Your WTF Award of the Year...

...goes to South Carolina Senator Robert Ford. South Carolina, of course, has one of the more important primaries next year, and for the Democrats, the support of the black community is paramount - roughly 49% of the electorate in the SC Democratic primary is black. Senator Ford and his colleague, SC Senator Darrell Jackson, whom CBS News described as "key black political leaders," endorsed Hillary Clinton - for what can only be described as the most inexplicable reason ever. The full quote from Ford:

"[If Obama is nominated,] then everybody else on the ballot is doomed. Every Democratic candidate running on that ticket would lose because he's black and he's at the top of the ticket - we'd lose the House, the Senate and the governors and everything. I'm a gambling man. I love Obama. But I'm not going to kill myself."

To quote Mike Mott: Zuh?

I'm reminded of an older black guy I tried to register to vote at a Wal-Mart in Knightdale (a countryish suburb about 10 miles east of Raleigh). When I proffered him the form, he skittered away, mumbling something about how "they're going to get me." Of course, this statement isn't coming from a senile old dude, but from a "key black political leader."

Seriously, what's going on? Is Sen. Ford trying to become the first black white supremacist? Is he really that scared that voters are going to vote for a Republican because the Democratic presidential candidate is black? Note to Sen. Ford: bigots tend to vote Republican nowadays (which is not a dig at Republicans, by the way - most Republicans aren't bigots). Or did Sen. Ford just look for an excuse to back Clinton over Obama and say the first thing that came to his head, no matter how stupid it sounded?

Update: Looks like Ford was just talking out of his ass - he has since apologized for his statements. Guess he finally realized how racist he sounded. Though if you read the apology quote, the concept of apologizing to yourself brings an added layer of hilarity to the situation.