Tom Brokaw Believes He Doesn't Deserve His Success

Rush Limbaugh aired some audio today in which Tom Brokaw points out that white folks - in particular him - don't deserve the breaks they get.

BROKAW: Well, it's very emotional for me in a lot of ways because, uh, race has been a big part of my journalistic careers; and I grew up in South Dakota in working class communities, a, uh, uh, white kid who had all kinds of breaks along the way -- even when they didn't deserve them, by the way --

MITCHELL: I don't believe that.

BROKAW: Noooo, even when I stumbled, you know, as I did in college, people were willing to give me a second shot. And I often said, "If my skin had been one pigment darker, none of that would have happened for me," and that has always made me very conscious of where race fits in in America. So this is a very big deal.

Now I'm wondering, how many black athletes in college have been given three or four changes to make good, just because they were excellent athletes? And each time they'd screw up - assaulting girl friends, doing drugs, driving drunk - and each time they'd get a second chance and do it again. [Yes, there are white athletes who have screwed up as well, and also gotten second chances. It's not a black-white thing, it's an athlete thing.]

But as Limbaugh pointed out... where would Ed Bradley be if he wasn't black? (Not to mention the black news reporters on practically every TV news crew, on the sports channels, etc. etc. Sure, this stuff didnt' start until the 70s, but for 30 years the US - whites and blacks - have been working toward this goal, and the fact that Obama was even elected proves that the "country as a whole" isn't racist.

Here's another excerpt.

BROKAW: The interesting part of it is, he didn't run as somebody who said, "I deserve to be elected because I'm a black man. He didn't lead with his race." He was chosen in the final analysis because he seemed to be the best answer for solving these problems that are before us of the choices that we had. So I think it's a real statement about a maturing America when it comes to race.

RUSH: His campaign was all about race. This is the dirty little secret: His campaign was all about race. That speech last night was all about race. I wasn't going to say that. I wasn't going to say that today, but now I have an entree, and I could go through that speech for you and I could show you. "Fundamental change," all of these things were oriented toward righting wrongs for a specific group of people of which he was a member. It was all about race. When I made that observation last night, everybody in my house agreed with me -- and not because they have to in order to stay. They agreed with me because they agreed with me. (sigh) "Chosen in the final analysis 'cause he seemed to be the best answer for solving these problem." Cookie,you gotta get me the Charlie Rose bite, you gotta -- after the break. We're going to play these two back-to-back. Lonnie, thanks for the heads up on this; 'cause, frankly, we aren't watching TV here today.

I wish this clip was on YouTube, but it isn't, nevertheless I gotta tell you... Tom Brokaw is an idiot.