Ben Johnson,Floyd Reports
Last weekend,Al Sharpton hoped to outshine Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally with a left-wing,racial grievance gathering of his own. Like Recovery Summer or the health care town hall meetings (which were intended to build support for ObamaCare), it fell short of the mark. But the Obama administration did everything it could — perhaps more than it could legally — to to turn people out for Fat Albert.
The Washington Examiner obtained an e-mail sent last Wednesday by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to more than 4,000 federal employees that began,“ED [Education Department] staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan,the Reverend Al Sharpton,and other leaders on Saturday,Aug. 28,for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march.”
The counter-protest was designed to cast Glenn Beck and his half-million followers as racists,while reassembling Barack Obama’s voting coalition for the 2010 midterms. Sharpton told his followers that Republicans:
think we showed up [to vote] in 2008 and that we won’t show up again. But we know how to sucker-punch,and we’re coming out again in 2010.
Minorities play a crucial role in the Democratic Party,even more so in the election of Barack Obama. The president raised eyebrows in April when he released a video calling on “young people,African-Americans,Latinos,and women who powered our victory in 2008 [to] stand together once again.” (Notice who’s missing from that list?)
Coincidentally,in June the Democratic Party launched a $50 million “Vote 2010″ campaign “to see whether we can bring out voters whose only previous vote was in 2008,” according to
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman,Rep. Chris Van Hollen. He’s also trying to recruit many who never voted before. The Washington Post reports:
The party plans to embark on a massive new program this fall to register college students,including many who volunteered for Obama as high school students but were too young to vote.
It is working barbershops and beauty salons in African American communities,and organizing events around the World Cup to reach out to Latinos. Every Wednesday in California,party organizers and volunteers attend naturalization ceremonies.
Sharpton’s event was a two-fer:a hate rally against one of the administration’s most insightful critics and a pep talk to turn out potential Democratic voters.
Incredibly,a Dept. of Education employee defended Duncan’s appearance by saying,“This was a back-to-school event.”