Remember the joke Gov. Blagojevich told over and over about the little black girl who mistook him for Mayor Daley? Well, he’s still telling it.
“As we were heading away from downtown and heading toward the airport to come here [ed. note: here suggests Champaign-Urbana], we stopped at a red light (inaudible) I rolled the window down and there’s a young girl, an African-American girl, maybe about 13 or 14 years old. I looked at her, she looked at me. She said ‘Oh my God, it’s Mayor Daley.’
(Laughs)
“So, it’s nice to know that I’m known here.â€
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if a Republican told a joke like that he or she would be crucified in the media. It’s just maddening that he thinks it’s somehow funny or even relevant to always include the race of the ficticious girl in his repeated retelling of this story.
UPDATE: And, just to be clear, this is not a story told about a long-ago incident. The governor always tells this story like it just happened on his way to speak that day to whomever it is he happens to be addressing. If he said “One time, years ago…” that would be different. Instead, he talks about the little black girl mistaking him for Daley as one of those “A funny thing happened on my way to the speech” icebreakers.
There is no need to continue mentioning the race of the little girl because THE GIRL DOES NOT EXIST. Or, if she does exist, it happened once, long ago - but certainly not every time the governor drives to an event with the window down.