U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh said at a town hall Sunday that Obama was elected because he is black. He claimed that Barack Obama would have never been president if it weren’t a historic vote.
He told supporters in Wheeling, Illinois, "He was a historic figure. He’s our first African-American president. The country voted for him because of that."
In bipartisan fairness, he said “it helped that John McCain was about 142 years old.” Senator John McCain was 71 when he ran for president.
Joe Walsh has said this before. Last May Congressman Walsh told the Slate’s Dave Wiegel:
"Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there's nothing racist about this. It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, white, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn't have gotten in the game this fast…he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that," got him elected.
Walsh (R-IL) faces a tough election in the fall against Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth to retain the 8th district.
Duckworth appeared on The Ed Show on March 22, 2012:
