Obama rebukes senator’s critics over racism

WASHINGTON, Tuesday

US President Barack Obama yesterday rebuked critics of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has faced calls from Republicans to step down over racial comments he made about Obama.

In an interview with TVOne, a cable network aimed primarily at African Americans, Obama said the story was distracting from more important issues, such as efforts to overhaul the US healthcare system and tackle double-digit unemployment.

“I guarantee you that the average person, white or black, right now is less concerned about what Harry Reid said in a quote in a book a couple of years ago than how we are going to move the country forward,” he said.

Mr Obama also offered unqualified support for Mr Reid, 70, who faces a difficult re-election battle in Nevada this November.

“Harry Reid is a friend of mine. He has been a stalwart champion of voting rights, civil rights.

‘‘This is a good man who has always been on the right side of history,” he said.

“For him to have used some inartful language in trying to praise me and for people to try to make hay out of that makes absolutely no sense.”

A new book, “Game Change,” about the 2008 presidential campaign said Reid privately thought Obama would be a great candidate and that America was ready to embrace a black contender, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Mr Reid sought on Monday to put an end to the controversy, telling reporters in his home state of Nevada: “I’ve apologised to the president. I’ve apologised to everyone in the sound of my voice that I could have used a better choice of words.”

Republicans have called on Reid to resign, but Democrats are rallying around him.

A poll last week in The Las Vegas Review Journal had Reid trailing the leading Republican candidates in the senate race in Nevada.

Meanwhile, Weatherproof Garment Co said yesterday it will take down a Times Square billboard of President Obama wearing one of its coats, agreeing to a White House request even though the company said it had legal grounds for using his image in its advertisement.

The privately held New York company said it made its decision after speaking with White House lawyers last week.

The ad, which shows the president during a visit to the Great Wall of China, went up without Obama’s permission, clashing with a White House policy disallowing use of the president’s image or likeness for commercial purposes.

(Reuters)