I remember that one of his aide's books claimed that nearly every moment of his public life was scripted, that he could not even greet a guest w/o lines given in advance. It would explain his not recognising the one black member of his cabinet; during a meeting of the national council of mayors, he said to the guy, "hello Mr. Mayor". The aide replied, "Mr. President, I'm a member of your cabinet". Oops.
There wasn't a lot of mourning in black or brown communities this week. Watching the 100,000+ people file past his casket at the library, you'd think that this was still an all-white country. Well, it was Simi Valley, location of the Rodney King trial. It ain't easy finding an all-white community in SoCal to pick a jury, but there are still a couple of pockets of "outer Caucasia".
Still, he was an amazing politician. Those white Republicans in suburbia lost a true hero. The rest of America sees it more like this:
