Pat Buchanan says Hillary Clinton is "one of us"

I was standing in the green room of MSNBC last night talking with conservative commentator Pat Buchanan about the West Virginia primary, when he made a startling revelation. "I'm for Hllary," he said.

I assumed it was a joke, but after hearing what he said on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" a few minutes later, I'm not so sure. When defending the racial sentiments expressed by whites in West Virginia, Buchanan indicated there was nothing wrong with white voters deciding to support Clinton because she is "one of us."

Here's the transcript...

Pat Buchanan: "You're saying Democrats in West Virginia voted for racist reasons against Obama?"

Chris Matthews: "No, that's a strong word. No, they said themselves when asked by pollsters on leaving, 'Did race play a part in your judgment? And the answers of a significant number was yes. That's their own statement, not anyone else's."

Pat Buchanan: "Okay, let me ask you this. Did you make the same statement, Chris, about the 92 percent of black women who voted for Barack Obama in Philadelphia? Did you ask them how many years of education they had?"

Chris Matthews: "Sure, we ask the same questions of everybody."

Pat Buchanan: "Did you say, hey, African American dropouts are for him?"

Chris Matthews: "Pat, these exit polls are conducted on a random basis. They are not conducted based on your ethnic profile. They are based on the random nature of all polling to try to discern the truth.

Buchanan: "Well, Chris, what were the people voting on? What were the African American community in Philadelphia voting on, that gave him 90 percent, if not the fact that Barack Obama was one of them. West Virginia, Hillary was one of us. But West Virginia gets trashed and Philadelphia is wonderful."

. . .

Pat Buchanan: If Barack Obama were not an African American, he would have been beaten by John Edwards. He would not be the nominee. It is far more of a positive for him, not only in the African American community, but with the Chris Matthews' of the world and in the suburbs, liberal suburbs. Far more than it is a negative. And you know that.

Chris Matthews: Let me get Andrea to get in here. Andrea?

Andrea Mitchell: "I would disagree with that. I think that it's a real stretch to say that there are enough African American voters who are self-identifying or supporting Barack Obama. His appeal in Iowa had nothing to do with African American voters. It was Iowa that lifted him above the other Democrats in the race and set him on this trajectory. It was very smart, targeted, organized campaigning in caucus states by the Obama campaign.

Pat Buchanan: Well, I think your buddies, Chris, Geraldine Ferraro and Joe Biden, they might have been knocked over for what they said, but what both of them have said was a 'gaffe' because it was true.

Matthews: You know what I hope is true. I hope that the world my kids live in where they don't think about race as a dividing issue, they don't even mention that their teachers are black, and sometimes they date interracially and don't even talk about it, they don't make a big issue about it. I hope that becomes our country some day, Pat. Do you agree? Would you like to see that country?

Buchanan: Look, I would like to see Dr. Martin Luther, the King dream of one nation, one people. Chris, that ain't the world we live in, and you gotta describe reality, not what you would with it to be.