That’s the headline you won’t see.  This is what I’m referring to:

Explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than those in Washington, D.C., Biden told the Post, “There’s less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”

“When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there’s no books, where the mother from the time they’re born doesn’t talk to them — as opposed to the mother in Iowa who’s sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom,” the Delaware Democrat added.

Now, some people are trying to explain this off as a reference to socio/economic situations as opposed to racial ones.  But, that’s not what Joe says.  He’s been around long enough to know what he’s saying.  And, that’s what he said.  Very clearly and succinctly.  In order to make it a socio/economic comparison, and stay within Joe’s statement, one has to assume the minority population determine the socio/economic situation.  Bottom line, it’s racist.  So, let’s look at the socio/economic aspect to see real quicklike if that’s what he’s actually referring to since that seems to be the defense being thrown in his direction.

The gross state product per capita last year in DC was $136,714.  This ranked #1 in all the land.  The gross state product per capita for Iowa?  $38,521, which ranked 23rd.  What this says is this is what each person living in each location produced.  Now, in order to produce $136,714 per person, you’ve got to have some people making a LOT of money and a whole lot of others making pretty good money.  In order to produce $38,521, you’ve got some people making pretty good money, and a whole bunch making not a whole lot.  I’ll put it this way, how many readers make $18 an hour?  How many make $65 an hour?  I live pretty well, I make a lot closer to Iowa than DC.  Using another indicator, the unemployment rate in Iowa is probably 2% less than DC at the time of this post.  However, the population density of Iowa is about 23 per square mile.  The density of DC is about 9,300 per square mile.  Bottom line, there’s a lot more opportunity ( see gross state product ) in DC than Iowa, but there’s a heck of a lot more competition ( see densities ).  Needless to say, the cost of living in DC is profoundly higher than Iowa. 

Now, I’ve never lived in Iowa, but I have lived in DC.  The reason I left DC was because it seemed like you spent way too much time just existing there.  A two mile commute to get home takes an hour in DC.  A two mile commute to get home here ( and Iowa as well ), is about five minutes.  In other words, the societal differences of spending time laughing and playing with your kids in a place like Iowa is a lot easier because you don’t spend so much time just doing the basic functions as you do in DC.  Those two hours a day commuting in DC take away from any opportunity the parent would have had to spend quality time with their child.  That’s not a minority issue.  Whether that commuter is black, white, Hispanic, or whatever, that’s not a social issue.  Now, they could choose to live in Iowa to eliminate that issue from their life, but then Iowa gets the credit and DC loses a good parent.  Commuting time is simply one issue that makes life in Iowa a lot different than life in DC.  There are many more.

But, the bottom line is there are very distinct differences between life in Iowa and life in DC or any city.  That’s why people move to cities or leave them.  That’s their choice.  What Biden is assuming is all the negatives of city life are because there are more minorities there than in Iowa.  As I have pointed out, the primary negative he points out can be just as easily argeud that the geography of any city is the culprit and not the racial make-up of that city.  It’s a very simple and easy argument to make without bringing any aspect of race into it.  But, Joe only sees the race issue.  You know what that means dontcha?

Al Sharpton called for a national boycott on November 2 for reasons no one is particularly sure of.  It’s being laughed off and dismissed by most people, including myself.  The reason it’s being dismissed by most people is because he is wanting to punish corporate America for something no one knows what he’s talking about.  In the meantime, something overt and obviously racial occurs, and Al totally dismisses  it. As yet, I’ve not seen any condemnation from Jesse Jackson either.  And, the ones I fully expect to hear nothing from are Harry Reid and of course, Nancy Pelosi.

Joe, like Byrd, will get a pass.  He can’t be racist, he’s a Democrat.  Just as DailyKos or Keith Olbermann.

Tags: 2008 Presidential Race, al-sharpton, dc, demographic, district-of-columbia, economic, harry reid, hot-air, iowa, jesse-jackson, joe-biden, keith-olbermann, nancy pelosi, Racism, socio, state-gross, washington