On Caplis & Silverman, right-wing pundit Hanson criticized "identity politics" of "half-African" Obama and "half-Hispanic" Richardson

Discussing what he suggested was Sen. Barack Obama's undue emphasis on the ethnicity of his endorser, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson of the conservative Hoover Institution asserted on the March 27 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis and Silverman Show that Richardson "is only half-Hispanic" and "about as Hispanic as I am." Further, in describing the campaign event at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, where Richardson officially endorsed Obama, Hanson stated, "[s]o he gets onstage in this multiracial America, and we have a man who's half-African and a man who's half-Hispanic, and then they talk about identity politics and the half-African says to the half-Hispanic, basically, 'Thank you for bringing' -- what? The Hispanic vote? Is there somebody from Oaxaca who's cutting lawns and self-made who's gonna vote for Obama because a wealthy elite like Bill Richardson tells him to?"

Richardson endorsed Obama during the March 21 event in Portland. Richardson remarked at one point regarding Obama's recent speech about race in America, as CNN reported, " 'As a Hispanic-American, I was particularly touched by his words,' Richardson said, putting his arm around Obama and declaring in Spanish that he is 'a man who understands us.' "

From the March 27 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

SILVERMAN: Victor Davis Hanson, you are such a great writer, a wordsmith. You have to admire Barack Obama's ability to give a speech and put words together, and you read Dreams From My Father -- which I thought was a much more revealing book than The Audacity of Hope -- but I was struck when I read that that this guy is kind of still struggling for an identity, as you just articulated. And I worried that he was a little angry. And anger's OK, but I'm not sure we want an angry president or an angry first later. At the same time, Bill Richardson, in endorsing him last week, called him a natural leader, and a leader that only comes along once every generation. Is that a possibility too? Is it possible that Barack Obama really is a tremendous leader and the country would benefit from his intelligence and leadership ability?

HANSON: Well, you're quite right that he is an eloquent orator that we don't see very often. The last person that had that ability is John F. Kennedy. But whether he's a leader or not, we don't know, because he's only a third-year senator. We have no evidence of anything in his past that he's done to be a leader. And what we're worried about is that some of the decisions that require leadership -- and leadership is making the bad choice instead of the worse choice; it's never between good and bad, that's easy -- but when he had the bad choice of having to cut loose from Rev. Wright and the worse choice of sticking with him, he took the worse choice. And that's not a good sign. That's one thing I think that we have to keep in mind.

HANSON: And the other is that, for all of his talents and for all of his natural gifts, I don't think he knows the nature of the United States very well. I really don't. I don't think he understands that this is a transracial society in which white people -- so-called white people -- are only about 65 percent. So out here in California he's got a big problem with Hispanics. There's some natural racial animosity anyway. But when he identifies only with his African-American heritage, and not his mixed heritage -- his white heritage -- that offends people. Then, how ridiculous was that to get Bill Richardson, who was the son of a banker -- a multimillionaire banker, that went to Tufts, an elite who is only half-Hispanic -- so he gets onstage in this multiracial America, and we have a man who's half-African and a man who's half-Hispanic, and then they talk about identity politics and the half-African says to the half-Hispanic, basically, "Thank you for bringing" -- what? The Hispanic vote? Is there somebody from Oaxaca who's cutting lawns and self-made who's gonna vote for Obama because a wealthy elite like Bill Richardson tells him to? Bill Richardson? He's about as Hispanic as I am. That's my point.

—E.B.