Someone tell the Obama campaign that Barack is black
UP until this week, the Republican Party had been successful in defining the 2008 presidential election as a contest not of the past versus the future, the Democrats versus the Republicans, but between Barack Obama and John McCain.
Their logic was brilliant. As long as the Americans were asked to choose between a white "war hero" and a black of questionable (suspicious!) heritage, surely they were going to choose wisely!
It is common knowledge that as long as the election is a referendum on Obama, he is going to lose; if it is about issues, Republicans will lose. Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager, had proudly boasted that this election was not going to be about issues, it was going to be about personalities.
The Republicans attempted to separate Obama from his own party. Obama is not running for president on his own. He is the nominee of the Democratic Party, the party with the largest number of registered Americans.
The whole Democratic Party establishment is behind him. The Republican strategy was to fool Americans into believing that they were being asked to hand over the country not to the Democratic Party and its nominee, but to this dubious black man!
Republicans are confident that Americans are fools who will believe anything they are told.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, the catastrophe in Wall Street this week forced John McCain to talk about something he dreads, the economy. He is on record as saying that he does not understand the economy.
As Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, insurance giant AIG required an $85 billion government bailout, and the government planned a half-trillion dollar infusion to steady the economy, McCain boasted that the "economy's fundamentals are sound."
Obama and the Democrats pounced on the gaffe and reminded the voters that the deregulation that McCain championed was responsible for the indiscretion of the Wall Street fat-cats.
Reacting to McCain's claim that he's going to take on the "old boys' network," Obama pointed out that several former lobbyists now work on the McCain campaign. "The old boys' network?" Barack asked, "In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting."Such attacks, sarcasm and humour seem to be working. For the first time in two weeks, Obama is once again leading in the polls. Although the New York Times/CBS and Gallup tracking poll has Obama ahead by 5 points nationally, the poll of polls has him ahead by 2.
The poll also showed that the net result of the "Palin effect" is that more white women now support Obama than did before, and that 75% of Americans believe that McCain picked Palin not for her competence but to help him win.
Alarmed by the drop in the polls, McCain responded the only way he knows -- with racist ads. McCain ran an ad with sinister images of two black men, (Obama and former Fannie Mae chairman Frank Raines) followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.
The ad calls Raines "Obama's principal economic advisor," another white lie. Frank Raines put out a statement: "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters."
Republicans will continue running the ad. The idea behind the ad is to alarm white women in swing states into thinking that black men will steal their wealth.
The writer has commented before in this column that the Republicans will run an out and out racist campaign against Obama. Blacks are not Republicans' constituents; they do not court blacks, nor care if they feel insulted.
Polls show that only 36% of white males, the enlightened ones, will vote for Obama Republicans use the fact that over 90% of the blacks will vote for Obama as a rallying cry. But the fact is blacks have voted for whites all their lives. 90% of the blacks voted for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry. However, blacks are faulted by the Republicans for voting as overwhelmingly for a black man! The racist ads are aimed at the white males to whip up white nationalism.
Obama cannot be complacent. Only now is he beginning to feel the full venom of the McCain sting. He has to keep attacking McCain and remember the Bradley effect -- many whites say they will vote for a black candidate, but in the privacy of the voting booth do not. Unless Obama is ahead by at least 7 points, he is not going to win.
The Obama campaign sometimes forgets that he is not like any other Democratic nominee. He is black, and to win must minimise his blackness. To reassure whites he must surround himself with whites at all times. Obama must campaign with white Democrats such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden by his side.
The first presidential debate on Friday, September 26 is absolutely critical for Obama. McCain is ruthlessly persistent even when he lies. He likes to talk down to his opponents with put downs such as "you should not have done that."
How Obama responds to such insults will be crucial. He must not let McCain get away with racist comments such as "you showed me disrespect." Obama should needle McCain, who has a fierce temper.
McCain is downright mean when he is angry. If Obama can get under McCain's skin and make him lose his cool, Obama will win the debate. However, if Obama is too verbose and McCain succinct, McCain will win.
A white colleague once told me why whites fear blacks. "We did so much injustice to them that if they ever acquire power, they will exact revenge," he said. Maybe this is the message the Republicans are telegraphing to white Americans.
Of course, this is as ridiculous as the KKK's propaganda during the 1960s civil rights movement that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had keys to the bedroom of every white woman in America! But the Republicans have a penchant for winning by peddling the absurd and the ridiculous.
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