Why Ask Why
Posted on October 20, 2008 at 7:56 amNewscoma tells us what she thinks about those who think that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama had something to do with race:
I think it’s narrow-minded to automatically dismiss that Powell endorsed Obama strictly on the race issue.
I’ve never seen him endorse Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson, have you? So the race issue doesn’t wash with me in Powell’s decision. He has one vote, he told you who he was voting for and he told you why.
And that’s that.
SEE ALSO: Mark Mays
Transferring Transcendence: How Powell’s Endorsement Helps McCain
Posted on October 19, 2008 at 1:10 pmAs was speculated earlier this week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell did endorse Barack Obama for President of United States on Meet the Press this morning.
This action by Powell is being seen, predictably, as one of the final nails in the coffin of the candidacy of John McCain.
A man, who has in his own career transcended race, a man who spent much of his life in service of Republican Presidents, a military man who brings to the table many of the qualities Barack Obama lacks, has endorsed a candidate many white Americans still have questions about. What could be worse for John McCain?
The fact that a man like Colin Powell has no questions about Barack Obama leading this nation, the media elites say, contributes to the narrative that Barack Obama has closed the deal with the American people.
To the informed, enlightened center of the country, this will no doubt be how the endorsement is viewed. But this small sector of the American populace has already come to terms with Obama. Informed, elite opinion in America has already accepted Obama as a man they are comfortable with executing the duties of President of the United States.
However, this informed center, this malleable elite, will not make up the margin of victory for Obama in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. It will be another sector of the electorate who will have the final say.
The average white man or woman in America is no longer overtly or even covertly racist by any honest definition of that word. Sure, many whites feel more comfortable with those who look as they do but this is a quality hardly unique to the Caucasian population of America.
Most white people see themselves as very much open to dream of Martin Luther King, that we should all be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. Ability, qualifications, intelligence and ideology — all of these things most whites believe should trump racial considerations.
This fundamental embrace of King’s dream by white America, however, is exactly what could cause them to be alarmed by the endorsement of Barack Obama by Colin Powell. Marc Ambinder said this morning that “to the extent that there remain white voters who have inchoate worries about Obama’s race, it helps to have him associated with a man whose race they’ve already gotten over.”
Yes, Colin Powell has transcended race for much of his life. But transcendence is not something that one can necessarily transfer and, in trying, Colin Powell risks to damage his own reputation on that score.
Colin Powell is, as has been noted over and over, a lifelong Republican, one of Rockafeller stripe to be sure, but a Republican nonetheless. He is a friend of John McCain and admires him greatly. In August 2007, Powell, gave to John McCain the maximum contribution of $2,300.
Colin Powell, a lifelong Republican, wanted John McCain nominated by the GOP and the Republican Party, to the surprise of many conservatives, obliged. But when faced with the choice of the Republican he favored in primary and whom he admires and calls a friend and Barack Obama, Powell chose Barack Obama.
Rightly or wrongly, many white voters will no doubt conclude, despite Powell’s protestations, that at least one of the deciding factors in his decision was race. Many whites will assume that the prospect of the nation’s first black president had become too real for Powell to just stand back and say nothing.
If that is the conclusion that whites reach regarding the endorsement then what are they likely to conclude about the prospects of colorblindness on both sides of the racial divide in America?
Most whites in America have no problem voting for a man who happens to be black to lead our country. What many whites do have a problem with is electing an explicitly black leader who will bring with him to the White House a racial agenda.
It is the fear of, as I call it, “The Big Payback.” While whites may never verbalize it, they are afraid of electing a black leader who will attempt to right the wrongs their ancestors perpetrated but which they had nothing to do with.
Most whites in America have no sense of racial solidarity. They do not think of themselves as white Americans or any kind of hyphenated American, they see themselves as simply Americans. Whether their actions and words contain vestiges and evidence of racism and white privilege, I suppose is an open question. The fact remains, however, that they do not see it that way and never will.
What they are capable of seeing, however, is racial solidarity among blacks and they are not the biggest fans. Whites see themselves as accepting of all races and judging people on their own individual merits. What worries them most is that their shrugging off of racial identity and solidarity is a one way street.
Colin Powell is certainly not unique among Republican types in his support for Obama and his reasons for supporting Obama may be very much similar to those Republicans and conservatives. Personally, I assume that they are.
But the fact remains that Colin Powell is still a black man and seeing a man line up with the black candidate in opposition to the party he has called home makes whites ask questions like:
“Would Colin Powell have endorsed Hilary Clinton against his friend John McCain?”
“How about John Edwards?”
“Would Colin Powell have endorsed any white Democratic candidate in a race against John McCain?”
When Barack Obama is trying to close the deal with white, working class voters who reject racial solidarity by both blacks and whites, I’m not sure that the endorsement of one the of the most admired blacks in America is quite the boon many in the punditocracy think it is.
SEE ALSO:
Sean Braisted
Six Meat Buffett
Washington Post
NY Times
Marc Ambinder
Huffington Post
Yglesias
Jonathan Martin
Rush Limbaugh
Political Radar
Ben Smith
Hotline
Tiny Cat Pants
Mark Mays
Steve Clemons
Nate Silver
Gore Wants You To Open Up Your Wallets For Tuke
Posted on August 18, 2008 at 4:11 pmOn Bob Tuke’s diary page at Daily Kos, Al Gore takes his endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Bob Tuke a step farther:
Today, I announced my endorsement of Bob Tuke to be the next U.S. Senator from my home state of Tennessee. I have known Bob for a long time, and I am glad to call him a close friend. Bob Tuke is hard-working, hard-nosed, and practical, which has served him well as a Marine combat veteran, an accomplished and respected attorney, and as former Chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party. Bob faces a challenging general election, but he has the grit and determination to get things done in November and increase the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. I encourage all of you to contribute to his campaign today and help elect Bob Tuke as the next Senator from the great state of Tennessee.
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Mayor Shines Brightly On Legislative Candidate In Mailer
Posted on August 7, 2008 at 12:53 pmPost Politics has obtained a mailer sent out to targeted voters in the 52nd state house district this past Monday and paid for by the Committee to Elect Mike Stewart featuring what would seem to be an explicit endorsement of the candidacy of Mike Stewart by Mayor Karl Dean.
“Mike has been a friend of mine for a long time. He will make a great public servant.”
Reached for comment Janel Lacey, Press Secretary for the Mayor, confirmed the quote was authentic and used with permission but did not respond to whether the words on the mailer amounted to an endorsement.
Karl Dean, as well as his wife Anne Davis, had been revealed last month as financial backers of the campaign. Stewart’s opponent, Eric Stansell, received a donation from Dean’s runoff opponent in the Mayor’s race, former Congressman Bob Clement.
Stewart faces Stansell today in the Democratic primary for state house in the 52 District.
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Al Gore To Endorse Obama Tonight
Posted on June 16, 2008 at 1:52 pmHe took a sweeter time doing it than even Governor Bredesen but, tonight, former Vice President Al Gore will appear alongside Barack Obama in Detroit and endorse the Democratic nominee for President:
“Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis,” Mr. Gore said. “Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.”
SEE ALSO:
The Endorsement
Political Radar
Ben Smith
Jennifer Peebles
Hotline
Bob Tuke’s McWherter Endorsement Implication
Posted on June 1, 2008 at 2:36 pmSean Braisted notes that in the same campaign email where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bob Tuke hails his victory in an online poll as an “organizing test”, the campaign also attempts to subtly imply the endorsement of popular Governor Ned Ray McWherter.
Tuke met with Governor McWherter in West Tennessee this week. Tuke and Governor McWherter are old friends, and they talked in detail about how to beat Lamar Alexander in November. Both left the meeting feeling energized about how the Tuke v. Alexander match-up is coming together and they agreed that it’s time to “Take the Hill” on Election Day!
Now as Sean notes, the McWherters, both former Governor Ned and son, Mike, have donated to both Democratic candidates in the race and have issued no public endorsements. However, if one candidate did have a claim to be closer the “McWherter family” as it were, would it be Tuke or opponent Mike Padgett?
Mike Padgett and Gov. McWherter are both Hillary Clinton supporters serving on Clinton’s Tennessee Steering committee. Tuke served, until his announcement for the U.S. Senate, as Barack Obama’s Tennessee Political Director.
Speaking of the that steering committee list, another name would seem to jump out if one were going to play the “endorsement by association” game. Jed Brewer, currently the Padgett for Senate campaign manager, was also intimately involved in Mike McWherter’s abortive campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate this cycle as well as running the incumbent-slaying campaign of state Senator Lowe Finney, a McWherter cousin.
Of course, none of this implies McWherter family endorsement either but it does provide a little context to the Tuke campaign’s attempt to shade a sitdown with an aging former Governor as an endorsement of candidacy.
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Edwards To Endorse?
Posted on May 14, 2008 at 1:30 pmMark Halperin is teasing a possible John Edwards endorsement.
UPDATE: CNN has confirmed that former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama at a Michigan campaign event about an hour from now.
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