Whoopi and Sherri Celebrate Obama's Victory, But Still Call for Affirmative Action

Three of "The View" co-hosts are comedians by profession, but they unintentionally provided some comedy to the November 5 edition of "The View." After two segments of basking over Barack Obama’s victory, and the historic nature of the first African-American president, Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg hammered away the need for more affirmative action. [audio excerpt here]

The panel’s two rich black women, whose children do not need a head start over poor white children, expressed disappointment that Nebraska voters approved a ballot initiative banning affirmative action. Sherri Shepherd felt that "there are some people who just need a leg up." Whoopi Goldberg, who just moments before celebrated Obama’s historic victory, opined that "if we lived in the country that we always pray that we’re going to wake up in where everything works and everybody is equal, you wouldn’t need affirmative action."

Earlier in the segment, Joy Behar, giddy over Obama’s victory, proclaimed it as "a triumph over negative campaigning." Did Joy forget the Obama ad mocking McCain’s age and war wounds?

Sherri Shepherd, known for her lack of knowledge on geography and history, admitted she did not know how to use a simple voting machine as a first time voter. Sherri is given a national forum daily to air her opinions, but does not know how to press a few buttons.

Barbara Walters puffed the world’s victory celebration. Applying liberal talking points, Walters hyped "a new relationship with America" and "they could not forget what has happened in the last eight years."

Relevant portions of the transcript follow.

JOY BEHAR: To me this was a triumph over negative campaigning. I appreciate that about Americans today that they didn’t fall for the Jeremiah Wright ads and this association baloney. They went for themselves for the country and it’s just a wonderful feeling.

[...]

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Even on a lighter note, can I just say when I went in there, because it was my first time voting, I had no idea how that machine worked. I was in there. It was so many switches and I was holding Jeffrey and he was trying to touch buttons. I was like "no!"

[...]

BARBARA WALTERS: It reminded me of the millenium. Remember in the millenium where they kept showing- All over the world, every country, you can see- in China, you know, they were cheering. In countries where we have very poor relations, in countries we consider terrorist country, like Syria, they were saying "maybe this will make a difference." In Israel and there were little snippets. I don’t know that we have them. All over the world there were people cheering. It meant a new, a new arena for America, a new relationship with America. They could not forget what has happened in the last, last eight years.

[...]

SHEPHERD: Nebraska voted to end affirmative action to help minorities. And, you know, a lot of people I think you said this before is just black people.

BEHAR: It’s not true.

SHEPHERD: But a lot of it is women who, who just- there are some people who just need a leg up, a little helping hand, a little bit of a lift, and now they’ve stopped that.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: What’s interesting is affirmative action became a bad word several years ago because it became this catch word for people who are getting something they don’t deserve. And often times people forget the root of what it was. Now, if we lived in the country that we always pray that we’re going to wake up in where everything works and everybody is equal, you wouldn’t need affirmative action. But sometimes you have to say to governments and to people, "look you need to make sure this happens. You have the capacity to do that." So it’s very sad that Nev- that Nebraska voted to end affirmative action to help minorities because women are minorities, children with special needs are minorities. There are a lot of minorities that you just cut out