Redstate

I get tired of packaged politicians; slick and well coached by professional "handlers" but when you see something like this...

I guess if I were a big donor, before I dumped a bunch of money into a campaign, I'd want to take every precaution to make sure my "guy" wasn't going to say anything this utterly stupid.

I guess it's even more scary that he actually believes this.

Reach, throw, row and go!. I guess it's time to go.

What an imbecile. For crying out loud... no wonder the public perceives the GOP as being weak on issues of race.

Thank goodness this was before the primary and not afterwards. Who is the GOP candidate most likely to win now? Buchanan? Detert? Flanagan? Someone from FL-13 want to shed some light on this for us?

There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

I think a large group of black Olympic swimmers should issue a statement of protest. No?

There is no way to really mitigate that and if there was a QnA period after he had his talk, he's in an even Deeper hole than this footage suggests...

What he Should have said was "and in our company were quite a few black soldiers who were unable to swim" and that's ONLY if he even touched on that at all. And since we don't have the rest of his story, I can't tell whether he could have left out the swimming ability of the black soldiers in his unit.

MY experience tells me that his impression is right. That, for whatever reason, Black Americans have a much lower likelihood of learning how to swim, statistically, than any other race. But I don't know if that is accurate across the entire black population of America, and I don't really care to speculate.
If you can't swim, it doesn't matter what race you are, you are still more likely to drown than someone who Can swim.

"Always be honest with yourself even if you are honest with no one else...
...It helps you keep track of your lies..."
--Myself

It's strange that this would come to light this week, as Monday was the 6-year anniversary of the first African American swimmer, Anthony Ervin , to qualify as a member of the U.S. Olympic Swimming team. That's not a casual lap around the pool.

If that's what the man believes, someone ought to correct him. Tramm Hudson's beyond clueless.

... what did the guy say?

It's sad and horrific to watch things like this, they make me want to curl up and cry, because not only is it such a boneheaded thing to say, and absolutely wrong, I don't even think he realized how stupid it was when he said it.

My father still occasionally makes *jokes* like this, based on what was once "conventional wisdom." 99 44/100% of the time, though, my father says things like this when he *knows* that he is joking, and intends it as a *joke*, actually a jab at himself, and in private. Frankly, even then, though, that doesn't help: everyone realizes it's a *bad* joke, and usually nobody laughs.

I agree, his candidacy just sank beneath the waves, courtesy of a torpedo that he fired out of his own mouth. BOOM! Buh-bye. Welcome to the 21st Century, and if you want to be in the party of ideas, there's no place for this kind of extemporaneous "storytelling." This is the kind of c*ap that won't even go over well down at the local watering hole anymore.

On the plus side, it means that we need some younger candidate to take his place. All to the good, it would seem from this.

I am a hawkish warmonger with a crusty demeanour and a heart of steel. But I have a softer side.

"...training down there. I was the commander of an infantry company, and we were practicing crossing a river.

You know, and infantry company, 140-some odd soldiers, what have you, large number were black. Uh, I grew up in Alabama, I understand - uh, I know this from my own experience that blacks are not the greatest swimmers, or may not even know how to swim -

But we were crossing this and wanted to make sure every soldier either could swim, or if they couldn't, we'd..."

There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

As a former competative swimmer, I can say that African-Americans do tend to not be good swimmers - but it's not because they are incapable. It is more an issue of socioeconomic status. Many just can't afford swimming lessons. I'm a Republican with, shall we say, more than a token black friend. Two came from upper-income families (NASA scientist and doctor, respectively) and can swim very well. Those who grew up at the lower end of the income scale, however, are basically scared to get in the water. They go and sit at the side of the pool or the shores at the beach.

What this guy says is true, however, it's not because they're black - it's because they probably came from economically disadvantaged homes.

I coached a swim team for two summers, and one of the families had basically voluntarily taken on the responsibility of taking care of an African-American girl during the summer while her mother worked. So, they brought her to swim team with them. She couldn't swim very well at the beginning of the summer, but by the end of the summer, with a little instruction, she was blowing the competition out of the water.

So...while I sympathize because he's generally correct that most African-Americans can't swim very well (and certainly not compared to most caucasians) for the reasons I have described above, it's still a boneheaded thing to say on a campaign trail.

August 17, 2006- (Sarasota, FL) – Tramm Hudson released the following statement with regards to the video posted to Redstate.com today:

“I said something stupid. I apologize for it and would apologize in person to anyone hurt by my comments. To those who are understandably offended, you have my deepest apologies and I want you to know that it was out of character for me and those who know me know that to be a fact. This was a thoughtless remark that does not reflect my lifetime commitment to treating everyone fairly and without bias. I apologize to everyone who is offended by this comment.”

http://www.trammhudson.com/?page=news-article&id=82

I hate to tell everyone this, but he's correct. African-Americans have higher muscle density, and less fat as a % of their body compostion. Whites have more fat and are therefore float more easily, hence they are(on average) better swimmers. Socioeconomic factors might might the problem worse, but there is nothing racist about this statement. Sounds like a good officer who made sure he didn't lose any men crossing that river. Is it racist to say that certaing Asians react very badly to alcohol?

This is exactly why Republicans can't compete the minority communities because even here people are trying to justify his statement. I don't care if it is even a bit factually correct it is stupid.

Another blog has the transcript:

1984 we were in Panama. Our unit was doing a two-week training down there. I commanded an infantry company and we were practicing crossing a river. You know, an infantry company has 140 some-odd soldiers. A large number were black. I grew up in Alabama and I understand and I know this from my own experiences that blacks aren’t the best swimmers or may not even know how to swim. But we were crossing this and wanted to make sure every soldier could swim and if they couldn’t we’d get them across the river. We had the line across the river and we were making our passage way and one of the black soldiers with his ruck-sack on his back, his weapon and fell from the line…he let go. Sunk down to the bottom of the river. And I’ve got to tell you, it took my breath away. Two of the sergeants manning the boats immediately jumped into the river and pulled that soldier out form below. They gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitations and we called in a medivac helicopter to take him to the hospital. That soldier could have died. I believe it was divine intervention. That was a Saturday afternoon. And that next morning we had a worship service among our NCOs and our officers. And I led that worship service. And I think, in terms of answering your question that if we allow congress or the federal government to remove that from the chaplain’s core that would be just terrible. And I believe that being able to worship and to express out religious beliefs if it’s in the military, so be it. Or if it’s alone as individuals, you would find me defending that. I’ll just pass this around because this was manifold when I read about the law that someone was trying to pass.

This whole thing is crazy, what he said was No Big Deal. So what if he said blacks can't swim, it's nothing. He is just speaking his mind and I think that we need people that are willing to say what they really mean representing us in elected office.

This liberal PC propaganda must stop!

Blacks are fast and can play ball, too? We shudder to think.

Just stick to the facts, Mr. Hudson. Forget about the Olympics and the NBA.

This is all about politics. And white men can't dance.

My outrage gauge must be broken.

When people make "racist" remarks where they clearly intend no harm (and the remark is innocuous), why get upset???

The remark was stupid, but I suspect most voters (black and white) will shrug this off.

While it was an ignorant thing to say, it was obviously said without malice. However, until blacks stop blindly voting for the Party of Victimhood 9-1, how is that a Republican candidate kills his chances by making ignorant and offensive remarks?

Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.

What he said was true from his experience and mine. It was unfortunate, but true . . . I see nothing racist and nothing harmful. I doubt it matters.

I see a number of African American civic and church leaders within the district have already posted their views on this on the Hudson website. As expected, they are shrugging it off as "nothing to see here". Seeing as how Hudson is well known in the community, they have added their observations that to try and paint the guy as racially insensitive is laughable. I doubt the man has a racially insensitive hair on his head.

I didn't even know it was unusual, because our pools are populated by all colors of people, but when I was a young, awkward teen and pre-teen, we had a high dive the way they used to make high dives. High. The brown guys were remarkable...Unbelievably remarkable...particularly to me, as I was quite lacking in any talent.

They not only could swim like fish, they could do the most beautiful jacknives, back one and a half gainers, cutaways, two and a half flips, can-openers,everything. Even later, after years of practice, I was never able to come close to being as graceful and talented as they were.

Brown people are excellent swimmers.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.

This comment was posted this morning by Frances Rice, Chairwoman of the National Black Republican Association and also a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel:

"I am a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and an African American woman. Like Tramm, I commanded troops in the field. I reviewed the complete video tape of his remarks about the river crossing in Panama and do not find it offensive. It shows an awareness and concern for his troops and quite possibly was the reason the soldier was rescued so promptly. I have direct experience with racism and know what racism is. Tramm’s remarks were not racist. To take his words out of context and portray this as something it is not, is the height of demagoguery and smacks of race baiting."

Frances Rice - Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired
Chairman of the National Black Republican Association

There was a NYT article on June 19th about this. It said, among other things, that "black children drown at rates up to five times higher than white children" and that "62 percent of the African-Americans surveyed [by the CDC] said that they had limited swimming skills." It attributed most of blame to racism in the past and current socioeconomic differences.

It appears Tramm Hudson had reason to say what he did.