Case study – Portland

A man asked the Democrat about disproportionate numbers of blacks and Hispanics in American prisons.

“How do you propose we change that figure to make this country, make this country, more — I don’t want to use the word ‘sensitive,’ because Bush has screwed that word up,” he said.

“Don’t for an instant be shy about using the word ‘sensitive,’ ” Kerry responded. “I don’t think it’s particularly sensitive for a vice president who has secret meetings with polluters and writes the laws that take our things back. . . . So I’m going to stand up for what’s right, and nobody’s going to change what’s right in my judgment.”