What a miserable old blister Henry Aaron has become. In connection with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s lifetime home run record, he told USA Today that Republicans and conservatives who oppose Barrack Obama and his policies are racists, little better than ku kluxers.

A sample: “Sure this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all the Republicans with the way he’s treated…back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”

Charming.

In the same interview Aaron offered that the way black Americans are treated is “not that far removed from when I was chasing the record.… A lot of things have happened in this country, but we have so far to go. There’s not a whole lot that has changed.”

Anyone who thinks there hasn’t been much change in America since Jim Crow and Bull Connor days is either a grievance-monger who just can’t let go, or just not paying attention. I suspect it’s a bit of both in Henry’s case. 

People of  good will, including me, sympathized with Henry when he got racist hate mail while chasing Babe Ruth’s record. Who do we sympathize with now that he is doing a first-rate Al Sharpton impersonation?