After all, this comment is not based upon racism – it is based upon looking at the relative life expectancies within different racial groups.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday the head of the Justice Department's voting rights office should be fired for saying minorities often die before they reach old age.

A department spokesman said the Oct. 5 remarks by John Tanner had been "grossly misconstrued."

During a panel discussion on minority voters before the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, Tanner addressed state laws that require photo identification for voting, and remarked that elderly voters disproportionately don't have the proper IDs.

"That's a shame, you know creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance," Tanner said, according to video posted on YouTube. "Of course, that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first.

"There are inequities in health care. There are a variety of inequities in this country, and so anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly has the opposite impact on minorities. Just the math is such as that," Tanner said.

Good grief – that last paragraph sounds like the platform of the DNC. Now if Senator Obama wants to declare it to be racist, I’ll support Tanner’s firing immediately upon the disbanding of the Democrat Party and the resignation of every Democrat holding elected or appointed office on the same basis. You go first, sir.

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