On this one it’s not just CNN. It’s every major fact checking organization out there says he has not — has not gutted, has not gutted by any means the work requirements.

Watch:

Sununu isn’t the first Republican to struggle to defend the false attacks on television. Last week, MSNBC host Chuck Todd called out Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) for defending the ads. Todd noted the same directives and letters Blitzer cited to make the case, and Branstand was unable to defend Romney’s stance.

The proposed changes, it bears noting, are being made because the 1996 welfare reform law, which celebrated its 16th birthday today, has failed to help many of the neediest Americans. The law may be an “unprecedented success” in the eyes of the Romney campaign, but the reality is that it achieved much of its reductions to welfare by kicking people out of the program, not by getting them jobs.

Health

Romney Campaign Chair Contradicts Candidate, Says Romney’s Medicare Plan Is ‘Very Different’ From Ryan’s Plan

By Igor Volsky on Aug 14, 2012 at 9:26 am

Just a day after Mitt Romney told reporters, “my plan for Medicare is very similar to [Paul Ryan's] plan for Medicare,” former New Hampshire governor and Romney campaign chair John Sununu insisted on Tuesday morning that the former Massachusetts governor’s vision form Medicare reform is “very different” from Ryan’s proposal.

During a contentious appearance on CNN’s Starting Point, Sununu accused President Obama of stealing $716 billion from Medicare and insisted that Romney would protect the program. Asked to outline the differences between Romney’s campaign proposal and Ryan’s budget, Sununu admitted that Ryan maintains Obamacare’s reductions to Medicare — which he incorrectly argued would cut existing benefits — while Romney does not:

O’BRIEN: Let’s read then what comes out of Mitt Romney.com, which I have right here. Key elements of Mitt’s plan, nothing changes for current seniors. Medicare is reformed as a premium support system… it sounds awfully like the Paul Ryan Medicare plan.

SUNUNU: But it’s very different. For example, when Obama gutted Medicare by taking $717 billion out of it, the Romney plan does not do that. The Ryan plan mimicked part of the Obama package there. The Romney plan does not. That’s a big difference.

Watch it:

Sununu’s acknowledgment that Ryan preserves the $716 billion in Medicare savings complicates a Republican messaging campaign to use the ACA’s Medicare reductions as an “offensive” strategy against attacks on the Ryan budget. Romney accused Obama of gutting the program on Sunday, during an interview with CBS, as Ryan looked on.

Romney, incidentally, would have to cut as much as $2 trillion from Medicare to meet his goal of balancing the budget by the end of his second term.

Update

Tara Wall, a communications adviser to the Romney campaign, told CNN, “there are no differences relative to how we address this going forward with these two great men at the top of the ticket.”

Update

“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have always been fully committed to repealing Obamacare, ending President Obama’s $716 billion raid on Medicare and tackling the serious fiscal challenges our country faces,” Lanhee Chen, Romney’s policy director, told TPM. “A Romney-Ryan administration will restore the funding to Medicare, ensure that no changes are made to the program for those 55 or older and implement the reforms that they have proposed to strengthen it for future generations.” Earlier this week, Romney advisers said he would have signed the Ryan budget — which includes the $716 billion in Medicare cuts.

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