PUTNEY — I think we can all agree that Barack Obama will be the Democrats' candidate for President in '08. Now, how are we going to talk the American public into voting for him?
Obama is a black man, after all, and our citizenry has never been fond of embracing new ideas. It did take until 1922 for the House of Representatives to come up with a law specifically outlawing lynching, the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which died as a result of a filibuster in the Senate. Abandoning racism is going to be tough for a lot of Americans.
At this writing, in a race for a congressional seat in Mississippi, Republican Greg Davis has had Dick Cheney stumping for him. Cheney constantly compares Davis's opponent, white Democrat Travis Childers, to Barack Obama with a disparaging racial subtext.
Former Governor William Winter says he is “appalled that this blatant appeal to racial prejudice is still being employed.” All I can say is if this Davis character is elected after having been endorsed by Vice President Satan himself, then the citizens of Mississippi should be stripped of their right to vote. We don't allow felons and the retarded to vote, do we? Ipso facto, dude.
* * *
This is merely round one in the deluge of race baiting that is bound to come. McCain will not sully his own lily-white hands with any racial slurs. He has an army of little Republican lice to do that for him. No doubt the swift-boaters are passing the hat around the Klan clubhouse, building funds for their assault on Obama.
John McCain will no doubt disavow any of the offal vomited by his minions, but don't you dare believe him. This is the man who said of Jerry Falwell: “He is an agent of intolerance.” He said that during the 2000 campaign about the guy who later claimed gays and lesbians were responsible for 9/11. I can't remember if that was around the time he said that Jews will never get to heaven until they accept Jesus.
Now, years later, we find brother McCain crawling on his belly up to Falwell's Liberty University to deliver the commencement address. The Straight Talk Express had clearly blown a transmission.
During the 2000 campaign McCain himself was assailed by Bush's hit men and accused of fathering a black child out of wedlock. The truth was that McCain's “love child” was an adopted youngster from Bangladesh. I'll bet you could have knocked him over with a feather when his bid for votes as the compassionate lover of poor foreign waifs was spun into a nasty sex scandal by sewage-meister Karl Rove. I wonder if he sent the little girl back?
Rather than bear ill will like any normal human being, McCain waited about a month before he was back osculating Bush's butt for all he was worth. His lust for the presidency has obviously obliterated any spine that he may have had.
* * *
I'm not going to hold my breath and hope for any shred of intelligence from the voting public. Obama can write off a large portion of the electorate who are just openly racist and won't vote for his complexion.
Hillary Clinton, who took 70 percent of the vote, won the West Virginia primary; 20 percent of voters told exit pollsters that race was the reason they voted for her. If a fifth of the voters would admit to being low-life racists, how many were sophisticated enough to lie about it?
What creative horrors will the “McCainiacs” come up with to libel Barack? I suspect that much of America is a dry sponge ready to sop up any lie that will give them an excuse to jump parties and vote Republican. Maybe Barack could be rumored to use the blood of Christian babies to make soup. (No, wait - that's the Jews.) Symbionese Liberation Army? Black Panthers? Nope - too young.
Rather than give them ideas, I'll just say that you have not heard the last of Reverend Wright. You will hear Barack's ill-considered quote about bitter low-income Pennsylvanians hanging onto their guns and religion until you want to puke. It doesn't matter that his statement was correct in every detail; he just has to learn to avoid unpleasant truths.
There is one thing he can do to avoid this entire racial episode. He should just declare himself an Irishman. O'Hara, O'Brien … O'Bama.
Makes sense to me. Erin Go Bragh, Barack.